Downtown Jacksonville Redevelopment

The Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) runs downtown Jacksonville redevelopment as a dependent special district of the consolidated City of Jacksonville, so its activity is reported inside the city's own financial statements rather than as a separate government (City of Jacksonville ACFR).

The DIA works through three community redevelopment areas, Northbank East, Northbank West and Southside, and its fiscal 2025 statutory reports score each program against a measure from the redevelopment plans (DIA Northbank CRA report; DIA Southside CRA report). The city's personnel schedule lists 48 classified DIA positions in 2024 against 5 in 2015 (ACFR).

The DIA also controls three downtown garages. Under a 2022 mediated settlement, the city, the DIA and Metropolitan Parking Solutions (MPS) gave the DIA operational control of the Courthouse, Sports Complex and Arena garages, which the city had loaned MPS funds to build and run under a 2004 agreement; the city pays MPS $150,000 a year in rent, and a forgivable loan of about $92 million is reduced in annual tranches starting at $2.5 million (ACFR). The DIA's Northbank report says the point of the settlement was to lower the Northbank debt burden and free tax increment money for incentives and capital projects (DIA).

In fiscal 2024 the city reports a new peak of more than 1,000 downtown Jacksonville residential units in active construction, and DIA oversight of 71 active downtown construction contracts representing more than $3 billion in private capital investment (City of Jacksonville ACFR).

The largest approvals that year were four incentive packages for a new mixed-use district spanning 5 city blocks on vacant downtown parcels, with a minimum private investment above $373 million, more than 1,000 multi-family units, 100,000 square feet of retail, a new public park and a curbless festival street; the packages carried nearly $60 million in REV grants and about $39 million in completion grants (ACFR). A separate $59 million incentive package for a Related Companies high-rise with more than 390 residential units, a 4,000 square foot riverfront restaurant, a parking garage and a ship's store was tied to $203 million of private investment.

Smaller programs moved too. The city counts $974,000 in incentive awards for 10 new food and beverage businesses that brought more than $11 million in private investment, a $600,000 loan behind 100 new affordable units and the completion of 57 affordable and 27 workforce units, and the first new opportunity for home ownership in a decade, with the completion and first closings of LaVilla townhome units (ACFR). The city's tax abatement disclosure lists $3,005,746 abated under DIA programs for the year ended September 30, 2024. These are the city's own highlight figures, and the ACFR states the investment amounts as minimum or induced private capital investment.

The DIA's own fiscal 2025 reports show downtown Jacksonville retail and historic building targets met, but office backfill and small-scale housing programs drew no applicants in either the Northbank or Southside redevelopment areas (DIA Northbank CRA report; DIA Southside CRA report).

Both downtown Jacksonville reports list the Commercial Revitalization Program as missed with no applicants, and the Southside small-scale housing target of 10 units a year is also listed as missed with no applicants (DIA Southside report). The Northbank report, by contrast, lists its residential REV grant target of two a year as met (DIA Northbank report). The Southside report also lists its residential REV grant target of two a year as missed with no applicants, and incentive payouts there as awarded but not paid (DIA Southside report).

For downtown Jacksonville, the DIA lists commercial programs such as the Commercial Revitalization Program, retail enhancement grants, a waterfront restaurant program, a sale-leaseback incentive and a targeted hotel REV grant, alongside residential, historic preservation, storefront facade, mobility fee and water quality credit programs (DIA incentives).

Some advantages apply to any downtown Jacksonville project without job targets: the DIA lists simplified zoning, no parking requirements, stormwater quality credits for purchase, development rights free of mobility fees, reduced mobility fee rates, National Historic District registration and eligibility for federal historic tax credits, plus Florida's lack of a state income tax (DIA). Applicants submit an application, a project pro forma and a project profile assessment for staff review, and questions go to the CRA Redevelopment Manager at (904) 255-5393.

The downtown Jacksonville office backfill program works through parking. Its guidelines put downtown parking at about $90 a month per space depending on location and offer a parking offset grant worth 50 percent of the average rate for a three-year lease, rising to 66 percent for a lease of 10 years or longer, for tenants that keep at least 2 employees per 1,000 square feet (DIA Commercial Revitalization Program guidelines). The guidelines carry no date, and the program had no applicants in fiscal 2025 (DIA).

The DIA reports the Riverfront Plaza development pad and east parking lot disposed of with a redevelopment plan in fiscal 2025, while the former Duval County Courthouse and City Hall Annex site was not disposed of (DIA Northbank CRA report).

The report says a courthouse site redevelopment should activate Bay Street and the future Liberty Basin marina.

The Northbank report lists the DIA helping fund the relocation of a JEA electrical duct bank that runs through Riverfront Plaza, to make way for the park and development pad B, as in progress (DIA). For the courthouse site, the report sets goals of active waterfront uses, public access to the river, parking concealed from street and river views and a pedestrian link connecting the Jacksonville Landing to Metropolitan Park, the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, EverBank Field and Veterans Memorial Arena. On the Northbank riverwalk, 1,050 linear feet of new and improved riverwalk were under construction with another 4,200 linear feet in design.

Across the river, the Southside report lists Broadcast Place Park, planned pickleball and tennis space under the I-95 Overland bridge linking the Emerald Trail to the Southbank Riverwalk, as partly done in fiscal 2025 with a design team chosen (DIA Southside CRA report). The Northbank report describes the Sports and Entertainment surface lots as surrounding the stadium (DIA); the Stadium of the Future renovation is covered in the Jacksonville sports guide.

The newest downtown Jacksonville results on this page are the DIA's fiscal 2025 statutory reports for the Northbank and Southside areas; the dollar figures for approvals, construction and abatements come from the city's fiscal 2024 report (City of Jacksonville ACFR).

The city report covers the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024. The DIA reports give a yes, no or partial result against each plan measure rather than dollar totals (DIA Northbank report). Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the DIA's Northbank and Southside fiscal 2025 reports, its incentives page and Commercial Revitalization Program guidelines, and the City of Jacksonville fiscal 2024 ACFR highlights, garage settlement note, abatement disclosure and personnel schedule.