Affordable housing, park redevelopment, Eastside all benefit from draft stadium deal

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Newly released documents reveal what exactly will benefit from a community agreement portion of the Jaguars stadium deal.

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The community benefits agreement includes $150 million from the Jags, which the city will match.

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“Part of that goes towards the idea of the Jaguars being what I would call good civic partners,” Kristi Sweeney, the chair of the University of North Florida’s sport management department, said. “That’s one of the things Jacksonville lacks in a sense, is a thriving downtown, and this stadium becomes a very important piece of that redevelopment.”

The newly released draft agreement includes allocations as to where the money will be spent. It includes $125 million for workforce development, affordable housing, and mitigation of homelessness countywide.

RELATED: Draft contracts reveal new details of proposed $1.7B stadium renovation

$105 million would go towards Eastside redevelopment, including affordable housing.

“To increase the property value while still letting people live in their existing communities and to attract younger people to a downtown area that can then thrive.”

$56 million would go towards parks, including funds for the Shipyards West project, redevelopment of Riverfront Park and Metro Park.

“What you typically see is investment in the stadium district,” Sweeney explained. She said agreements like this are common in most recent stadium deals like in Nashville and Buffalo.

RELATED: UNF poll: Voters support stadium deal, but don’t want to ‘foot the bill’

Lastly, $14 million would be evenly split between each council district for parks.

The $150 million from the city has received some pushback from council members.

A city representative said this is just a draft agreement and could still change.

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