This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition – Improving downtown one step at a time

JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Downtown Jacksonville is a key element of growth in the city. Jake Gordon is one of the leaders in the effort to improve and promote downtown for living, working, and playing, and he is our guest on This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition.

Broadly speaking, Downtown Vision, Inc. (DVI) is a non-profit that works with property owners in a three-mile area to “make downtown better.”

“I moved to Jacksonville about ten years ago and downtown really wasn’t really in the same conversation as it is now,” Gordon said. “It’s really unbelievable to think about how much change there truly has been in downtown, positive change over the last ten years. But just like every city, we’re never satisfied and we always want more and more. And so there are a lot of things to fix in downtown… The work is never done continuing to look at it and to try to add what’s best.”

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Gordon said downtown Jacksonville has improved in the past decade, in addition to adding to the residential population. Frustration comes from playing the comparison game.

“The reality is, are we keeping pace with other cities like Nashville or other cities like Charlotte that have been really investing in their downtown?” Gordon said. “And I think that’s where Jacksonville if you live here, you love it. But, you know, it’s also very unique. And so actually finding that comparison of a city that’s exactly like Jacksonville is challenging.”

Gordon has been CEO at DVI since 2015. In this episode, he expanded on ways to give feedback on what people want to see downtown. He also shared conclusions from the most recent “State of Downtown” report, and how much money has gone into projects in the past two years.