JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville city councilman wants to know who stands to benefit financially from a proposed land swap deal between the city and Gateway Jax.
The deal would swap a two-story office building in LaVilla for a plot of land in Riverfront Plaza.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
The LaVilla office building would be donated to the University of Florida so classes at its new grad school could begin this summer.
Meanwhile, Gateway Jax is promising to develop the land in Riverfront Plaza.
Related: $1M permit approved for splash pad at Jacksonville’s Riverfront Plaza
“I haven’t had as much pressure from the administration and others, it reminds me of my days going through the JEA scandal, where the pressure and the phone calls are just excessive. And it makes you wonder why everyone’s pushing this thing so hard,” said Council Finance Chair Ron Salem (R-Group 2 At-Large).
Salem wants to know who stands to profit from the exchange, which he believes is based on questionable appraisals that don’t factor in how the new park being built next to the riverfront property could impact its value.
Related: Duval DOGE mulls roughly $100 million in capital projects
He asked Gateway Jax to provide a list of its investors last week, but he’s received no response.
“I’d like to know how many of those are Jacksonville citizens just concerned about the process and how many of them may be investors that have an agenda to call,” said Salem.
Similarly, when we asked Gateway Jax whether it plans to reveal its investors, we didn’t hear back.
Salem is pushing competing legislation that proposes spending up to $8 million to purchase the LaVilla office space outright.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
In a statement, the mayor’s office criticized Salem’s approach, suggesting it would unnecessarily spend millions of dollars from the city’s reserves.
“Beyond that, the proposed Gateway Jax development will deliver the Riverfront Plaza vision and design that is supported by public input, the DIA, City Council, and administration. It also puts this property onto the tax rolls and provides recurring funding for park maintenance and programming,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office wrote.
On whether the properties are equal in value, the mayor’s office said, “We trust the experts that commissioned professional appraisals over Monday morning quarterbacking.”
Read: ‘A tremendous reduction’: NE FL unsheltered homeless population fell 49 percent since last year
But Salem argued with Gateway Jax asking for $20 million in incentives to develop the riverfront property, at the very least, the city should look at what other options might be available.
“There may be somebody else that could develop it for a lot less money and we’ll never know unless we put out and RFP,” said Salem.
But the mayor’s office argued there have already been plenty of opportunities for other builders to submit proposals.
“We just went through a 30-day disposition process where anyone could bid and no one responded,” said a spokesperson for the mayor’s office in a statement. “No developer has provided a workable, realistic proposal for the parcel before Gateway Jax stepped in either.”
Both the land swap and the purchase bill will move through the legislative process over the coming weeks.
Salem said he expects a final decision to be made on which path the city will take by the end of May.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
