{"id":252583,"date":"2026-04-30T15:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252583\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T15:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T15:41:07","slug":"this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-riverfront-key-in-2-5b-downtown-developments-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252583\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Jacksonville &#8211; Business Edition: Riverfront key in $2.5B downtown developments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Kent Justice talks with Colin Tarbert, the new CEO of Jacksonville\u2019s Downtown Investment Authority, about what DIA actually does and what\u2019s driving the current wave of downtown activity. Tarbert explains DIA\u2019s role as downtown\u2019s community redevelopment agency &#8211; collecting tax increment financing from the Northbank and Southbank and reinvesting it to spur economic growth &#8211; while also serving as the city\u2019s economic development arm focused on downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">PREVIOUS EPISODE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/this-week-in-jacksonville\/2026\/04\/23\/this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-whats-there-to-know-about-b2b-tech-companies-ai-advancements\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/this-week-in-jacksonville\/2026\/04\/23\/this-week-in-jacksonville-business-edition-whats-there-to-know-about-b2b-tech-companies-ai-advancements\/\">What\u2019s there to know about B2B tech companies, AI advancements<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">They dig into how DIA evaluates projects (often through design review within the existing zoning code), the master planning process and how new anchors like the University of Florida graduate campus are reshaping priorities, and the \u201cscorecard\u201d Tarbert watches &#8211; especially downtown\u2019s growing residential population. Tarbert says Jacksonville has $2.5 billion under construction downtown, including the future Jaguars stadium and more than $1 billion in additional private development across neighborhoods from LaVilla to Brooklyn and the Southbank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">A central theme is the riverfront: Tarbert argues parks and public space are changing downtown from a 9-to-5 district into a place people come to recreate, with major investments in riverfront parks and the Riverwalk aimed at \u201cstitching\u201d together far-flung destinations. He also addresses the role of incentives as \u201cproof of concept\u201d for first-in-a-generation apartment projects, DIA\u2019s push for a balanced housing mix (affordable\/workforce\/market\/luxury), and practical issues like parking pricing, wayfinding, and \u201cparking anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Kent Justice talks with Colin Tarbert, the new CEO of Jacksonville\u2019s Downtown Investment Authority, about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7364,116,118,117,7363],"class_list":["post-252583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-business-edition","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-this-week-in-jacksonville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252583","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=252583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}