The latest designs for the Jacksonville Veterans Community Center show a new two-story brick building with space inside for veterans and family members to meet, socialize, work out and get social services.
The center will be built on a downtown site near Hogans Creek so people also can engage in outdoors activities by renting kayaks and bicycles on a future segment of the Emerald Trail.
Mayor Donna Deegan and City Council members have supported the building.
“I know there are a lot of people who would like it to happen faster, but it’s being done,” Harrison Conyers, director of the city’s Military Affairs and Veterans Department, told the Veterans Council of Duval County at its May 19 meeting. “It’s being done right. It’s a place I think you can be proud of.”
Here’s what to know about the Jacksonville Veterans Community Center.
Where will veterans center be built?
The city owns property at 535 N. Washington St. in downtown that’s currently has a building on it. Conyers said the city set aside $250,000 to demolish that building and “give us a clean slate for a brand-new building from the ground up.”
When will center open?
The city doesn’t yet have a firm date but Conyers said he anticipates it will be in the 2028-29 time frame. The goal is to open the center around the same time the city extends the Emerald Trail network alongside Hogans Creek.
How will city pay for the center?
Conyers sad the city is “going after a Department of War grant” to help with funding is asking for roughly $4 million. He said the city would match those funds.
He said Capt. Mike Trumbull, commanding office at Naval Station Mayport, wrote a letter of support for the federal grant application.
What activities will be available?
The 10,000 square foot building will have a meeting space for up to 90 people, a gym, a boardroom-style space for up to 15 people to meet, offices where social service organizations can set up for people to get assistance such as help with filing income taxes, a meeting area with a balcony overlooking Hogans Creek, and a coffee bar to “just spend time and decompress.”
“To the best of my knowledge, no other community has a place that brings together meeting space, recreation space, physical wellness and mental wellness all in one spot,” Conyers said.
What hours will the veterans center have?
Conyers said the center will have staff on weekends and in evenings so it can be open based on needs of veterans, members of the military and their families.
The 40-space parking lot next to the building will be a secured facility and the building will have extensive lighting around it, he said.
Will the center be in a safe part of town?
Conyers fielded several questions about crime and people who are homeless.
He said downtown does not have a high crime rate and the fire department’s Providing Assistance to the Homeless program — PATH for short — works every day to help homeless people get services they need.
He said the area immediately around the site has been gaining private investment and has “totally made a turn” over the past 18 months.
“We are getting ahead of the curve so that we will be built about the time that neighborhood has been totally revitalized,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville shows new designs for its first veteran community center
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
