Mayor Donna Deegan has gone all-in on downtown development since she took office in July 2023.
How has downtown changed since then?
Downtown Vision’s latest State of Downtown report offers a mixed bag of findings.
Downtown’s residential population grew by adding about 1,500 residents, but downtown shed an even bigger number of office workers. While fewer people are going downtown to work, it’s become a more popular place to go for everything else.
Deegan, who regularly highlights the importance of downtown at town hall meetings and speaking engagements, said in a letter attached to the report by Downtown Vision that construction cranes show visible progress.
“Downtown Jacksonville is no longer defined by plans alone,” Deegan said. “It is being shaped in real time by steady investment, growing residential density, and a shared commitment to creating a more livable and connected urban core.”
Downtown gets big jump in people living in it
The 3.9 square mile area of downtown is home to 9,228 people, a 20% increase from the 7,695 residents in 2023 when Downtown Vision issued a State of Downtown report soon after Deegan took office.
The latest report released April 29 calls 2025 a “banner year” for residential development with Artea on the Southbank, One Riverside in Brooklyn, Union Terminal Warehouse on the border of downtown and the Eastside neighborhood, Lofts at Cathedral in the Cathedral Hill district and Johnson Commons in LaVilla.
The planning, design, financing and construction of those projects spanned the mayoral administrations of Lenny Curry and Deegan.
Pearl Square by Gateway Jax, the Related residential tower planned for the Southbank and the RISE Doro apartments in the sports complex are among the residential projects that will add more residents when they’re done.
Over the past decade, the number of people living in downtown has more than doubled, going from about 4,200 in 2016 up to 9,228 in 2025.
Empty office space still a drag on downtown
The number of people working downtown meanwhile has dropped and downtown’s occupancy rate for office space remains worse than in the suburbs.
Downtown had 53,600 workers in the 2023 report and that went down to 46,833 in 2025, a decline of nearly 13%.
To put it another way: downtown gained about 1,500 residents but lost about 6,700 workers since 2023.
Downtown Vision CEO Jake Gordon said downtowns across the country have faced a loss of office workers. He said given a choice between adding residents or workers, “you’ll always want people living there because your neighborhood is much more active and people are there all the time.”
“Obviously, we would rather have residents go way up and keep the office workers, but we still feel like we’re on a really good trajectory, and office is not down as much as maybe some people feared during COVID,” he said.
The shrinkage of downtown employment has been taking place for yeas. Over the past decade, the number of downtown workers has slid from 59,100 in the State of Downtown report for 2016-17, a drop of 20% since then.
The vacancy rate in 2025 was 27.4%, roughly the same as it was in 2023 and far worse than downtown’s best year in 2019 when the vacancy rate was 14%.
More people heading downtown for visits of all kinds
Gordon said the shift in office workers away from downtown has been offset by people being in downtown for all kinds of activities.
An average of nearly 54,000 people a day were in downtown during 2025 compared to around 49,500 in 2023, an increase of about 8%.
Deegan has touted riverfront parks as a destination for bringing people downtown. The city opened the first phase of Riverfront Plaza on the Northbank, the RiversEdge Park on the Southbank and the playground at St. Johns River Park in 2025. St. Johns River Park is next to the renovated Friendship Fountain.
Keeping people coming in 2026 could be challenging. The Jaguars will play to a reduced seating capacity because of stadium renovations and the Florida-Georgia game will be taking a two-year break from playing the annual game in Jacksonville.
The Museum of Science and History closed its Southbank building last September while it works toward building a new MOSH across the river near the sports complex. The Jacksonville fair had its last run in downtown in 2025 before moving to new fairgrounds on the Westside.
(This story was updated to add a photo)
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Downtown gains residents, loses office workers, picks up visitors
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
