So what transpired?
Like Marcus, I couldn't make it to the in-person meeting, so I attended via the DIA's Zoom link.
The Zoom started with 160 people watching the presentation.
Less than 10 minutes in, the audio died, nobody bothered to fix it, and about 60% of the audience that was engaged enough to register and attend via Zoom got frustrated and ultimately dropped.
I did stick around and watch the slide presentation though.
There wasn't much context without audio, and the slides themselves contained no hard numbers or timelines.
Absolutely no private development was covered during the presentation (unless it was spoken to), only parks.
Parks covered included:
1)
Artist's Walk. They showed the same renders that have been floating around for about a year (
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/local/renderings-released-for-new-skate-park/77-039b72e6-574f-46a6-a331-3f28813efdde). Unless it was voiced over, no estimated completion date was mentioned.
2)
Music Heritage Park (Times-Union Center)Same render shown that's been floating around in one form or another for at least two years (
https://downtownjacksonville.org/poi/performing-arts-center-music-commons/). Still in planning stages. No timeline for completion, only that it's in the same "planning stages" that it's seemingly been in since 2018.
3)
Riverfront Plaza (Landing Park)Nearly identical to the latest render that I posted on here a few weeks ago that had the children's play area shifted north. Probably the most notable thing to me from the entire presentation tonight was that the Civic Building doesn't seem to have been removed from the park after all, but rather, based on the newest design, it looks like the destination kids play space is on top of the Civic Building. So, essentially, the two areas of the park have been combined into one to free up more lawn space. The new set of renders doesn't look quite as bad as I feared from a value engineering perspective, but I do question how they build what's proposed for only $25 million.
4)
Shipyards WestHard to grasp the vision without audio, but they showed some very early, conceptual designs, including stuff like a restaurant, food hall, kayak launch, sanded beach, etc. I liked the direction, but same as above, I can't imagine you can build what was proposed for $20 million. I'm also glad that even though the Orleck will be a feature at the Western end of the park, we don't appear to be centering the entire park around a risky bet that the Orleck is still there in 10 years.
5)
Met ParkTotally ignored, unless I somehow missed it. It was on the agenda, but not in the presentation. Also no mention of the Flex Field at Daily's Place, which will be turned over to the city as park space as early as August.
6)
Rivers Edge/District Park.
High concept, sprawling, multi-part park renders were shown, encompassing a Northeastern portion, a Central Park, and a marshfront park surrounding a billion dollar mega-development that hasn't come out of the ground since 2018. This one in particular looked like a $40 million project with a $10 million budget in the incentives deal that the DIA passed. No timeline or cost noted.
7)
Friendship Park.Same fountain renders we've been seeing forever, but nothing new that I could see on what the actual St. Johns Park portion would look like.
Then the Zoom abruptly ended with no warning.
Curious to see which private developers are there, and if there is any follow-up talk on timelines or costs.
Optimist in me says that there's a lot of potential along the river if these plans come to fruition. Pessimist in me says we've been seeing a lot of these same park renders for years without anything actually opening, and it kind of felt like the DIA looking for an opportunity to dog, pony, and buy some additional goodwill while all the private development on the river stalls.
