Issue No. 5 — A $30 million rescue vote, the Skyway's last three weeks, and a courthouse block comes back

The Lead

The money that was supposed to build 17 projects is back on the table.

In May, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority told its board it faced a $17.5 million shortfall in fiscal 2027 and approved a $139.2 million budget to absorb it. (JDR) By September the number had more than doubled.

On Thursday, September 17, interim CEO Cleveland Ferguson III laid out what closing a $39 million gap looks like: layoffs of up to 44 administrative staff and roughly 150 operations personnel out of 846 employees — more than a fifth of the agency. The Skyway suspends service Monday, November 2, saving $10 million. NAVI, the downtown autonomous shuttle, stops January 1 when its software license expires, saving $5.84 million. Also on November 2, most bus routes drop to Saturday-level frequency on weekdays. Paratransit is unchanged. Ferguson said the Skyway pause is temporary, and that it "will not trigger any financial clawback" of the roughly $90 million in federal grants that built it. (Jacksonville Today)

Here is why a development brief leads with a transit agency. JTA holds the purse for a long list of things this city has promised to build — and that purse is now open. Council President Nick Howland has convened a select committee with a forensic audit to run and the authority to examine whether the gas tax itself should be restructured. At stake: $494.84 million in local option gas tax proceeds earmarked for 17 Mobility Works 2.0 projects. None of those projects has been cancelled. All of them are now arguing for their lives. (JDR)

From City Hall

The $30 million patch — and tomorrow's vote. On Wednesday, September 23, the JTA board approved redirecting $30 million in already-appropriated local option gas tax money to pay down debt, retiring a $25 million line of credit and the interest riding on it. Terms: zero interest, repayable by September 30, 2037. (JDR)

Last week the city side moved. Four Council committees voted unanimously to recommend Ordinance 2026-0780, which releases the money. The full Council votes tomorrow, Tuesday, October 13 — and a unanimous committee recommendation is a strong signal, not a result. (First Coast News)

The select committee's report is due Friday, December 4 — that's the document that will decide which of the 17 Mobility Works projects survive the audit. Council member Ron Salem convened his own briefing with JTA staff on Thursday, September 24.

One note of precision, because the calendar invites a bad conclusion: JTA's shortfall and downtown's incentive requests sit in front of the same Council this fall, but they draw on different money. The gas tax is restricted transportation revenue; completion grants come from city operating funds. Nothing in the record links the two.

Getting There

The Emerald Trail becomes the first battleground. If $494 million is in play, the trail is the largest thing standing in it. On Friday, September 18, Howland named segments 4, 6, 7 and 8 as "potential cost savings opportunities": "What we need, Jake, is an Emerald Trail, not a trail lined with emeralds." Mayor Donna Deegan said the trail "must be protected." Groundwork Jacksonville CEO Kay Ehas made the returns argument: "We know that trail systems throughout the country have created huge economic returns on investment." (Action News Jax)

Context the debate needs: the trail is already short. Its $147 million federal grant — the largest one-time federal award in city history, covering roughly a quarter of the 30-mile project — was rescinded in the spending package signed July 4, 2025. Gas tax money is what's left. (JDR) Nothing has been cut yet. This is the discussion phase.

And the number that frames it. JTA put the cost of rebuilding the Skyway at between $151.95 million and $565.44 million across six options, the priciest a modern streetcar. A city agreement had committed $247 million toward replacing the system. Ferguson's words on that money: "everything is on the table." (News4Jax) Three weeks from now the trains stop, and no one can yet say what replaces them.

Downtown & the Riverfront

A 100-year-old building gets its second life. On Thursday, October 8, the Downtown Development Review Board voted 8–0 for final approval of the adaptive reuse of 318 N. Broad St. — a vacant two-story, 6,300-square-foot building more than a century old, immediately west of the Duval County Courthouse. Plans: mercantile and coworking on the first floor, more coworking plus residential above. Owner is New LaVilla LLC, managed by Valecia Dunbar of Jacksonville. Small project, right kind of news — this is the block-by-block work that makes the big towers make sense. (JDR)

The fine print in the tower's 8–0. We reported the Downtown Investment Authority's unanimous endorsement of $59.4 million for the Riverfront Plaza tower. Worth adding what came with it: the deal requires more than half of the tower's 51 condos to be presold within 21 months of final approval. Board member Scott Wohlers called the $1,400-per-square-foot asking price "very optimistic"; Carrie Bailey noted only 7 of 26 units at the comparable Four Seasons had presold. Wohlers voted yes anyway: "We can always find a reason why it won't work, but we have to decide as a board if we want to take this risk together." (JDR)

And the hotel whose help got harder. At that same September 16 meeting, the DIA acted on Gateway Jax's Hotel Merrydelle — the 109-key Marriott Tribute Portfolio hotel replacing the shuttered Ambassador at 420 N. Julia Street. In May the board backed up to $10.1 million in mostly forgivable historic-renovation loans. What it endorsed in September is different: a $15 million development loan, repayable in full over 20 years at 1% interest. The restructure came at City Council's request, part of a push away from forgivable loans. More money on paper, less of it a gift. (Jacksonville Today)

Worth Watching

Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 13 — the full Council votes on Ordinance 2026-0780, the $30 million gas-tax loan to JTA.

Monday, November 2 — the Skyway stops, and most bus routes move to Saturday frequency.

Friday, December 4 — the select committee's report on the JTA is due. That document will shape which of the 17 Mobility Works projects survive.

Still unfiled: the Hard Rock Hotel's formal conceptual-design application. The 30-story proposal for 500 E. Bay Street got a workshop on October 1 and was not on the DDRB's October 8 agenda. Developers are targeting a first-quarter 2027 groundbreaking, which means the application has to land soon. (JDR)

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Moving Jacksonville Forward is an independent publication from bizooma. Sources: Jacksonville Daily Record, Jacksonville Today, First Coast News, Action News Jax, News4Jax, and public City of Jacksonville records.