Assuming that Jacksonville is ready to reconsider its
collective anti-downtown sentiment, architects and city officials have found an
ideal corridor that could serve as an entertainment district.
Several blocks of Bay and Forsyth streets are attractive because of their
proximity to the Adam's Mark, Berkman Plaza, the proposed Shipyards retail and
residential project, the Florida Theatre and the Sports Complex with its
forthcoming, concert-friendly arena.
Those blocks have plenty of space for cafes, galleries, live music clubs,
dance halls and boutiques -- reasons to come downtown and stay downtown. If
people are going to a concert at the new arena, for example, they should have a
place to eat beforehand and a place to party afterward, all within walking
distance.
Architects in the influential Rink Reynolds Diamond Fisher firm already have
rough plans for what they call "Art Alley," a cultural district through Bay and
Forsyth streets with the Florida Theatre as a linchpin.
Now they're just waiting for some interested developers to pursue it.
"I would like to see Bay Street be our Park Avenue, with storefronts so you
can see people," Jack Diamond said. "I think it's one of the key things that we
need to start doing for the Super Bowl. If we don't do it this way, we'll do it
artificially. We'll pitch tents all over the place and it'll be fine, but when
the Super Bowl is over it'll all be gone. With this, it'll be here for years to
come."
Mike Weinstein, head of the Super Bowl Host Committee, thinks Diamond's
right. But he only has a $1 million budget for entertainment, and he's not
planning to erect any new businesses unilaterally.
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ENTERTAINING AN
IDEA
Destination created from 'demilitarized zone'
West Palm: Mayor's vision
revitalizes downtown
Reversing the flow of negative perceptions
Plenty to
do, all within walking distance
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"The Super Bowl Host Committee would be readily available to help make things
happen if they were already ready to happen on their own," Weinstein said. "But
we wouldn't invest in something on our own if it wasn't going to happen
already."
In other words, the Host Committee will indeed carry out its plans to create
a temporary shantytown of entertainment along the river, but Weinstein is
willing to listen if entrepreneurs want his help creating an infrastructure of
arts and culture downtown.
"If we could, in any way, assist a more permanent entertainment district, we
would much rather do that," he said.
And that seems to be the party line for most city officials. With some
uniformity, they say help is available for entrepreneurs wishing to move a
business downtown, especially if their business helps create an entertainment
district that might stick around after the Super Bowl in 2005.
"We're all for it," said the DDA's Paul Krutko. "And we'll do everything we
can to support it, from permitting to advocacy of entrepreneurs to helping with
the financing."
Krutko noted that the investors behind Mossfire Grill, a Five Points eatery
that plans toa second restaurant in Hemming Plaza's old Underwood
building, will get heavy incentives if they proceed with construction.
On top of a traditional small business loan, the second Mossfire would
receive a $100,000 loan from the city because the business is acquiring the
property. The new property owners would also receive a 100 percent city and
county tax exemption for improvements to a historic building. What's more, they
would be eligible for a 20 percent Federal Tax Credit for renovations.
Like Weinstein, Krutko doesn't think it's the city's job to develop an
entertainment district. But also like Weinstein, he's willing to help if the
entrepreneurs place the first call. So far, both men's phones have been quiet --
with one notable exception.
Wanted: Visionaries
Colin Williams, executive director of Arts Triumphant Dance Conservatory,
recently arranged a meeting with Weinstein to discuss creating a prospective
arts and culture center in downtown.
Williams wants to move his 12,000-square-foot, non-profit dance studio from
Arlington to downtown, and surrounding his studio he wants galleries, theaters,
cafes and live music venues. He wants an arts and entertainment district.
"One of the reasons that you don't have people jumping in downtown is that
they aren't visionaries," Williams said. "They're not willing to see what
downtown will look like 10 years from now, and I'm willing to bank on it."
In the long run, Williams would like the city to help him find warehouse
space for his studio. For now, he needs help raising enough money to cover
moving fees.
But he also needs to find other entrepreneurs willing to join him downtown.
If he doesn't get a combination of jazz clubs, wine bars, arthouse movie
theatres or other entertainment establishments alongside his dance studio, he's
likely to become next in a history of lonely downtown tenants.
Creating initiatives
In a utopian free market, those neighboring businesses would all arise
through private entrepreneurship. But in Jacksonville's risky downtown, the city
might need to spur them along by doing here what Nancy Graham did in West Palm
Beach.
Following Graham's lead, Jacksonville's city officials would beautify the
streets and improve building facades so prospective businesses see downtown as
an attractive neighborhood. They would then reach out to other entrepreneurs,
such as local nightclub-owner Tim Hall, instead of waiting for them to make the
first call.
Even though Hall booked concerts during past Super Bowl festivities in San
Diego, no city official has contacted him about planning entertainment for the
Super Bowl, or about moving his two nightclubs (Jack Rabbits and Club 5)
downtown.
"They can say [an entertainment district] is crucial," he said, "but they're
not taking steps to activate it."
Without a downtown entertainment district, Hall thinks Jacksonville's Super
Bowl visitors will be exasperated to find that, for example, they can't even go
to a movie without trekking to the suburbs.
"Where are they going to go?" he said. "They're going to get lost . . .
They're going to crack up if it's dead downtown."
In West Palm, city officials offered entrepreneurs much-needed incentives to
bring their businesses downtown. If Jacksonville's local government did the same
for nightclubs or theaters as it's doing for Mossfire Grill, an entertainment
infrastructure might be in place by the Super Bowl in 2005. But it won't be
cheap.
Today, even with the major revitalization projects complete, the city of West
Palm Beach still spends $2 million a year on Clematis Street for such perennial
costs as police overtime, cleanup and event programming.
According to Weinstein, who is also the executive director of the
Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, don't expect to see that kind of
financial commitment here anytime soon.
"I think that the level of investment and continuing obligations that the
city of West Palm Beach allocates is much more substantial than we would be
looking to do for quite some time," Weinstein said. "We need to begin the
process and, if it flourishes and becomes as successful as it has become in
South Florida, then it would be appropriate for us to consider similar levels of
allocations."
Nevertheless, until the city is willing to spend heavily to help
entrepreneurs create an entertainment district's infrastructure, Jacksonville
might never foster the kind of side-by-side business environment that would help
places like Williams' dance studio succeed. After all, that environment hasn't
existed here independently in almost half a century.
"Most people and a lot of elected officials want to wait until they have all
the answers," Nancy Graham said. "Well, if you wait to have all the answers
you're never, ever going to do anything."
And so, despite an ever-loudening dialogue about creating a downtown
entertainment district in Jacksonville, all the major parties find themselves
playing the waiting game.
The architects are waiting for the developers, the developers are waiting for
the city officials, the city officials are waiting for the entrepreneurs and the
entrepreneurs are waiting for each other.
Williams remains undaunted.
"I believe that Jacksonville is on the verge of a cultural renaissance," he
said. "And whenever I say that in front of a group of investors they chuckle,
and I say 'No -- I'm going to keep saying this until it becomes a reality.' "
