For decades, Jacksonville leaders have talked about rebuilding downtown. Under former Mayor Lenny Curry, the city increasingly backed that ambition with public money—tax rebates, infrastructure, historic-preservation loans, completion grants, land and public-private development agreements.

Mayor Donna Deegan inherited much of that redevelopment machinery when she took office in July 2023. She didn't dismantle it. If anything, Jacksonville appears to have stepped harder on the accelerator.

Less than three-and-a-half years into the Deegan administration, the city has approved, authorized or advanced several enormous downtown commitments—including $98.58 million for the first phase of Gateway Jax, $58.79 million for a Southbank residential tower, up to $105 million plus city property for the University of Florida graduate campus, and as much as $35 million associated with bringing the Culinary Institute of America downtown.

And more projects remain in the pipeline. That raises a question deserving more scrutiny:

Is Jacksonville committing public resources to downtown development under Mayor Deegan at a pace approaching what the city committed during all eight years of Mayor Lenny Curry?

The answer depends heavily on what we count.

First, Let's Define the Comparison

There is no city spreadsheet conveniently labeled “Downtown Incentives by Mayor.”

Projects cross administrations. Agreements are amended years later. REV grants can extend 15 or 20 years. Completion grants may be approved today but paid years later. Some incentives involve loans or land, while others involve public infrastructure constructed partly to support private development.

And some major downtown commitments—most notably the University of Florida graduate campus—are public or institutional investments rather than subsidies to private developers.

So comparing Curry and Deegan requires two lenses: private-development incentives and the broader category of public commitments being used to accelerate downtown development.

Those aren't the same thing. But both tell us something about Jacksonville's priorities.

The Curry Years: Building the Incentive Machine

Lenny Curry served eight years as mayor, from July 2015 through June 2023. During that period, Jacksonville dramatically expanded its use of incentives to stimulate downtown development.

Some of today's most recognizable projects emerged from those agreements.

RiversEdge

In 2018, Jacksonville approved a development agreement for what was then called The District on the Southbank. The package included approximately $26 million in city infrastructure investment and a REV grant originally valued at as much as $56 million.

As the project evolved into RiversEdge, the agreement changed. By May 2023, DIA calculated that the project's 75% REV grant could return approximately $97.98 million in incremental property taxes over 20 years. It became one of Jacksonville's largest examples of using future tax revenue and public infrastructure to stimulate major private development.

Four Seasons and the Shipyards

Then came Shad Khan's Four Seasons development. Jacksonville City Council approved a revised incentive and public-investment package of approximately $129.75 million in 2023.

The agreement supported the Four Seasons hotel and residences, office development, marina and related infrastructure near the stadium.

One Riverside

In 2021, Council approved approximately $31.59 million for redevelopment of the former Florida Times-Union property in Brooklyn.

The package included about $28.42 million in REV grants, restaurant assistance, fee credits and other city participation. Today, One Riverside includes apartments and the Whole Foods Market that opened in 2026.

FIS Headquarters

Jacksonville also approved a roughly $29.9 million city-and-state incentive package for the FIS headquarters project.

That included approximately $23.4 million in city REV incentives, a $3.5 million city closing grant and Qualified Target Industry incentives involving both city and state participation.

Not every dollar came from Jacksonville, but the agreement illustrates the range of tools being employed.

Laura Street Trio

The Curry administration repeatedly attempted to rescue the long-stalled Laura Street Trio.

In 2021, Council approved an approximately $26.67 million package involving forgivable and deferred loans. The project failed to proceed, meaning the city did not simply hand the developer $26.67 million.

That distinction matters. Government can authorize an incentive without ultimately paying it.

The Trio is a good example of why this series compares commitments carefully rather than simply claiming money was “spent.”

And More

The Curry years also included the $5.75 million Rise Doro REV grant and millions more associated with projects such as the Independent Life Building, Central National Bank, the Ambassador Hotel and other adaptive-reuse developments.

In other words, Curry's downtown strategy was hardly timid.

Jacksonville was already betting heavily on downtown redevelopment before Donna Deegan entered City Hall.

Curry Tried to Go Even Further

Perhaps the clearest demonstration was Lot J.

Curry negotiated a proposed $233 million public incentive package for Shad Khan's planned $450 million mixed-use development near the stadium.

The deal ultimately failed to win City Council approval.

It therefore shouldn't be included when comparing approved commitments. But historically it matters because it demonstrates how aggressively the Curry administration was willing to use public participation to stimulate downtown development.

The difference was that Council stopped that particular deal.

Then Came Deegan

Donna Deegan took office July 1, 2023, inheriting a downtown already undergoing transformation.

Four Seasons was moving forward. RiversEdge was underway. One Riverside was progressing. The stadium district was attracting investment. And DIA had spent years developing incentive programs specifically intended to close financing gaps.

The original theory was straightforward: Downtown Jacksonville wasn't producing enough private investment on its own. Government assistance was necessary to get the market moving.

But something interesting happened after the market began moving.

The incentives didn't disappear.

Several became substantially larger.

Gateway Jax: $98.58 Million

One of the defining projects of the Deegan years is Gateway Jax's Pearl Square development.

In August 2024, City Council approved $98.58 million in incentives for Gateway's first four projects, including approximately $59.63 million in REV grants and $38.95 million in completion grants.

Gateway plans billions of dollars of eventual development across a large portion of Downtown's North Core.

There is little question that the project could fundamentally change downtown Jacksonville.

There is equally little question that taxpayers are participating substantially in making its first phase financially possible.

And Gateway isn't finished requesting assistance.

Southbank Residences: Another $58.79 Million

Also in 2024, The Related Group advanced a new residential high-rise on the former River City Brewing Company property.

The public incentive package: $58.79 million.

Combine Southbank Residences with Gateway's first four projects and Jacksonville was already dealing with approximately: $157.37 million

in two major private-development incentive packages during the early Deegan years.

And those are only two projects.

Then Jacksonville Made an Even Bigger Downtown Bet

Jacksonville subsequently committed extraordinary resources toward establishing a University of Florida graduate campus downtown.

The city's commitment includes up to $105 million in funding, plus city-owned property valued at more than $28 million.

That puts the city's potential contribution at well over: $130 million.

But here's where the accounting requires discipline.

UF isn't a private developer receiving a traditional DIA incentive.

The graduate campus is a public-institutional investment intended to create an educational and economic anchor downtown.

Calling the entire UF commitment a “developer subsidy” would therefore be misleading.

But excluding it from a broader examination of Jacksonville's public financial commitment to downtown development would also leave out an enormous part of the story.

And Now Comes the Culinary Institute

In 2026, Jacksonville moved forward with a package worth up to $35 million associated with bringing the Culinary Institute of America to downtown Jacksonville.

The school is intended to become an anchor for Corner Lot and Aspect Real Estate Group's larger redevelopment of the Bay Street property.

As discussed in Part 2, this isn't simply a $35 million check handed to a developer. The agreement contains different components, conditions and payment schedules.

But Jacksonville has clearly demonstrated its willingness to put substantial public resources behind the project.

And the Culinary Institute represents only one component of a larger development.

Look at the Scale

Consider just four major Deegan-era downtown actions:

Gateway Jax first phase — $98.58 million

Southbank Residences — $58.79 million

UF graduate campus — up to $105 million plus more than $28 million in city property

Culinary Institute of America — up to $35 million

Together, those commitments and authorizations approach: $326 million.

But that number needs a large asterisk.

It isn't $326 million already spent.

And it isn't $326 million in private-developer subsidies.

UF is fundamentally different. The Culinary Institute has its own structure. REV grants depend upon future property-tax growth. Completion grants require developers to meet contractual requirements.

Still, as a measure of the scale of Jacksonville's public commitment to accelerating downtown development during the Deegan years, the number is difficult to ignore.

Has Deegan Already Matched Curry?

Not quite—and precision matters here.

Our review of major Curry-era agreements identifies hundreds of millions of dollars in downtown commitments across eight years.

RiversEdge, Four Seasons, One Riverside, FIS, the Trio, Doro and numerous smaller agreements establish that Curry presided over an enormous public-private redevelopment program.

An apples-to-apples comparison also requires avoiding several traps.

We shouldn't count Lot J because Council rejected it. We shouldn't count the same Trio incentive twice because it was renegotiated. We shouldn't add an original RiversEdge REV estimate to an amended version of the same agreement. And we shouldn't describe UF as a private-development incentive.

Once those distinctions are made, the argument becomes narrower—but stronger:

That is remarkable enough without exaggerating it.

Private-Developer Incentives Tell a Different Story

Remove UF and the comparison changes.

Gateway's first phase and Southbank Residences alone represent approximately $157.37 million in major Deegan-era private-development incentives.

Add other approved downtown incentives and the number rises.

Meanwhile, Curry's eight-year record includes RiversEdge, Four Seasons, One Riverside, FIS, the Trio and numerous smaller agreements.

On a strict private-development-incentive basis, Deegan has not yet matched Curry's eight-year total.

But she also hasn't served eight years.

That's where the comparison becomes interesting.

Compare the Pace, Not Just the Total

If two administrations ultimately commit similar amounts, but one accumulates that commitment over eight years while another approaches it in three or four, something has changed.

Why has the pace accelerated?

There are legitimate explanations.

Construction costs increased dramatically. Interest rates rose. Downtown projects can carry extraordinary infrastructure and site-preparation costs. Jacksonville is pursuing larger developments and institutional anchors. And Deegan inherited an established DIA incentive system specifically designed to close financing gaps. But there is another possibility worth examining:

Jacksonville may simply have become more comfortable subsidizing downtown development.

Wasn't the Goal to Jump-Start the Market?

This leads to an uncomfortable contradiction.

Public incentives are easiest to justify when private investment is absent. Government steps in because the market won't.

But Jacksonville's downtown market is no longer devoid of investment.

Gateway is building.

Four Seasons is rising.

One Riverside has delivered apartments and Whole Foods.

RiversEdge is developing.

New hotels are planned.

The stadium renovation is coming.

DIA describes billions of dollars in development underway or in the pipeline.

If downtown is finally attracting the private investment Jacksonville spent decades trying to create, taxpayers can reasonably ask:

Should the subsidy rate be going up—or down?

City Council Is Beginning to Ask

That debate has reached City Hall.

Council members have increasingly questioned large cash completion grants.

The most visible current example is Gateway Jax's Publix-anchored project. DIA advanced an incentive package approaching $50 million, including a $28.25 million completion grant and more than $21 million in REV incentives.

Resistance to the cash component has forced further negotiations.

That is significant because the debate is no longer simply:

Should Jacksonville invest in downtown?

There appears to be broad agreement that it should.

The emerging question is:

What kind of public investment should Jacksonville still be making now that downtown development has momentum?

Cash Is Becoming the Flash Point

REV grants are comparatively easy to explain.

If a development doesn't happen, the new tax revenue doesn't exist. If it does happen, Jacksonville returns a portion of the incremental property taxes generated by the project while retaining the rest.

Completion grants are different.

Those are cash commitments.

And Council members are increasingly confronting how many of those obligations could eventually come due.

That could mark an important transition in Jacksonville's downtown policy.

Curry Built the Framework. Deegan Is Testing Its Limits.

It would be inaccurate to portray downtown incentives as a Donna Deegan invention.

They aren't.

Curry aggressively pursued downtown redevelopment. His administration negotiated Lot J, backed the Shipyards and Four Seasons, supported RiversEdge, approved One Riverside, supported FIS and repeatedly attempted to save the Laura Street Trio.

Many cranes visible today trace directly back to decisions made during Curry's administration.

But Deegan inherited that strategy at a very different moment.

Curry was frequently trying to convince developers that Downtown Jacksonville was worth the risk.

Deegan governs a downtown where developers are increasingly proposing billions of dollars in projects.

That changes the policy question.

Jacksonville isn't simply trying to create a downtown market anymore.

It may increasingly be subsidizing a market that is finally beginning to exist.

And the Meter Is Still Running

This comparison is only a snapshot.

Gateway's Publix package remains unresolved.

Hotel Merrydelle could add another $10.1 million.

The Baptist Health Southbank hotel has advanced with roughly $20.9 million in incentives.

The Culinary Institute agreement continues moving toward implementation.

Additional development surrounding that Bay Street property could produce further negotiations.

And other developers continue bringing projects to DIA.

Earlier this year, DIA warned City Council that ten known projects could potentially generate $145.62 million to $224.72 million in completion-grant requests, while emphasizing that not all would ultimately receive them.

So this isn't merely a historical comparison between two mayors.

The meter is still running.

Three Years Versus Eight May Ultimately Be the Wrong Question

The important question isn't whether Donna Deegan eventually “beats” Lenny Curry's incentive total.

This isn't a competition between administrations.

The important question is what the trajectory tells us.

Jacksonville spent years using taxpayer participation to create momentum downtown.

That momentum now appears real.

Yet the size and frequency of major public commitments have not obviously diminished. In several instances, they have become larger.

That brings Jacksonville to an important crossroads.

If taxpayers were asked to subsidize development when downtown was struggling because private capital wouldn't come without assistance, what happens when private capital begins arriving in force?

Does the public contribution shrink?

Does Jacksonville demand a greater private share?

Does the city move away from cash completion grants toward REV grants tied to actual tax-base growth?

Or does every subsidized project establish a precedent for the next developer to argue that it deserves similar treatment?

Those questions will help determine whether today's redevelopment strategy ultimately produces a self-sustaining downtown market—or one that remains dependent on increasingly large public participation.

And there is another question we haven't addressed yet.

While downtown developers negotiate over tens of millions of dollars in grants, tax rebates and infrastructure assistance, what development tools are available to businesses and neighborhoods elsewhere in Jacksonville?

Because the incentive pipeline isn't slowing down.

Jacksonville Development Divide: Part V

Jacksonville’s Development Divide: Part 4

Jacksonville’s Development Divide — Part 3

Jacksonville’s Development Divide — Part 2

Jacksonville’s Development Divide — Part 1