The City's Downtown Investment Authority board voted Thursday to offer Aundra Wallace, executive director of the Detroit Land Bank Authority, the job as its inaugural CEO.
Wallace said during his public interview with board members that he wants to see Downtown become a revenue-producing neighborhood.
Among his goals:
• Develop the Downtown core and focus on providing housing options to bring residents Downtown to support existing retail stores.
• Attract and produce new market-driven retail stores.
• Design plans to enhance Downtown's greenspace and develop new spaces, bike paths, walking trails and marine activities along the St. Johns River.
• Build relationships with businesses, tenants, developers, residents, civic organizations and the City to communicate the authority's "focused outlook and vision to usher change within Downtown."
Eight of the nine board members interviewed the two finalists — Wallace and Kevin Hanna, New Orleans Redevelopment Authority director of development.
Board member Rob Clements did not attend.
Seven members scored Wallace higher in the category that included energy, drive and enthusiasm.
Board member Jim Bailey, publisher of the Financial News & Daily Record, asked Wallace to explain why Downtown is important to every Jacksonville resident.
"Very simple. For about 16-plus weekends from September to December and early January, Jacksonville is going to be a focus every Sunday," Wallace said, referring to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who play home games at EverBank Field Downtown.
"What's going to be in the background is going to be your Downtown," he said.
Wallace asked the board, "Are you comfortable with the look of your Downtown today? Would you like to see that changed?"
Wallace and Hanna went into the interviews almost evenly scored. Front-runner Michael Maher, founding director of the Charleston Civic Design Center, withdrew from consideration.
Wallace scored the highest after the public interviews Thursday.
"There is a balancing act between wanting to have someone who is collaborative and somewhat malleable, but at the same time I want someone who has some strong opinions based on their 10-20 years of experience," said Oliver Barakat, vice chairman of the board and chair of the CEO search committee.
Barakat asked Hanna's opinion of the City's requirements in the Downtown area of retail space on the ground floor of new parking structures and not allowing buildings to be connected by elevated walkways.
"I would defer to this board. I would first want to hear what you had to say because you have been here a lot longer than I have," said Hanna.
"I wouldn't want to force my own personal view on you," he said.
Wallace also has been interviewing for the CEO position at the Atlanta BeltLine Inc., Atlanta's urban renewal project.
Todd Jorgenson, managing director and principal of Jorgenson Consulting, the firm hired to conduct the Jacksonville CEO search, told the board that the DIA position was Wallace's priority.
@photojoe71
(904) 356-2466