by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The City Council’s patience is wearing thin with Jacksonville’s equestrian non-profit community’s failure to raise money as promised for the Cecil Equestrian Center.
The frustration leaked out during a Council Finance Committee debate over a proposal to spend $2 million in City money to shore up the center’s parking facilities and other infrastructure. Several Committee members suggested that the City shouldn’t invest more into the Equestrian Center until the non-profits make good on their promise to raise $5 million to build a pair of barns.
But several members countered that position, saying that the renovations were needed to make the Equestrian Center profitable.
While campaigning to have the project included as part of the City’s $2.5 billion Better Jacksonville Plan, advocate groups of horse enthusiasts pledged to raise the money to complement $24 million of City funds. The private donations were to pay for barns that would allow the City to host equestrian shows at the facility. Those shows were expected to raise enough revenue to make the Equestrian Center self-sufficient and possibly a moneymaker.
Five years later, the City has made good on its end, but the Northeast Florida Equestrian Society, a non-profit group formed to oversee private fund raising, has not. The group has fallen far short of its $5 million goal, raising about $85,000 with pledges for about $1 million more.
That falls far short of several Council members’ expectations. Art Graham spoke for several on the committee when he suggested tying future City expenditures to the NFES’ ability to raise the money promised.
“They said they’d raise $5 million. To date, they’ve raised about $85,000, and to me it doesn’t look like they’re doing a thing to make it happen,” said Graham. “They should be holding fish fries, selling Kool-Aid, doing something to try to raise this money. We need to hold their feet to the fire until they at least present to us a plan to raise the $5 million.”
Former council member Alberta Hipps, who helped bring the center to her former district and now sits as president of NFES, said fund raising efforts had been hampered by the post 9/11 economic climate and botched attempts to build temporary barns with City money.
The City eventually overcame zoning issues with the temporary barns, but now parking facilities are needed to accommodate the recreational vehicles and horse trailers that travel the national equestrian show circuit. Bringing in horse shows will help subsidize the operational expenses and upkeep the City spends on the facility.
Hipps said she’s tried to keep City Hall informed of fund raising efforts by sending reports to the mayor’s office and said the NFES will hold a large fund raiser Nov. 17 with its annual Dinner in the Dirt affair at the Equestrian Center.
Hipps said the NFES was working with City facility manager SMG to find naming sponsors for the permanent barns and for the stalls inside. She estimates each of the 150 stalls could sell for about $2,000 each. SMG General Manger Bob Downey has estimated naming rights for the facility could fetch $1 million over 10 years.
Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Davis, who represents the Westside neighborhoods surrounding the center, said the City should push ahead with the parking and infrastructure renovations. Those improvements are the only way to turn the Center into a profitable venture, he said. Without hosting horse shows, the City will continue to lose money on the center’s operating expenses, he said.