Sporting Club Jacksonville is moving forward with plans to build a mixed-use development centered by a new soccer stadium in the St. Johns Town Center area with hopes to begin playing there by 2028.
A month after the club announced its proposed development just north of the Town Center, the St. Johns River Water Management District is reviewing an application related to the project.
Sporting JAX, as the club is known, said it intends to build on 150 acres of a larger site across Interstate 295 from the University of North Florida. During a March 2 announcement, team officials said a large portion of the acreage is wetlands.
Michael McNaughton, president of the Sporting JAX Development Co., is listed as the applicant to the water management district.
Kimley-Horn and Associates, a Jacksonville-based civil engineering firm, is the registered professional consultant, and Oneida Environmental LLC is listed as an environmental consultant.
The application is for construction or operation of new works, activities and/or a stormwater management system on the property.
On a list of activities proposed in relation to the project, the applicants selected “activities within wetlands or surface waters, or within 25 feet of a wetland or surface water”; and “construction or alteration of a stormwater management system serving residential, commercial, transportation, industrial, agricultural, or other land uses, or a solid waste facility.”
In the application, the project is called Hodges Mixed Use. It lists seven parcels on the site comprising 492.32 acres.
An amended purchase and sale agreement for the property lists the buyer as Jax Real Estate Holdings LLC, whose registered agent is Sporting JAX majority owner Ricky Caplin. The seller is City National Bank of Florida, as Trustee of Liquidating Land Trust No. 5196-5.
During the March 2 announcement, club officials said the development would include a 15,000-seat stadium, dining, hospitality, nightlife and entertainment, and residential uses.
Officials said the stadium would meet requirements for Sporting JAX’s men’s team to compete in the upcoming United Soccer League Premier league, the highest level of competition offered by the USL.
The development project is backed by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway; Tim Tebow, former NFL quarterback and a minority owner in the club; Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy; former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles; and Orlando-based Magnolia Hill Partners Family Office investments.
The club said it hopes to begin playing in the new stadium by 2028.