To compensate WJCT Public Media for accessing its property to build a new marine fire station and reconfiguring its parking lot for an accompanying street extension, the Jacksonville City Council voted May 13 to add 10 years to an agreement providing the nonprofit organization with $30,000 per year in city funding.
In a discussion with overtones of the Trump administration’s targeting of federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System, the 14-3 vote came over objections from some Council members.
During debate before the full vote and previously at committee meetings, Council member Rory Diamond said the payment was unnecessary and accused WJCT of “extorting” the city for the funding.
Member Terrance Freeman said that before he voted in favor of the payment, he received assurances it would not be used for programming.
Member Nick Howland, while not discussing WJCT’s content or editorial operations, proposed holding talks with WJCT in coming years to encourage the organization to move from its offices on the Downtown Northbank to an inland location so the city could redevelop the property and “put it to higher and better use.”
Before supporting the extension, Howland received assurance from the Downtown Investment Authority and city staff that it would not preclude the city from having those discussions.
Yes votes came from Council President Randy White, Freeman, Howland and members Ken Amaro, Raul Arias, Michael Boylan, Joe Carlucci, Matt Carlucci, Tyrona Clark-Murray, Ju’Coby Pittman, Will Lahnen, Chris Miller, Jimmy Peluso and Ron Salem. this is 13... who is missing Voting no were Diamond, member Mike Gay and Vice President Kevin Carrico. Members Reggie Gaffney Jr. and Rahman Johnson were not present for the vote.
The vote was on Ordinance 2025-0256, which contained the extension.
The issue around the extension involves agreements involving the WJCT property, the city, the federal and state governments and AR Polar, which owns property directly east of WJCT.
In December 2022, the DIA completed negotiations with AR Polar to buy property to replace a marine fire station that was being razed at the former Kids Kampus to make way for Shad Khan’s Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, WJCT’s western neighbor.
To access the new station, the city needed to extend Festival Park Avenue, which connects WJCT’s parking lot with Gator Bowl Boulevard. The city also needed to access WJCT’s property to build the station.
To compensate the nonprofit, the city and WJCT negotiated the extension of the $30,000 contribution, which was put in place in 2002 in an agreement between the city and WJCT over use of Metropolitan Park. That agreement involved the city gaining revenue from the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, which previously had been operated by WJCT, and also taking over the liquor license in return for the annual payment.
The ordinance includes an amendment to the Metropolitan Park agreement that includes the payment, an amendment to the state’s ground lease with the city and a redevelopment agreement between the city and WJCT related to construction of the fire station.
In negotiations for the 10-year extension that was approved by Council, WJCT agreed to provide the city with yearly audio and video production and editing services for the creation of video promotions highlighting Downtown development or other materials at the city’s request.
With the legislation, the city can avoid renegotiating WJCT’s leases for the Northbank property, a process that would have involved gaining approvals from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state of Florida.
Property history
Guy Parola, DIA director of operations, told the Council Finance committee that the city acquired the property through a $200,000 grant from HUD in 1972. When the city accepted the funding, Parola said, it recorded a restrictive covenant on the property that lasts in perpetuity and gives HUD authority over how and when the city could sell it.
In 1976, the state of Florida approved a $2.25 million grant to the State Board of Education to build WJCT’s office and studios on the site at 100 Festival Park Ave. That building opened in 1982. In 2019, WJCT and the State Board of Education agreed to a 20-year extension of the building lease.
After the building grant was issued, the city signed a 99-year ground lease for $1 per year with WJCT on the Northbank property in 1977
In 2019, WJCT and the State Board of Education agreed to a 20-year extension of the building lease.
David McGowan, president and CEO of WJCT Public Media, said the extension of the $30,000 city contribution and WJCT’s reciprocal audio and video production services was equitable for all parties and allowed construction and opening of the marine fire station to go as scheduled. He said the agreement was the product of three years of work with various parties involved in development of the fire station, including the DIA and Public Works.
Future move
Howland, acknowledging the difficulties in renegotiating WJCT’s lease and agreements, raised the possibility of the city opening talks with the organization in the next two to five years to move elsewhere. Signaling how the move could be facilitated, he noted that the city was working to provide the University of Florida with property in LaVilla for its proposed Jacksonville graduate campus and could possibly consider swapping city-owned land with WJCT for its Shipyards property.
Howland said that in addition to Khan’s development next door to WJCT, the city is developing three riverfront parks to the west and has invested $775 million in the $1.4 billion transformation of EverBank Stadium into the Jacksonville Jaguars’ “Stadium of the Future.”
Other nearby projects include the Rise Doro apartments, which are back under construction in the Sports and Entertainment District after being destroyed by fire in January 2024.
“That area is developing, and yet we lease a big chunk of it for $1 a year,” Howland said during the May 7 Council Finance Committee meeting. “I think there could be more value, better use of the city if that property were used in a different way.”
Boylan, a former president and CEO of WJCT, told Howland on May 13 that although he couldn’t speak for the current WJCT administration, he felt the discussion about relocation would be appropriate.
“My opinion is if I were still in that chair, I’d definitely to open to considering a different option” for WJCT’s offices and studio, he said.
Diamond denied
Diamond said he believed it was unreasonable for WJCT to request the city contribution.
“We’re building a fire station next door and they’re extorting us for $30,000 a year,” he said during the Finance Committee meeting.
“That’s what’s happening here. I know most of the board of WJCT. They’re not going to stop us from building a fire station, OK? They’re not. And if they’re such a good public entity over there, they’re not going to stop us from building a fire station.”
Diamond also suggested WJCT had space to allow the city access to its property.
Remarking about the organization’s parking lot, he said: “Most of the time, it’s empty. It’s filled with geese and a couple of cats.”
Diamond offered an amendment to withdraw the city’s contribution.
Other members, including Arias, said the city funding was a contractual matter between the city and a local business.
“As a business owner, if anybody’s going to impede on my business, I want something back,” said Arias, a restaurateur.
“If you’re going to do something that’s going to affect my business for multiple years – not just a couple of months, but multiple years – we need to find a way to compensate them.”
Diamond’s amendment failed.
Politics surfaces
After the Finance Committee voted 7-1 to extend the city contribution, Diamond posted a comment about it on Facebook: “Unbelievable: Republicans on Jax council are moving $30,000 for local NPR station.”
On May 1, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s board of directors to “cease federal funding for NPR and PBS.” He accused the organizations of being ideologically biased to the political left.
Diamond, like Trump, is a Republican. So are Carrico and Gay, who joined him in voting against Ordinance 2025-0256 in the full Council meeting.
During an April 28 appearance the WJCT News talk show “First Coast Connect,” McGowan said NPR and PBS had adopted editorial systems that guard against bias.
“Every editorial organization makes mistakes. We make mistakes here,” he said. “We do our best to correct them quickly when we make them and to own up to them. But when you think about how important it is to have a fact-based, rigorously researched news provider in this media ecosystem we operate in today, I feel really strongly that NPR and PBS both are doing their absolute best to provide us, as a local operator, with programming that we can count on to be fair.”
In remarks to the Finance Committee, McGowan said that in addition to being a source of local, state, national and international news for local residents, WJCT offers value to the community by holding more than 100 public events a year at its offices and studios.