by Tammy Taylor
Staff Writer
The City should attempt to expand market-rate housing and provide a cleaner, safer, more convenient downtown to spur the area’s real estate market, according to a City consultant.
In 1999, the Downtown Development Authority published a residential market report. Today, an updated version has been submitted for review.
Ray Rodriguez, president of the Real Estate Strategy Center of North Florida, was commissioned by the City to update the analysis and offer recommendations on how to increase the number of downtown residents.
Rodriguez’s first conclusion is there is a limited number of affordable rental units downtown. He proposes an “adaptive reuse” approach to bringing more residents to the area.
“The market rate in Jacksonville is like a triangle,” explained Rodriguez. “High-end housing is at the point, and price decreases as the triangle broadens to its base.”
Rodriguez says adaptive reuse will make the downtown housing rate fall in the “middle of the triangle,” between $600 and $800 a month. It will also introduce housing space into the market faster if used as rental lofts. He believes that, once the new Duval County Courthouse is complete, buildings once occupied by offices can be easily converted into rental spaces.
In his report, Rodriguez says downtown must overcome negative perception before people will move into the area:
“It’s the people who are from Jacksonville who talk down about the downtown area the most. They want the city to grow, but do they really know what they’re asking for?”
According to the Sheriff’s Advisory Council’s December 2003 report, the police response rate to a call within five minutes was 46 percent as compared to 24 percent in Mandarin.
“There’s a problem with consumer perception, and people feel unsafe,” said Rodriguez. “To change this, we need to centralize the homeless and crime activity. Use the old three-story school (old Stanton High School), which is in the center of most of the crime hot spots, and convert it into a central feeding center, education center and housing area. Get it away from the parks and stadiums, put it in one place and deal with it.”
Another recommendation, Rodriguez said, is to offer more services to people who live downtown. He notes that people do not have a convenient place to buy gas, groceries or go to the movies.
“The City is advertising that it is growing and that it is vibrant, but it’s just not so. There is no culture here, but we’re trying to grow. That won’t work,” he said.
A few of his suggestions to combat the lack of amenities are to refurbish the Florida Theatre and turn it into a multi-use establishment, convert the old Salvation Army building into a small retail center, refurbish the old gas station on East Adams and Newnan streets and clean up the Winn-Dixie on Market and State streets.
“As more people move downtown, the City needs to fill in the pockets with services,” he said. “There is not enough (residential) population for businesses to survive.”
Rodriguez, originally from New York, said people from large cities should help plan Jacksonville’s growth.
“The City needs to look at how other large cities are set up,” he said. “Put residential spaces on top of retail shops. Have more to do after business hours. Someone from another city will better understand this.”
Rodriguez also suggests taking a poll to see how the population wants the city to grow because he perceives that some do not want change.
“Downtown Jacksonville is going through growing pains,” he said. “There are going to be headaches with making a city vibrant.”
Al Battle, managing director of the DDA, plans to discuss the report at Wednesday’s DDA meeting.