JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council is expected to discuss a proposal during Tuesday night\u2019s regular meeting to create a Downtown Entertainment District, a move that could allow bars and restaurants in a defined area to serve alcohol until 3 a.m., one hour later than the current citywide cutoff.<\/p>\n
The proposal comes as downtown Jacksonville continues to evolve with new development, including plans for a future stadium and ongoing efforts to draw more businesses and residents to the city\u2019s core.<\/p>\n
For long-time resident and local business owner Jay Higbee, the push to expand downtown has been a decades-long process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been trying for my lifetime to make downtown the core of Jacksonville,\u201d Higbee said. \u201cI would say in the last 10 years they made some progress, and I see more progress made not just with the stadium area but in this area as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higbee, who owns Foland & Higbee Inc., said he\u2019s noticed more nightlife and local businesses moving into the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a pool hall restaurant two doors down that was featured on Dive Bars. There is just a lot more here than what it used to be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Still, Higbee said downtown\u2019s growth has not yet reached its potential, noting that many buildings remain empty and the area needs more foot traffic. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need more foot traffic than what we have now. A lot of the buildings are empty and it\u2019s not the fault of the building \u2014 it\u2019s the fault that nobody opening a business to generate people coming in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That is one reason Higbee supports the proposed entertainment district. He said extending alcohol service hours could help create a more predictable and controlled late-night environment.<\/p>\n
According to the ordinance introduced by City Councilmember Raul Arias, the Downtown Entertainment District would combine the areas of the NorthCore\/Church, Central Core, and Sports and Entertainment Districts \u201cto promote the vitality of the downtown, ensure its dominance as the City\u2019s entertainment center, and discourage the spread of blighted areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal would affect about 63 businesses across the three zones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe council can make all of the laws they want, stating when people can stop entertaining themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cBut for the most part, people are going to hang out as long as they want to, so it will probably be a good thing to have some form of control over when entertainment districts can be open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Higbee described the area\u2019s transformation as dramatic, pointing to changes he\u2019s witnessed since childhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really is amazing. When I grew up here, JTB didn\u2019t exist, Racetrack Road was a dirt road, so seeing the change where there used to be trees and now development has been quite a journey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He compared downtown\u2019s future to a \u201cbuild it, and they will come\u201d scenario, saying the entertainment district could help attract more businesses and residents. <\/p>\n
Also on the council\u2019s agenda Tuesday are confirmations of appointments to the Five Points Dependent Special District Board of Supervisors, which was created last year to oversee enhanced services in the Five Points area, including security, landscaping, and promotion. That board\u2019s<\/a> vacancies are being filled so it can begin work and adopt a budget.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville City Council is expected to discuss a proposal during Tuesday night\u2019s regular meeting to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16930,832,2318,5073,104,116,118,117,2159,5436,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-153378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-businesses","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-downtown","11":"tag-downtown-development","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","15":"tag-jacksonville-news","16":"tag-money","17":"tag-morning-show","18":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}