Daily Record Financial News &
THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 099 • oNe SectioN
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Finalists share top priorities for DVI New director likely picked in couple of days
Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Music Director Courtney Lewis, center, helped create new experiences for the upcoming season.
New leaders, new feel
Symphony debuting several ways to build audiences
By Marilyn Young Editor
An hour-long Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra concert right after work, followed by drinks on stage with the musicians. Thursdays in Jacoby Symphony Hall have never looked this like before. It’s one of several programs created by the symphony’s new leaders to connect the musicians to a broader audience for the 2015-16 season. The “Symphony in 60” series is patterned after something music director Courtney Lewis said worked well when he was with the Minnesota symphony.
The concert’s 6 p.m. start time keeps people in town after work instead of going to their homes in the suburbs and not coming back. Drinks are allowed in the hall during the concert, certainly a no-no during traditional concerts. There also will be live video taken of what’s happening on stage and projected on screens so people can get a good view of what Lewis and the musicians are doing. When the show ends, a bar is wheeled out on the stage and audience members can join the musicians to have a few drinks and get to know each other. Symphony in 60 dates are Nov. 12, SYMPHONY... CONTINUED
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Symphony President Robert Massey
Special to the Daily Record
By Max Marbut Staff Writer No matter which candidate is selected as Downtown Vision Inc.’s next executive director, continuing to make the urban core clean and safe and raising more money will be the main priorities. That’s based on final interviews of four applicants conducted Wednesday by board members, joined by Downtown Investment Authority chair Oliver Barakat and CEO Aundra Wallace. Jake Gordon, executive director of the Business Improvement District in Camden, N.J., said a clean and safe environment is the foundation of all urban improvement programs. “Dirty and dangerous just don’t work,” he said. Working closely with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to educate business and property owners about ways to reduce nuisance crime would be on the agenda for Jason Dennison, president of Downtown Sioux Falls, the South Dakota city’s Business Improvement District. He said he also would support publicizing the crime statistics as a way to demonstrate that Downtown is a safe place to visit. Sunny Gettinger, a former Google department manager, said the Downtown Ambassadors are doing a good job, but she would analyze the program’s scheduling and possibly revise the hours for the team of maintenance and hospitality workers. The ambassador program accounts for about 50 percent of Downtown Vision’s annual budget of about $1 million. An evaluation of the program also would be on Abel Harding’s list of what to do. Harding, board chair of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, said he would “study the role” the Ambassadors play. He also addressed First Wednesday Art Walk, which has become Downtown Vision’s signature event over the past 14 years. DVI... CONTINUED
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By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer
A new riverfront community in Northeast Florida? Nice. One in the heart of the wellestablished neighborhood of Mandarin? Nearly impossible, but true. Skinner Bros. Realty Co. last year quietly scooped up several contiguous estate lots on the St. Johns River that it has now sold to national homebuilder elacora for a 21-home “boutique” subdivision. The sale price was $3,455,900 for the 8.78-acre parcel, according to a deed filed last week with the county. Skinner Bros. will stay on
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as the project’s developer. The project, the Bluffs on Plummers Cove, is in Mandarin on Scott Mill Road about 300 feet north of the Interstate 295 overpass. “When you drive through it — seeing the huge live oaks, the magnolias and the 20-foot bluff — it’s hard not to get excited about a property like that,” said Chet Skinner, who put the deal together with his brother, Riley Skinner. The Skinners picked up the first two parcels last summer, but they were long and narrow, each 100 feet wide, and they were not contiguous. It would take a third river-
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front lot and half of a fourth to make the property large enough for a new subdivision roadway bounded by lots. By winter they had them, sealing the development’s future. Skinner said it was engineer Eric Almond who transformed the former estate lots into a community. “You can see the potential of what would go in there,” Skinner said. “But, until you start laying it out, you’re kind of keeping your fingers crossed.” The development will preserve as many of the property’s hardwoods as possible, which include live oaks, magnolias, tupelos and BLUFFS... CONTINUED ON PAGE A-3
Special to the Daily Record
Skinners, elacora cinch riverfront subdivision deal
Skinner Bros. Realty Co. quietly put together a deal last year to pick up several riverfront estate lots in Mandarin. From left are Chet Skinner, Riley Skinner and A.C. “Chip” Skinner.
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