Visit Jacksonville, Jacksonville’s visitor center, recently had an open house celebrating its new location at 208 N. Laura St. The celebration took place Aug. 20. In attendance were government and civic leaders, business leaders, residents and appropriately enough, even some Jacksonville visitors.
John Reyes, president and CEO of the organization, says the open house was a huge success and couldn’t have gone any better.
“We had a tremendous attendance,” Reyes says. “I was really excited to see that.”
Lyndsay Rossman, director of corporate communications for Visit Jacksonville, says over 250 people attended the event.
The old location for the center was at 550 Water St., but Reyes says the new location is a better fit for the company.
The history of the building dates back to 1927 and has been home to several different types of businesses. The law firm of Foley & Lardner once occupied the space as did, what some would call today, a couture or custom-made dress shop. The building and its location has almost always been considered one of Downtown Jacksonville’s landmarks.
“So many Jacksonville natives had stories about this building,” Reyes says. “It has so much character and there’s a lot of pride in it. They were excited to see it being put to good use.”
As for Jacksonville as a whole, the Visitor’s Center is in a way, the glue that holds the city together. Almost any bit of information, tidbits or events that one could possibly want relating to our city, the center can help with.
But the Downtown area specifically also needs to be a key destination spot.
“We need to keep going with the arts, culture and entertainment Downtown so we can bring visitors here and not only to the beaches or the Town Center,” Rossman says.
Reyes feels that while this is true, the entire city needs to act as one unit to make it happen.
“All Jacksonvillians need to be supportive of our Downtown,” he says. “As a destination, I like to say it has good bones. You’ve got the river and the whole lifestyle. It needed to be revitalized but we still believe in going bigger and better.”
One way Reyes sees to continue to improve Downtown is by a commitment to connectivity.
“We need to intersect the arts, culture, businesses and residents all together,” he says. “It’s almost as if a lot of people look at different areas like the stadium and Riverside as bookends, but it shouldn’t be like that. We need a master plan to intersect them all.”
Whatever the answer is, whether it’s Reyes’ suggestion to fill the areas with more eye candy as he says, or something else, one thing is certain, the only way to make that happen is for all Jacksonville citizens to be on the same page. That “page” should be full of pride for our city and a commitment to success. Let’s make Downtown an even bigger success than it already is!