The Downtown Investment Authority wants to secure designs for a minimum 4.5-acre public park at the former Jacksonville Landing site before putting the remaining property on the market for development.
The DIA filed a draft request for proposals to the city Procurement Division for review that solicits designs for park space at the site’s St. Johns riverfront area and Laura Street corridor, according to CEO Lori Boyer.
At the DIA board’s Nov. 18 meeting, Boyer outlined plans to create three design teams to generate options for the vacant city-owned green space at 2 Independent Drive W.
In an interview Nov. 11, Boyer said the DIA is prioritizing public space at what the city now is calling “Riverfront Plaza.”
“I don’t want to put those (development parcels) into the marketplace until we have some preliminary design done on the public space,” she said. “I don’t want it to just be a lawn of a private space.”
Boyer said each design team would include a landscape architect, artist, urban designer or architect and be given a stipend to complete a proposal.
Their work products would be evaluated. “There would be public input and that would be the opportunity to decide which one we would want to build,” Boyer said at the Nov. 18 meeting.
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