by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
It’s still years away from reality, but talk is heating up over a possible all-encompassing transportation center at the western end of downtown with the Osborn Center serving a dual purpose: a convention center and, for the first time in decades, the transportation hub of Jacksonville.
At Wednesday’s Downtown Development Authority meeting, architects Richard Heidrich and Ethan Loubriel of the Miami firm of DMJM/Harris Corporation told the DDA board that any such hub would have to be financed and built in phases. Currently hired to provide just a feasibility study, Heidrich said Amtrak would be the key to the success of phase one and the impetus for other transportation entities to follow suit.
“Phase one would bring Amtrak back to downtown Jacksonville,” said Heidrich. “It would be a shared facility between Amtrak and the Osborn Center with Amtrak’s offices on site and the installation of two new platforms for passengers. Basically, it would bring Amtrak back to the historical center and work with the convention center.”
The idea of a multi-use transportation hub is City Council member Elaine Brown’s brainchild. Created more than eight years ago, Brown has been trying ever since to convince several government entities and transportations authorities to buy into her idea. In order to make the multi-million dollar project happen, Brown believes she will need both financial and physical support from the City of Jacksonville, the State of Florida, the federal government, the Florida Department of Transportation and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. Considering FDOT is paying Heidrich and Loubriel to conduct the feasibility study, Brown is on the way to garnering such support.
Eventually, Brown would like to see the facility include a parking garage that spans above the Skyway, a city-wide light rail system anchored at the hub and possibly a big-time hotel attached to the convention center. She also supports JTA using the center as its transportation hub for its bus and trolley service.
“Plans are for the first floor of the garage to have 30-foot ceilings and a one-way lane for JTA buses to enter and leave the garage,” said Brown.
Plans also call for Bay Street to eventually become one-way westbound with another lane added to eastbound Forsyth Street.
“We believe this would help traffic flow,” said Heidrich, adding that one of his top priorities is to devise a way to help realize the potential of the Osborn Center. “Our obligation is to return the terminal to its original use. We can bring more life to the terminal by bringing more people to the terminal. Amtrak is looking at making this their lone terminal in the area. Up to 400,000 passengers pass through their [Jacksonville] terminal each year.”
Heidrich and Loubriel have been asked to return to the DDA with a more detailed analysis and renderings.