The Downtown Investment Authority wants the National Park Service to consider trading Metropolitan Park for the city-owned Shipyards property.
WJCT News partner the Jacksonville Daily Record reports the DIA’s inquiry comes as its CEO Lori Boyer said Iguana Investments Florida LLC, led by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, plans to submit a new development proposal for the parkland. The DIA also is seeking to integrate public park space with private development on the Downtown riverfront.
The DIA board gave Boyer permission during a Sept. 9 committee meeting to ask the federal agency if the Shipyards would satisfy the requirements of a 1981 grant agreement that prohibits the city from selling the 24.7-acre Metropolitan Park without a comparable replacement.
Khan’s proposal to develop the Shipyards property near TIAA Bank Field expired in August.
Iguana’s possible plans to focus on Metropolitan Park were raised Sept. 9 as the DIA committee heard from a nonprofit group advocating for an expansive public park network on the Downtown riverfront.
“I have been in conversations with Iguana regarding proposed development plans that they may be submitting in the very near future for the Metropolitan Park site. Even a piece of the adjacent Shipyards is included that,” Boyer said.
Read the rest of this story at JaxDailyRecord.com.
