• Auchter Company vice president and Downtown Development Authority board member David Auchter told the DDA he wants a marketing kit on hand for developers interested in downtown. Auchter said the kit should include a listing of active Requests for Proposals, the managing director’s monthly report and copies of the Downtown Master Plan and zoning overlays. The City will start attracting a lot of interest as the host of next year’s Super Bowl, said Auchter, and needs to be ready to sell itself. “We’re going to be getting calls. If we can’t respond, we’re going to look like a cow town,” said Auchter.
• During the mayoral race, Downtown Vision, Inc.’s advocacy of a downtown business summit helped persuade John Peyton to support the idea. However, DVI now says a downtown summit is not necessary because of a near unanimous consensus on DVI’s board about downtown’s future direction.
• PGA Tour president Vernon Kelly has written the City, urging them to find a replacement operator for the Golf Club of Jacksonville on 103rd Street. According to representatives from the Parks and Recreations Department, the PGA had been managing the City-owned club for some time and was reportedly losing money and wanted to pull out. A Request for Proposals to find a replacement should go out by the first of next week.
• According to the Better Jacksonville Plan quarterly report released this week, 76 miles of sidewalks and approximately 1,333 miles of streets have been constructed or resurfaced throughout the city.
• Police and Fire Pension Fund administrator John Keane has a new tenant moving into the fund’s West Adams Street headquarters. Keane says the City’s Housing and Finance Commission will move its offices to the second floor.
• The Adam’s Mark Hotel is installing high-speed Internet access in all of its guest rooms on the 16th and 18th floors. The service will be expanding into all the rooms by spring.
• The Boardwalk Group has a new name and a new office. The marketing firm has changed its name to Find TrueNorth, and moved from Jacksonville Beach to Southpoint.
• Local police officers and firefighters participating in the annual Guns and Hoses charity boxing event may be able to get some tips from Roy Jones Jr., who holds a piece of the heavyweight crown and is considered one of the best boxers in the world. Reportedly, he’ll be one of the celebrity judges.
• The Jacksonville Zoo sent two bongos — antelopes with white stripes and spiral-twisted horns — to Kenya Wednesday as part of a repatriation program. There is a sizable captive population of bongos in the United States, but not many in the wild in Africa. The pair flew out of JIA, headed to a preserve on Mount Kenya, where their offspring will be set free to repopulate the region.