• The folks at the Landing weren’t planning to unveil what color the lights in the Christmas tree are until Friday. However, anyone eating lunch outside at the Landing Friday while the workers were hanging the lights knows they are ...
• Downtown Vision, Inc.’s Friday Farmers’ Market at Hemming Plaza got a jump on the holiday season Friday with all the vendors wearing Santa hats and plenty of Christmas songs performed on the stage. There will not be a market Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. This week’s Farmers’ Market is Tuesday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• At Friday’s Jacksonville Economic Development Commission Retail Task Force meeting, Landing owner Toney Sleiman announced that the Hilton brand will break ground on two hotels adjacent to the Kings Avenue parking garage in January. He said that his new Southbank project will also include 90 apartments and that 40,000 square feet of retail space is “almost full.” On the other side of the river, the design for the new 1,000-car parking garage for the Landing will include riverfront retail and office space, work-force housing on the north side of the building and a 140-slip marina, according to Sleiman.
• Also at Friday’s meeting, Retail Task Force Chairman Ben Carter told former City Council member Alberta Hipps to leave the room if she was going to take a call in the middle of the proceedings. Hipps was at the meeting, she said, to represent Springfield’s interests in Downtown retail.
• City Council member Sharon Copeland is using $60,000 of her District 6 discretionary bond funds to inventory, map and inspect the condition of large trees along Mandarin Road. The project will produce an electronic database and map of the trees to determine what maintenance will be needed to preserve them.
The new Downtown This Week is out and previews Saturday’s annual Jacksonville Light Parade down the St. Johns River. The magazine is free and available all over Downtown.