Even with a pandemic, several key metrics are trending positively for growth in downtown Jacksonville, according to Downtown Vision's 2020-2021 State of Downtown Report, which was released Monday.
The report shows the number of visitors, new retail establishments and hotel occupancy are at or above pre-pandemic levels.
"Despite the challenging last few years, investors are targeting Downtown Jacksonville more than ever before,” said Jake Gordon, CEO of Downtown Vision. “Catalyzed by our elected officials at the City of Jacksonville, the Downtown Investment Authority and a supportive business climate, investment and development in Downtown are surging. As we continue to recover, Downtown is poised for even more success, making Jacksonville an even better city and supporting our whole region. A better Downtown helps all of Jacksonville.”
Notably, the number of downtown residents has grown 40% in the last five years to almost 7,000. This is a metric that many city and business leaders say is one of the most important for supporting continued revitalization downtown.
Occupancy for multifamily is up to 97.5%, the report said. Experts have said that strong performance is one of the factors that has multifamily developers eagerly searching for sites on which to build additional projects.
Visitors are also returning to the urban core, with downtown hotels hitting 72% occupancy, the same rate as in January 2020.
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