Ending weeks of debate over how the city of Jacksonville should go about acquiring the former Interline Brands Inc. building for the University of Florida graduate school campus, the Jacksonville City Council opted June 10 for an amended version of a land swap for the privately owned LaVilla property.
Council voted 17-1 in favor of Ordinance 2025-0319, which directs the city to exchange a development pad at the former Jacksonville Landing site plus an option on an adjacent parcel for the Interline building, at 801 W. Bay St.
Member Rory Diamond voted no without comment, and Ju’Coby Pittman was not present.
The Gateway Jax development partnership owns the two-story, 38,186-square-foot building at 801 W. Bay St.
In return for the LaVilla property, Gateway Jax agreed to build a 17-story tower on part of the Jacksonville Landing site, now called Riverfront Plaza, that would include a hotel, condos, restaurant and retail square footage and public spaces.
Council member Ron Salem, one of three members who offered amendments to the ordinance, offered to withdraw his proposal to purchase the building outright if the amendments were approved. Members Will Lahnen and Joe Carlucci also offered amendments.
Among the revisions offered by the three members:
• A clawback provision to reduce or eliminate tax rebates if Gateway Jax doesn’t meet its required minimum capital investment.
• A clawback provision for any future completion grants for the tower project.
• A provision for the DIA board to update Council on the status of an optimal use study for the plaza site before approving any incentives.
• The requirement for the DIA to get a third-party review of all financing and underwriting for the tower project in addition to its own staff review.
• A reduced deadline for submitting a redevelopment request to Council from 15 months to 12 months.
Salem said he had worked with the developers and city staff in recent days to develop his amendments. He said disagreement over how best to acquire the building “was getting in the way of what I care deeply about, and that was UF and that campus coming up in LaVilla.”
Referring to the revised ordinance, he said, “I think it’s a good compromise for the city, Gateway Jax and this Council to move forward.”
Salem pledged to withdraw Ordinance 2025-0339, which would direct the city to abandon the swap and buy the Interline building.
Council previously approved legislation appropriating up to $8 million for the purchase option. That amount was based on a previous sales price quoted by Bryan Moll, Gateway Jax’s principal partner, which the developers reduced to $6.95 million in May to account for the property’s lack of an on-site parking structure.
“The City of Jacksonville is moving forward on two projects that will ignite our downtown: the UF graduate campus in LaVilla and the Gateway Jax development next to Riverfront Plaza," Mayor Donna Deegan said in a statement after the vote. "I'm grateful to President (Randy) White and the bipartisan group of City Council Members who reviewed and approved this fiscally responsible proposal that will accelerate downtown Jacksonville's momentum."
Next step
With the question over swapping versus selling answered, Council now moves on to final approval of legislation to convey an initial set of five properties to UF for the campus.
Ordinance 2025-0396, which orders the conveyance, is set for final action on June 24.
In addition to the Interline building, the properties are two vacant lots immediately west of the building, the historic Jacksonville Terminal train station and the attached portions of the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center and its parking lot.
Under UF’s plans, the two vacant properties would be the first sites of new construction for the campus.
The train station would undergo an adaptive reuse with the exterior being kept intact and the interior renovated for campus use, possibly with restaurant and retail space. The newer portion of the convention center would be demolished to make way for new construction.
Swap talk
Deegan, Gateway Jax, the JAX Chamber and the DIA were among supporters of the swap option.
Proponents said the exchange would fuel Downtown revitalization through the Gateway Jax tower development, which would attract visitors and residents to the historic core of the city.
Among other arguments, they said a swap would not require spending from the city’s general fund, which provides for across-the-board city services, and would advance the DIA’s mission of placing publicly owned property in the hands of private developers and back onto the tax roll.
In addition, the city says the Gateway Jax tower would generate $700,000 annually from hotel room surcharges and condo HOA fees to maintain and program the city park under construction at Riverfront Plaza.
Among the terms of the swap, if Gateway Jax can’t come to an incentives agreement on the Riverfront Plaza project, or otherwise backs out, the city has the option to buy back the property at a discount.
Under Council member Will Lahnen’s amendment the buyback price for the Riverfront Plaza is set at $6.25 million.
Support for the sale
Proponents of Ordinance 2025-0339, the sale legislation, argued that it was the simpler of the two options and would allow the city to explore other development opportunities for the plaza property.
Moll has said that the plaza tower would require $20 million in completion grants plus an undetermined amount of tax rebates.
Opponents of the swap question the $20 million estimate, saying the actual amount of incentives needed for the project is likely to be far higher.
Under the amendments approved June 10, any incentives for the tower project would have to be drawn from the Downtown Northbank Community Redevelopment Agency Fund, which is generated within Downtown, as opposed to from the city general fund, which provides services citywide.
Among those raising questions about the swap were Jim Citrano Jr., former DIA board member and chair; and the advocacy group Riverfront Parks Now, which proposed a smaller retail and restaurant development on the plaza.
Salem and Citrano said they believed the city could receive a better proposal on the Riverfront Plaza properties by reoffering them to developers independently of the UF deal.
When the city offered the lots for disposition – the competitive process for placing city-owned property in private hands – applicants were required to either provide $8 million to purchase the Interline property or provide commensurate office space in LaVilla.
The campus
UF plans to spend $7 million turning the Interline property into a classroom building, where it would begin offering instruction in the fall of 2025.
Master’s degree programs that the university plans to offer in Jacksonville include artificial intelligence in medicine; business administration; science in management; engineering; computer science; and architecture.
There also will be an MBA tailored toward working professionals and a legal degree for nonattorneys in fields that overlap with the law, such as human relations and compliance.
In April, UF official Spencer Moore told the Meninak Club of Jacksonville civic group that the campus would open with 20 to 25 students in the architecture program in the fall of 2025, then grow by about 80 when its next program, the MBA, is launched. By fall of 2026, Moore said, there would be hundreds of people on campus.
The graduate architecture program currently is offered in Downtown Jacksonville at 25 N. Market St.
The properties
According to the Downtown Investment Authority, the properties the city aims to provide the university appraise for a combined total of more than $30 million.
The DIA lists the appraised values at:
• Interline Brands: $5.35 million to $6.75 million.
• Site A, the designation that the DIA has given to the parcel immediately north of the train station: $3.25 million.
• Site B, which is located across Lee Street from Site A: $1.84 million.
• Jacksonville Terminal: $1.68 million.
• Convention Center: $15.52 million.
• Vestcor lot: $2.58 million.
The city has yet to acquire the Vestcor lot, and is considering obtaining it through a land swap.
With the Vestcor lot included, the total appraised value of the city’s contributions to the campus would range from $30.22 million to $31.62 million.
The five initial properties total 23.24 acres. With the Vescor lot, the total rises to 25.28 acres.
The city’s investment in the UF campus also includes $50 million in funding approved by Council and another $50 million pledged by Mayor Donna Deegan.
UF intends to expand enrollment to 685 over the next four years and to 1,500 by 2030.
Plans call for $300 million in capital outlays during the first phase of the project. The first new buildings are planned on Site A and Site B and would total 330,000 square feet.
Phase 2 would add a 213,000-square-foot student housing building with 600 beds, and the remaining campus would be built west of the train station on the site of the newer portion of the convention center, which would be razed, along with the convention center parking lot and the Vestcor property. The fully built-out campus would have 1.6 million feet of space.
Unanimous support for UF
In December, UF announced it had chosen LaVilla as the site of its Jacksonville campus under the condition that the city provide the university with properties for its facilities.
Parties on both sides of the sale vs. swap debate have agreed it is imperative to provide UF with the Interline building and keep the university on its timeline to start classes in Jacksonville in the fall of 2025.
City leaders say the campus would be catalytic for development in LaVilla and throughout Downtown, while boosting workforce development in the city and providing research and development in partnership with Jacksonville businesses.
Moll says the campus is crucial to Gateway Jax’s Downtown project, in which construction is underway on two buildings in its $750 million Pearl Square development in the NorthCore district. Gateway Jax’s land holdings encompass 32 acres in Downtown, which if fully built would involve a $2 billion investment.
Moll told Council members that regardless of the outcome of the competing Interline ordinances, there were contingencies for allowing UF to use the Interline building, including a possible lease option.