LOCAL

City board considers new convention center for Jacksonville's downtown

David Bauerlein
The old county courthouse along with the nearby City Hall Annex building could be offered by the city as sites for construction of a new convention center complex with a hotel, exhibition space, and parking garage. This file photo shows the view of those building from the parking deck that was built over water. The city is demolishing the parking deck. (Bob Mack/The Florida Times-Union)

After years of study, the city appears poised to test the waters for whether a private investor wants to build a new convention center complex downtown that would include a hotel, large-scale exhibition space and parking garage on the site of the old county courthouse and City Hall Annex next to the Hyatt Regency.

The Downtown Investment Authority board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on issuing a request for proposals.

Tourism officials have said for years that the Prime Osborn Convention Center in the LaVilla neighborhood is too small, hamstringing the city’s ability to compete for convention business. But questions have swirled about whether Jacksonville can compete with other cities at a level that would justify the steep cost of building a new convention center.

DIA commissioned a study by Strategic Advisory Group to examine feasibility for building a new convention center. The study’s bottom-line recommendation is that potential demand for a convention center isn’t high enough to warrant construction.

“While the research has indicated that currently the potential demand does not warrant the construction of a Convention Center, SAG recommends that a plan is developed to improve the current Jacksonville experience and take the necessary steps to keep the vision of evolving into a competitive meetings destination as a top priority,” the feasibility report says.

The report says “feedback that was received in interviews and surveys demonstrated a moderate to low level of interest” in using Jacksonville for conventions.

The report said those views “became much more favorable when shown renderings of future enhancements to the downtown area” so the city should take steps to plan for a new convention center in tandem with ongoing developments.

The DIA would issue requests for a hotel with at least 350 rooms. The convention center space would be large enough to contain a 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 40,000-square-foot ballroom and at least 45 meeting rooms. The development would provide at least 400 parking spaces for the hotel and another 1,300 parking spaces for the convention center.

The DIA shows the project could be built on the site of the former county courthouse and City Hall Annex, which no longer are needed because the city built a new county courthouse elsewhere in downtown.

The property available for the development also could include the area that used to have a surface parking deck for the old county courthouse. The city is demolishing that parking area, which was built on piers over the water where the St. Johns River flows past the property.

The staff memo explaining the request for proposals does not outline any particular incentives the city would offer to private groups, but says the city “is open to receiving various financial arrangements.”