A proposed $379 million overhaul and expansion of the Skyway system in downtown Jacksonville faces growing questions from City Council members as they prepare for a likely vote on doubling the local gas tax.
City Council Finance Committee Chairman Matt Carlucci sent the Jacksonville Transportation Authority a list of queries Monday and said that depending on how much public support and council buy-in there is, the amount of money for the Skyway might need to be reduced.
“What I’m telling people is to keep an open mind to it, Carlucci said. That’s what I’m doing, but it’s up to the JTA to sell it. If it turns into some kind of big drama, it may need to be downsized because I don’t want the Skyway taking down all the other gas tax projects.”
The credit union that became VyStar needed 43 years to get its first billion dollars in assets back in 1995.
The latest billion apparently accumulated since New Year’s Eve, after the lender stopped trying to slow its growth and delay the added regulations placed on credit unions whose assets exceed $10 billion.
That was before the business announced an agreement March 31 to acquire Georgia-based Heritage Southeast Bank, its 22 branches and another $1.5 billion in assets.
The deal will probably take until late summer to finalize, but the organization that started in 1952 as the 12-member Jax Navy Federal Credit Union inside a barracks-like building at Naval Air Station Jacksonville was already making preparations for new branches in Tallahassee, the Orlando area and Titusville.
05:10 AM EST Share A Downtown Investment Authority board resolution would allow its staff to complete negotiations with Johnson Commons LLC if no other bids are received.
Downtown Investment Authority board members signaled March 15 they still want for-sale town houses in the historic LaVilla neighborhood west of Downtown.
The board’s Retail Enhancement and Property Disposition Committee voted 4-0 to support a 30-day notice of disposition on the 3.45-acre parcel after The Vestcor Companies Inc. abandoned its plan to build on the site.
If approved by the full board March 17, the resolution will direct DIA CEO Lori Boyer to negotiate with Johnson Commons LLC, which bid on the site in August 2019.
Editorial: We have a vision; we need a plan for downtown Jacksonville
Our view
The DIA wants “a world-class Downtown urban landscape and waterfront” as outlined in its 2015 Master Plan. Mayor Lenny Curry has his backroom deals. The coalition of nonprofits called Riverfront Parks Now is clamoring to keep public access and resiliency the priorities for the riverfront.
But what do we have? A 13-year-old cavernous hulk of a building begging to be demolished overlooking a contaminated former industrial site in the shadow of the jail and a once popular city park that has lost its identity.
On the other side of a riverfront hotel, where Marines are bivouacked until summer, is more vacant land. For decades it was the City Hall and Courthouse, now it’s greenspace dubbed Ford on Bay that is full of potential. It’s been envisioned as the site of a new convention center, a multi-use development or a riverfront park. Under the Acosta Bridge is the vacant newspaper buildings awaiting a
06:25 PM EST Share The for-sale residential project was meant to complement the city’s plans to build Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park in the historic Downtown neighborhood.
The Vestcor Companies Inc. has abandoned plans to build town houses in LaVilla, but the project could gain a familiar new developer.
Documents released March 5 by the Downtown Investment Authority state Vestcor will not proceed with the 88 for-sale town houses it planned for the Downtown community, but a partnership of JWB Real Estate Capital and Corner Lot Development is interested in the site.
The city narrowly selected Vestcor for the project over JWB and Corner Lot in 2019.