{"id":283515,"date":"2026-05-25T10:45:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T10:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/283515\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T10:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T10:45:37","slug":"jacksonville-shows-new-designs-for-its-first-veteran-community-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/283515\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville shows new designs for its first veteran community center"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest designs for the Jacksonville Veterans Community Center<\/a> show a new two-story brick building with space inside for veterans and family members to meet, socialize, work out and get social services.<\/p>\n

The center, which has been in the works for more than two years, will be built on a downtown site near Hogans Creek so people also can engage in outdoors activities by renting kayaks and bicycles on a future segment of the Emerald Trail.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I know there are a lot of people who would like it to happen faster, but it’s being done,” Harrison Conyers, director of the city’s Military Affairs and Veterans Department<\/a>, told the Veterans Council of Duval County at its May 19 meeting. “It’s being done right. It’s a place I think you can be proud of.”<\/p>\n

Mayor Donna Deegan and City Council members have supported the building.<\/p>\n

Here’s what to know about the Jacksonville Veterans Community Center.<\/p>\n

Where will veterans center be built?<\/p>\n

The city owns property at 535 N. Washington St. in downtown that’s currently has a building on it. Conyers said the city set aside $250,000 to demolish that building and “give us a clean slate for a brand-new building from the ground up.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An inside view of the stairway in the planned two-story Jacksonville Veterans Community Center is shown in their rendering of what the city of Jacksonville plans to build.<\/p>\n

When will center open?<\/p>\n

The city doesn’t yet have a firm date but Conyers said he anticipates it will be in the 2028-29 time frame. The goal is to open the center around the same time the city extends the Emerald Trail network alongside Hogans Creek.<\/p>\n

How will city pay for the center?<\/p>\n

Conyers sad the city is “going after a Department of War grant” to help with funding is asking for roughly $4 million. He said the city would match those funds.<\/p>\n

He said Capt. Mike Trumbull<\/a>, commanding office at Naval Station Mayport, wrote a letter of support for the federal grant application.<\/p>\n

What activities will be available?<\/p>\n

The 10,000 square foot building will have a meeting space for up to 90 people, a gym, a boardroom-style space for up to 15 people to meet, offices where social service organizations can set up for people to get assistance such as help with filing income taxes, a meeting area with a balcony overlooking Hogans Creek, and a coffee bar to “just spend time and decompress.”<\/p>\n

“To the best of my knowledge, no other community has a place that brings together meeting space, recreation space, physical wellness and mental wellness all in one spot,” Conyers said.<\/p>\n

\"Renderings<\/p>\n

Renderings portray the rooms inside the planned two-story Jacksonville Veterans Community Center the city will build for veterans and their family members.<\/p>\n

What hours will the veterans center have?<\/p>\n

Conyers said the center will have staff on weekends and in evenings so it can be open based on needs of veterans, members of the military and their families.<\/p>\n

The 40-space parking lot next to the building will be a secured facility and the building will have extensive lighting around it, he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A rendering shows the planned Jacksonville Veterans Community Center where it faces the parking lot that will be built next to it. The two-story center will provide meeting space and recreation activities for veterans and their families.<\/p>\n

Will the center be in a safe part of town?<\/p>\n

Conyers fielded several questions about crime and people who are homeless.<\/p>\n

He said downtown does not have a high crime rate and the fire department’s Providing Assistance to the Homeless program \u2014 PATH for short \u2014 works every day to help homeless people get services they need.<\/p>\n

He said the area immediately around the site has been gaining private investment and has “totally made a turn” over the past 18 months.<\/p>\n

“We are getting ahead of the curve so that we will be built about the time that neighborhood has been totally revitalized,” he said.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville unveils community veteran center designs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest designs for the Jacksonville Veterans Community Center show a new two-story brick building with space inside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[97662,8513,120488,116,118,117,120491,120490,120489],"class_list":["post-283515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-brick-building","tag-family-members","tag-harrison-conyers","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-meeting-space","tag-military-affairs-and-veterans-department","tag-veterans-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283515","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=283515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}