"Turning the Corner: Rethinking and Remaking Downtown"

News

Downtown Vision Inc. is a public-private partnership created in 2000 to direct the city’s Downtown Improvement District.

Downtown is defined as a 2.72-square-mile area bounded by State Street to the north, Interstate 95 to the west and south and the St. Johns River to the east.

The Downtown Improvement District is a 90-block area bounded by Market Street, Church Street, Broad Street and Prudential Drive. DVI advocates for Downtown property owners and stakeholders.

The Downtown “walkable core” refers to about 25 blocks on the Northbank centered on Laura Street and on the Southbank Riverwalk and Friendship Park area. The core contains three major areas: The Landing/Times-Union Center; the Hemming Plaza area; and the entertainment district around Bay, Forsyth and Adams streets, anchored by the Florida Theatre.

Revitalization principles

Focus on the core.

• Concentrate on the “walkable core” area of Downtown, the central Northbank and Southbank Riverwalks and Friendship Park.

• Minimize “dead space” of vacant or underused properties.

• Develop block-by-block plan to revitalize the nearly 25 blocks in the walkable core with short-term, mid-term and long-term initiatives and funding.

• Review proposed periphery projects to avoid adverse effects on Downtown core.

• Develop priorities to prepare Downtown for economic revival.

Holistic approach

• Maintain streets at highest level of functionality and attractiveness.

• Focus on elements including street and sidewalk width, streetscape design and maintenance, architectural character and development density.

• Address that “too many panhandlers and loiterers” are in the streets, parks and vacant properties Downtown.

• Enhance police presence after 7 p.m. and on weekends.

• Enforce property maintenance codes.

Compelling Downtown experience

• Develop and sustain events, promotions, restaurants, retail and cultural venues to attract and retain residents, employees and visitors.

• Create and fund an organization to oversee growth and programming of the Riverwalks.

• Encourage a Downtown entertainment district.

• Revise zoning, alcohol, code and enforcement and permitting issues to make it easier to run a small business or produce an event.

• Encourage public art.

• Provide incentives for outdoor cafes and streetscape improvements.

Focused and ambitious leadership

• Encourage consistent, energized and ambitious civic, business and government leadership.

• Encourage shared vision and willingness to consider new ways of thinking about Downtown.

• Encourage public and private leaders to define, agree and benchmark their vision of Downtown success, including a funding plan.

• Appoint and empower one agency as Downtown coordinator to ensure implementation of the Downtown vision.

Dedicated funding

• Seek sources of dedicated funding to improve and maintain the “fit and finish” of Downtown, encourage activity and provide incentives and leveraging of private investment.

• Develop strategy for highest and best use of Tax Increment Funding for use only on bona fide Downtown projects and operating expenses.

• Consider new revenue sources.

• Provide mechanism for land-banking.

• Consider contributing proceeds from Downtown city-owned property sales for a Downtown development fund.

More jobs

• Reverse “appalling” job loss in the Downtown core.

• Make Downtown economically attractive for employers and employees.

• Ensure that the Downtown core is the preferred site for appropriate federal, state and city offices.

• Consider incentives to attract and keep businesses in the Downtown core.

Residential reuse

• Encourage adaptive reuse of “derelict” and blighted structures for residential use.

• Create excitement and boost core retail to serve residents.