MONDAY October 19, 2020
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
DEVELOPMENT
Jacksonville JACKSONVILLE unemployment rate falls to 5.1%
Daily Record
MOSH Shipyards move may hinge on Metropolitan Park land swap
BY MARK BASCH CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Daily Record Daily Record
The Downtown Investment Authority awaits a National Park Service decision on the fate of the properties.
The Museum of Science & History’s plans announced Oct. 15 to relocate and build a new facility at the vacant Shipyards property could hinge on the future of the adjacent Metropolitan Park. The city-owned Shipyards is not immediately available for MOSH – or anyone – to develop, Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer said Oct. 15. MOSH said its plan to build at the Shipyards Boyer will replace its effort to renovate at 1025 Museum Circle on the Downtown Southbank. The Shipyards and Metropolitan Park are across the St. Johns River on the Downtown Northbank. The DIA is waiting for the National Park Service to decide if the city can swap Metropolitan Park for Shipyards property to satisfy the requirements of a 1981 grant agreement that prohibits selling the 24.7-acre park without a comparable replacement. The 45.28-acre Shipyards is west of Metropolitan Park and east of the unfinished Berkman Plaza II. The DIA engaged the federal agency after a Sept. 9 committee
JACKSONVILLE MUSEUM WANTS TO MOVE The Museum of Science & History announced Oct. 15 it plans to build a museum at the Shipyards property along the St. Johns River in Downtown Jacksonville. The plans would replace MOSH’s effort to renovate its facility at 1025 Museum Circle on the Downtown Southbank.
JACKSONVILLE
BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
Payrolls shrink but so did the number of workers.
meeting, anticipating Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan would submit a new development proposal focused on Metropolitan Park. The National Park Service decision will impact the DIA board’s policy on future Shipyards development and MOSH’s plans to build on the Downtown Northbank. “From my board’s perspective, (the Shipyards) had always been viewed as development land where we were looking for a return on investment,” Boyer said. “We were looking for active, taxpaying uses. It wasn’t going to be parkland or other uses that didn’t provide any return on investment.” SEE MOSH, PAGE 2
FUTURE HOME? Jacksonville Jaguars owners Shad Khan, who is developing an area near TIAA Bank Field, said moving MOSH to the confluence of Hogans Creek and the St. Johns River “would be a spectacular addition to Downtown Jacksonville.” A development map of the area that was shown to the City Council in July shows parkland at that site.
Jacksonville’s unemployment rate fell in September, but the local labor market has a long way to go to return to prepandemic levels. The jobless rate in the Jacksonville metropolitan area of Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties fell from 5.7% in August to 5.1% in September, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity reported Oct. 16. While Northeast Florida reported slight gains in jobs last month, the number of employees on business payrolls was 26,500 lower than in September 2019, a 3.7% decline. The Department of Economic Opportunity’s survey of households found 773,777 people in the labor force in the Jacksonville area last month, down from 797,492 in September 2019. People are counted in the labor force if they are employed or actively looking for jobs, so discouraged workers who have stopped looking or are waiting to be recalled from long layoffs are not counted. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate was 2.9% in September 2019. Duval County’s unemployment rate fell from 6.3% in August to 5.7% in September. The other four counties in the metro area were between 4.1% and 4.4%. The business payroll data shows the biggest job losses in the Jacksonville area continue to be in the leisure and hospitality sector, which declined by 12,800 from September 2019 through September 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to close. The sector lost 1,000 jobs between August and September. Retail trade lost 6,900 jobs in the 12 months through September. Florida’s unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to a seasonally adjusted 7.6% in September, the Department of Economic Opportunity said.
MBASCH@JAXDAILYRECORD.COM
Robinson named chief innovation officer JAX Chamber on Oct. 14 named Carlton Robinson chief innovation officer and leader of the Venture Services Division. Robinson was vice president of entrepreneurial growth. A news release said as the chamber continues to offer new programming and assistance for employees and businesses of all sizes, the shift to Venture Services better describes the work being done. “This is the next step as we continue to build an innovation ecosystem in Jacksonville,” Robinson said in the release. Robinson also founded and launched the chamber’s JAX Bridges program.
VOLUME 107, NO. 236 • ONE SECTION