Jacksonville’s Eastside neighborhood is a step closer to receiving millions of dollars in public and private investment after the City Council Special Committee on the Community Benefits Agreement 2.0 wrapped up proceedings on Dec. 3.
The committee, created to adopt legislation aligned with the city’s community benefits agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars as part of the Stadium of the Future funding deal, agreed on legislation to submit to full Council in the new year.
The legislation approved by the committee would establish a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which would receive city funding for seven years, funding from the Jaguars for 30 years and private funds indefinitely.
“At the very least, this helped bring the conversation to the table. But now on top of that, this is also bringing money to the Eastside residents for workforce development, for economic development,” committee Chair Raul Arias said. “This is a big step in the right direction to be able to help inject some capital to the Eastside.”
As part of the community benefits agreement, the city has committed to giving the nonprofit organization $40 million over seven years, with no fewer than $4 million granted in any year. The Jaguars committed to contribute $2.5 million each year for the next 30 years. The nonprofit could also seek funds from other private sources.
The nonprofit would distribute the money through grants. The grants can be issued for capital projects, as well as projects for affordable housing, workforce housing, economic development and homelessness services in the Eastside.
Businesses seeking grants from the nonprofits could apply in any of those categories for separate projects, and could only receive one grant per project. Grants in affordable housing, workforce housing, economic development and homelessness mitigation could not exceed $250,000.
Grants would be scored by members of the nonprofit’s nine-member board. As approved by the committee, four board members would be appointed by the mayor’s office and confirmed by Council, four appointed by the Council president and confirmed by Council, and one appointed by the Jaguars.
The mayor and Council president would seek to appoint members residing in or having a “substantial economic business interest” in the Eastside. No more than three members could be appointed from one of the Eastside’s five neighborhoods: Campbells Addition, Fairfield, Longbranch, Oakland and Phoenix.
The full bill is set to be introduced at Council’s Jan. 13 meeting, its first of 2026. It is set to go through a six-week cycle before Council and committees, likely facing a final vote in February.
“I think (other Council members are) going to see the amount of work that we put into this. A lot of them have been watching,” Arias said. “I want to say that they’ll support it just because of the amount of work in the community input we’ve had, but we’ll see how that goes.”