Downtown Publix developer says project can’t move forward without city after 3-3 committee split

The developer behind Downtown’s planned Publix says the project can’t move forward without the city’s help.

That warning comes a day after a City Council committee split 3-3 on nearly $50 million in incentives for the project, a 15-story tower with a Publix in a grocery store-sparse corridor of Downtown.

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“This project cannot move forward without that partnership,” Gateway Jax said in a statement.

The vote in the Finance Committee was a dead split. Chair Will Lahnen, Rory Diamond and Mike Gay voted no.

“I have been a no on this for a long time,” Lahnen said.

Michael Boylan, Rahman Johnson and Randy White voted yes, but even supporters feel the strain.

“I get it. I mean, as a shared frustration as to why Jacksonville, you know, needs to necessarily provide so many incentives,” one speaker said.

The ask is nearly $50 million: $21.41 million in tax rebates plus a $28.25 million completion grant.

The timing couldn’t be tougher. Amendment 3 just passed, and it’s estimated to cut city property tax revenue by $300 million in 2028.

“Need to stop their kickbacks right away. We need to start giving them cash. Oh, that’s right. It needs to go. Every single dollar that people want to give to developers downtown needs to stop,” another speaker said.

Gateway Jax’s pitch is that the city needs the project’s future tax money as much as the project needs the city’s funding now. The developer projects $330 million to $500 million in new commercial property tax revenue.

“Who would have thought we would have potentially 1,200 residential units coming to a part of town that 10 years ago, if I had said that, people would have said I was crazy,” one speaker said.

The Publix is now part of a bigger question: what the city should fund and what it can still afford.

Council President Nick Howland says he’ll decide by tomorrow whether to pull the bill out of committee and send it straight to the full Council on Nov. 10.

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