by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
A new group of Realtors has organized to spread the word throughout Northeast Florida that downtown is enjoying a new lease on life.
The Downtown Realtor Council was formed through the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors. The NEFAR board just passed the motion to allow the council to form at the end of August.
As the group is still in its infancy and is still getting organized, no meetings have been held. And, in fact, more members are being sought.
“We are looking for business people who are involved in the real estate community, whether they be Realtors or loan officers or whoever,” said Sam Morgan, chairman of the new council. “We’re looking, not only for them to join, but to really get involved.”
Morgan said he didn’t feel the word about downtown’s rebirth was being spread far enough and asked NEFAR President Selby Kaiser for suggestions about getting that done.
“I asked her how we could better inform and educate our board of Realtors about downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods,” he said. “Her suggestion was we have a council within NEFAR to promote those areas and to educate. That’s what NEFAR is all about — promotion, education, maintaining certain standards within the Realtor community.”
Kaiser said the Downtown Council gives the association another valuable outlet for spreading information about the region.
Other councils have already been formed to cover the Beaches, Ponte Vedra, Putnam County and Southwest (the Orange Park area), she said.
“This is adding to our coverage of the area,”said Kaiser. “It’s a valuable networking and marketing opportunity for Realtors who work in those areas to communicate with each other.
“I think, in a nutshell, it focuses attention on that growing area for Realtors and the public.”
As chairman, Morgan sees his responsibility as “helping develop the organization and to provide opportunities for the council to cooperate, not only with other downtown entities and organizations, but with other organizations within the Realtor community.
“We will not only network and cooperate among each other. We also want to educate and fully develop the intown real estate market.”
The size of the city and the magnitude of downtown’s revitalization projects have made such a council a necessity, not a convenience.
“Jacksonville is such a large city that it’s impossible to keep your finger on what’s going on everywhere,” said Morgan. “We want to provide as much information as we can to Realtors in Northeast Florida about the growth and exciting rebirth of downtown and the neighborhoods that surround it.
“The biggest thing we want to do is make sure other Realtors understand the significance of downtown and the growth of downtown Jacksonville.”
One of the first orders of business, Morgan said, will be to gather information packets from all the other organizations, councils and commissions that have been involved with downtown.
“We want to get involved with as many of those entities as possible and cooperate with them as much as we can,” he said.
Once all the information is compiled, the council wants to broadcast it as far and wide as possible.
“There’s simply not enough information out there in the marketplace about downtown,” said Morgan. “It’s been forgotten for a long time. We have an incredible amount of activity going on down there.
“And we have a lot of people moving to Jacksonville from other large cities. They’ve been in a more urban environment; they’re used to that. And they don’t know what’s available to them downtown.
“We hope to be able to get the word out.”
For questions or information about the council, call Morgan’s office at 358-3955.