‘Vendetta over vision’ led to the failure of the Lot J deal

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JACKSONVILLE, Florida – Hours after Jacksonville City Council voted against a proposed deal to build a large entertainment complex in the shadow of the Jaguars stadium, Mayor Lenny Curry said personal vendettas against him and his administration were to blame.

“You had a vendetta over vision last night,” Curry said Wednesday morning on 1010XL sports radio. “You had council members with me who voted no. You have one who told the organization as recently as yesterday that it was a yes and then he went no.

Curry appeared to be referring to his ongoing public beef with Councilor Garrett Dennis.

Dennis was one of three board members, including Joyce Morgan and Randy DeFoor, who voted last week to move the project out of committee and put it to a full board vote only to vote against the development on Tuesday night, surprising some.

Morgan told News4Jax that she was sorry the deal had not gone through.

Council members Danny Becton, Matt Carlucci, Al Ferraro and Council Chairman Tommy Hazouri also voted against the deal, which fell 12-7. A minimum of 13 votes was needed to approve the project.

“How are we going to go forward when people vote because they want to be mayor, or they want to run for office for the next 10 or 15 years, or they have personal vendettas against me,” Curry said. . “We’re going to have to figure out how to navigate it, otherwise this town isn’t going anywhere, downtown.”

Later, Curry spoke to reporters on Wednesday afternoon about his disappointment.

“Anyone who watched this meeting last night could see that it was pretty clear that there weren’t any prominent votes, and that’s a shame,” he said. “It’s a loss for Jacksonville. This is a loss for what would have been a downtown transformation project.

In an interview Wednesday on “The Morning Show,” Dennis put the failure of the deal squarely at Curry’s feet.

“I think there’s going to have to be an olive branch extended on both sides, but this deal fell through because of the mayor, no one else,” Dennis said. “I mean, he negotiated a bad deal and presented it to the board. So we had to act in the best interests of taxpayers. And so I don’t regret my vote, and I don’t think the other six who voted against this deal regret their vote.

Dennis said he supported the idea of developing Lot J, but said the deal was bad from the start – that it was covered up in secrecy, rushed and “screwed up” on taxpayers. He and other board members also drew comparisons between Lot J and JEA’s scuttled sales attempt.

“Council members said it was negotiated in secret. It’s a bunch of nonsense, ”Curry said. “The executive branch negotiates agreements and submits them to the City Council for debate. If you follow their logic that you have to negotiate deals in public, we will never bring another business or job expansion to our city. “

When asked if he was concerned the vote against the deal would lead Shad Khan and the Jaguars to leave town, Dennis said it was still on the table.

“What does that say about the Jaguars? Is a particular area or development their decisive factor in leaving the city? Dennis said. “But again, I don’t think this deal will be indicative of whether or not they leave.”

Jacksonville Jaguars President Mark Lamping said the team will now focus on negotiations regarding the development of the shipyards.

“We will go through the process for the shipyards that will go through [the Downtown Investment Authority] and then we’ll see how it goes, ”Lamping said Tuesday night.

This surprised Dennis.

“Sir. Lamping started talking about the shipyards when, you know, the big elephant in the room is the stadium,” Dennis said.[Lamping] officially said about a month ago that in 2023 they would be returning to the city to talk about renovating or (building a) new stadium before talking about extending their lease. So in my opinion, I think we need to take care of the stadium before dealing with the shipyards or any other development.

Curry used a sports analogy to say he wasn’t done.

“A real individual test and a real team test is what you do when things don’t go the way you want them to,” he says. “I told my team last night that I was incredibly proud of the job they did for the deal they put in place. They fought to get across the finish line, and that didn’t happen.

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