Jacksonville Beach is getting ready to put one of its most-watched pieces of real estate on the market, at least in concept. City officials said Tuesday they will launch a formal process to find a private partner to redevelop the city-owned parking lot directly south of Latham Plaza as a mixed-use project with new public parking and ground-floor commercial space to feed the downtown scene.
What the city announced
In a post on the City of Jacksonville Beach Facebook page, officials said they plan to issue a request for proposals to pursue a public-private partnership for the municipal lot. The city said the formal procurement will roll out "over the coming months" and will include public review and evaluation of bids before anything is approved.
The post also reminded everyone that the project falls under the city’s procurement cone of silence and directed all questions to [email protected]. Translation for social media regulars: do not expect answers in the comments section on that post, because the city says it will not respond there.
Background: past fights over height and development
The move drops the city right back into a development debate that residents know all too well. In May 2023, Jacksonville Beach voters overwhelmingly rejected a charter amendment that would have allowed a 55-foot building on the Latham Plaza lot, with roughly 82% voting "no," as reported by Action News Jax. That bruising public fight and the council hearings that followed will be the backdrop for whatever developers put on the table this time.
Procurement steps and how to follow
The city’s Property and Procurement Division will run the solicitation, posting the official RFP and submission instructions once the process is live. The city’s standard RFP templates list [email protected] as the point of contact and spell out how question deadlines, addenda and public openings are handled. You can see an example of that format in the procurement files published by the City of Jacksonville Beach.
According to the Facebook announcement, public review and evaluation of the proposals will be built into the process before any final decision by the city.
Why locals will watch
Latham Plaza and the neighboring Seawalk Pavilion are not just pretty green space. They are workhorses for the local calendar, hosting farmers markets, holiday installations and multi-day festivals that pack in weekend crowds. That means any change to the adjacent surface lot is not just a design tweak, it could affect how events are staged and how easily people can get in and out.
Local coverage over the years has repeatedly underscored the plaza’s role as an events hub, which helps explain why nearby businesses and residents are likely to scrutinize whatever mix of parking, shops and other uses developers pitch for the site.
Legal considerations
Any proposal that leans on a height exception or charter changes will run straight into legal and political headwinds. Voters made their feelings clear in 2023 when they rejected the 55-foot exception for this very property, as Action News Jax reported.
Developers responding to the RFP will also have to square their concepts with existing planning guidance. The city’s Downtown Vision plan has long flagged the south edge of Latham Plaza as a spot where a mixed-use project with parking folded into the design could be explored, and that planning context is laid out in detail in documents from the City of Jacksonville Beach.
