City ‘awaiting affirmation' from Landing management before deciding on permits

The window is closing for the Landing in downtown Jacksonville to legally host events for the Georgia-Florida game this weekend.

The city hasn't issued a permit for this weekend’s events amid a legal battle between Jacksonville Landing Investments, or Sleiman Enterprises, and the city of Jacksonville.

The city says it’s up to the landing to meet their demands before a permit is issued. The Georgia-Florida game is a now less than a week away. The Landing is anticipating thousand showing up for weekend events.

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“It’s a very festive venue and it’s a lot of fun! And you know, pretty safe for the college kids that come in town,” said Gary Motes, UF football.

If approved, The Landing, would be the largest event since the mass shooting in August. The city and Sleiman Enterprises are presently in a legal battle. The permits to legally host events for Georgia-Florida at the Landing are now at stake.

“It would definitely hurt it because I mean even back in the 80s, those particular vendors in here, they look forward to that weekend to pay their bills for a few months.”

Right now the city is considering whether to provide the permit and overlook the 90-day submission period violation they say Sleiman committed. Today Action News Jax obtained a letter sent by the city to Sleiman Enterprises detailing their concerns and demands for the Landing’s operators.

The city’s concerns center around are capacity, entering and leaving the Landing and intoxication of attendees. They’re demanding Sleiman pay for additional JFRD personnel, cap attendance at 75,000 at any given time, and have no more than five separate bars of a certain size on the exterior commons serving alcohol.

Mayor Lenny Curry’s chief of staff, Brian Hughes, tells us in a statement:

“As of this hour the permit and waiver for the Ga/FL events hosted by JLI are still pending. After consultations with City Public Safety professionals, JLI was informed of the City's terms for the permit. We are awaiting affirmation of the terms by them. We are committed to ensuring the safety of event attendees.” – Brian Hughes, Chief of Staff

Sleiman Enterprises tells me they never had to file for permits prior to this year.

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