The "economy" really isn't much of an excuse for Brown's lack of Downtown development. Having worked in St. Johns County in the early portion of Brown's tenure, I can say that we were absolutely slammed with commercial, industrial, and residential projects back then. I'm sure Simms and others can share experiences of how much growth other cities were going through back in 11 and 12. Lake, I know you follow Miami a lot. It would be interesting to see just how much got built in Miami around that period.
In my opinion, a big factor in Brown's failure downtown is how long it took to get the DIA up and running. It took over 2 years to even get the DIA operational and hire an CEO. Wallace didn't start until September 2013, and he was not a big league hire. The city then did not get the Downtown CRA process done until early 2015. In that period, the city missed out on all kinds of opportunities to stimulate development. Fortunately, the stuff in Brooklyn got off the ground, but I believe the only public assistance those projects got were through REV Grants, which were in place prior to Brown.
The projects that actually do need some city assistance are still on standby. That will be what Brown will be remembered for Downtown....
It will be interesting to see what Curry does with the DIA.