Two years ago, Jacksonville’s Five Points neighborhood was making headlines — for all the wrong reasons.
In July 2023, business owners blamed “mobs” on the streets for committing violence that created a chilling effect in the retail and entertainment district.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office made 33 arrests that month, including 22 for felony offenses, and seized more than 14 firearms.
JSO increased its police presence in the area to instill order and stem a flow of complaints from residents and businesses.
“It felt pretty intense and (was) a real good show of force,” said Jacksonville City Council member Jimmy Peluso, whose District 7 includes Five Points.
“But the first thing that we realized, I think, was this isn’t a long-term deterrent.”
As the situation died down and JSO decreased its presence in Five Points, Peluso and business leaders from the neighborhood began looking for a way to prevent similar flare-ups and create a steady level of security in the district. Now, their solution is working its way through City Hall.
Peluso has filed legislation to create a business improvement district, formally identified as a “special business district,” for Five Points. The BID would charge commercial property owners a fee to fund added security and other improvements to the area.
Peluso and business representatives say the proposal can set up Five Points as one of Jacksonville’s premier neighborhoods.
“How do we make it welcoming, and how do we make it in such a way so that every business finds success?” Peluso said.
“I want it all. If you create a business improvement district appropriately and correctly, where people take on an additional assessment to get enhanced services, the trade-off should be, and must be, more profit for all the businesses.”
Landscaping, security, promotion
Peluso’s legislation to create the BID, Ordinance 2025-0539, would provide funding for landscaping, security and promotion for Five Points businesses and residents.
The assessment would take effect in 2026 and would be based on the heated square footage and parking surface area of commercial properties in the district, which comprises all or parts of 21 blocks. Peluso estimates that there are about 120 businesses in the district.
According to a document filed with the ordinance, the district would charge assessments on about 100 commercial properties held by 80 owners. Those property owners are expected to at least partially pass the fee onto their tenants.
The BID would comprise an area largely bordered by Post Street, Riverside Avenue and Copeland Street, with one block bordered by Goodwin, Post, Margaret and College streets.
The legislation allows for per-square-foot fees of up to 55 cents per heated square foot and 50 cents for parking during the first year, although Peluso believes the fees would start out at 20 cents to 25 cents.
The original legislation says that fees cannot be increased more than $2 per square foot of heated space and $1 per square foot of parking space.
However, an amendment offered by Peluso and approved by the Neighborhoods Committee says fees cannot increase by more than $1 per square foot of heated space, and 50 cents per square foot of parking.
The district would operate on revenue generated by the fee instead of a budget based on expected revenue. The district’s budget would be approved by Council each year.
If businesses are assessed fees at 20 cents per square foot as Peluso suggested, Publix would pay $8,711 for its store and shopping center and the Corner Lot-owned Corner Tower would pay $15,616 a year, based on square footages in Duval County Property Appraiser records.
One property at 1044 Park St., which hosts Birdies, a bar, and Urban Fix, a flooring and remodeling business, would pay $1,439.60.
The legislation stalled in Council committees in August, with Council representatives saying they wanted written proof that “close to 100%” of Five Points business and property owners supported the BID.
“We are voting to tax these people, and I want personally to be very careful that there is widespread support,” Council member Ron Salem said.
‘Happy’ to pay fee
Security issues as severe as the July 2023 violence have not broken out since, but business owners and employees said problems persist.
Recently, several businesses in Five Points fell victim to a series of break-ins, according to Daily Record news partner News4Jax. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is investigating multiple incidents in the area. According to JSO data, several burglaries have been reported near or in Riverside since Sept. 1.
“We’ve had individuals drop their pants and defecate in front of trash cans in front of our business. I have seen people openly do drugs on the sidewalks. I’ve witnessed knife fights,” said Natalie Worth, the office manager at Five Points Dental, during an August meeting of the Council Neighborhoods, Community Services, Public Health and Safety Committee.
“This is not the funky, fun Five Points (businesses) we were promised.”
For Dori Thomsen, the owner of Soluna Yoga + Spa and president of the Five Points Merchants Association, paying the BID fee is well worth it.
“When people are saying that Five Points needs beautification, OK, here we have guaranteed funding now for that. Five Points needs security and safety. OK, now we’ve got guaranteed funding for that,” Thomsen said.
“That’s where all the businesses are. I’m happy to pay that small amount.”
A strong majority of Five Points businesses back the proposed BID, Peluso said, including brand name stores in the area.
A representative from Corner Lot, which owns the nine-story Corner Lot Tower that is larger than many businesses in Five Points, told a Council committee that the company supports the BID and had agreed to pay its assessments.
But not all property owners in the district support the BID.
Eleven property owners of the 94 in the proposed district are on record against the BID, according to a tally kept by Peluso’s office provided on Oct. 21. The others are listed as in favor.
The Five Points Merchants Association has a goal similar to that of the proposed BID, but the funding isn’t always available for Thomsen and the association to pay for what they need.
Funding for the merchants association relies on membership fees, which can fluctuate. The proposed BID would have guaranteed funding, with property owners required by the city to pay.
Shannon Blankinship, who leads Riverside Avondale Preservation Inc., a nonprofit for the historic neighborhoods surrounding Five Points, sees the benefits of the BID.
Crime may have changed in Five Points since 2023, but perception of the area hasn’t necessarily changed with it, Blankinship said. However, she hopes the security enhancements with the BID can change how residents and visitors see the area.
“I wouldn’t say that there’s been a huge shift or change in how people feel generally about crime in the area,” Blankinship said. “I would say hands down, funding more dedicated security in the area is going to help both business owners as well as customers.”
Peluso said it’s implausible for the JSO to station officers permanently in Five Points, as they are needed elsewhere in a city encompassing 840 square miles.
While JSO focuses on other neighborhoods, Five Points’ BID would allow it to have a full-time security presence, regardless of what the sheriffs office does.
Thomsen said she didn’t think she’d be interested in running the BID, but thought creating the district would allow for the merchants association to focus on specific areas that make Five Points lively and fun.
“(The merchants association cannot) afford security through our donations. So that’s where we can work together,” Thomsen said.
“There’s a BID that can now take on some of those things that we’ve been trying to do as an association. The BID can now take that off our plate," she said.
“Now, as an association, this is when we can just have a lot of fun and go towards more creative efforts like events and community and connection and support for businesses.”
According to its website, the merchants association works to “create a cleaner, safer, and more enjoyable” Five Points, though it doesn’t have the financing to support Five Points the way a BID would. Instead, the merchants association supports local events, pays for trash cleanup and connects business owners.
At present, the merchants association has about $5,000, far from the $100,000 Thomsen said was needed for security in Five Points.
Peluso expects the BID to have a budget of $150,000 for its first year, and said before the Finance Committee that businesses in Five Points may contribute funds in the first year without being required. The BID budget would have to be approved by Council annually.
BID follows examples elsewhere
Peluso, a Jacksonville native and U.S. Navy veteran, wanted to live in Five Points when he moved back home in 2015 after living in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and Norfolk, Virginia.
Similar to neighborhoods where he lived in other states, he felt Five Points offered the city’s best nightlife.
“That was Five Points, especially in 2015. And it still is, in many ways,” Peluso said. “This is super unique here.”
In Florida, state statute governs the creation of BIDs, but they are also found elsewhere in the Southeast.
Similar districts in Tampa, Miami and Savannah, Georgia, served as the inspiration for Five Points’ potential BID.
“I had a lot of friends who had businesses here, some of which have left, and that breaks my heart. But they said things like… Why can’t we be more like Charleston (South Carolina)? Why can’t we be more like Savannah? Why can’t we be more like Tampa or Wynwood (in Miami) or whatever else?” Peluso said.
“When you look at Ybor City (Tampa), when you look at Wynwood, when you look at a lot of these major commercial areas, they all have BIDs, and it allows for more local control. It allows these business owners to help determine their future far more than waiting on the city of Jacksonville.”
BID advances on second attempt
At the Oct. 20 Council Neighborhoods, Community Services, Public Health and Safety Committee meeting, member Ron Salem said he wanted proof that 85% to 90% of businesses supported the BID’s creation before he voted to approve. Peluso said that according to a survey conducted by his office and others in Five Points, around 70% of business owners were in favor.
While other committee members said they also would have liked to see more support for the BID, Salem cast the lone vote against the ordinance when the committee voted 6-1 to recommend it for approval by the full Council.
“When this legislation came through several cycles ago, the burden was placed on the district councilman to go out and show us,” Council member Ken Amaro said, adding that he had not received emails from any individual or business opposing Peluso’s ordinance.
Several Five Points business and property owners spoke in favor of the BID during the committee meeting, with two property owners undecided.
“We have been abandoned by the city. I have multiple retirement homes here, and the elderly residents are afraid to leave their building,” said Worth, the office manager at Five Points Dental.
“Without this BID, I predict we will continue to lose small businesses, and eventually Jacksonville will lose historic Five Points.”
“The business owners have come together, and they said they want predictability. They want to upgrade to a more reliable system where they can plan,” said Casey Roth, the development manager for Riverside Arts Market.
Ian Bassett, who owns property at 2039 Park St., said he was on the fence about the BID’s creation, but changed his stance as in favor of the BID the next day before the Finance Committee.
“One of the things that I was asking for was to lower the cap, and that was one of the amendments that passed yesterday,” Bassett said Oct. 21. “We are not necessarily asking for funds. We’re asking for permission to do it.”
The Finance Committee passed the BID with a 6-1 vote, adding an amendment that would allow properties within the district to opt out of payments and service.
The Rules Committee advanced it with a 4-3 vote, with Terrance Freeman, Mike Gay and Salem voting no.
Gay had previously voted yes at the Neighborhoods Committee. However, several Council members, including Freeman, Gay, Chris Miller and Salem, said they could change their votes before the measure appears before the full Council.
Council to decide fate
Peluso’s bill is set for consideration by the full Council on Oct. 28.
Speaking before Council committee hearings on the BID, Peluso was optimistic that Council would support his legislation.
“This is all meant to be (a) rapid response, much quicker way to fix a problem. I think my colleagues see that,” Peluso said.
"I think many of them know the history. I think they also realize it’s in the best interest of JSO, it’s in the best interest of the neighborhood and it’s in the best interest of the business owners.”
Under the legislation, the assessment would take effect in November 2026.
Peluso said he will fund its first year of existence with the dollars his district acquired through the $300 million community benefits agreement the city forged with the Jacksonville Jaguars as an attachment to the $1.4 billion deal to remake EverBank Stadium into the team’s “Stadium of the Future.”
As part of the agreement, each of the city’s 14 Council districts received $1 million in discretionary funding.
According to BID legislation, the district would be run by a five-member board with three alternates, appointed by the Council president and confirmed by the full Council.
Once the district is up and running, Peluso and those in Five Points will set out to find potential board members to be confirmed by Council. After that, Peluso said, the BID will first want to hire security staff, then likely turn its attention to hiring someone to manage it.
“This is going to be somebody who I want to be the unofficial mayor of Five Points,” Peluso said.
“Everyone here should have that person’s number. They should be able to call upon the security that we’ll have to respond to something very quickly if there’s a need to do so," he said.
“It will feel different. It will feel like people are moving quickly and swiftly to do stuff. And I think that’s a good thing.”