Populous joins NFL Jaguars owner to present a development plan for Jacksonville

Kansas City-based Populous is looking beyond the football stadium it designed in Jacksonville, Fla., to envision a vibrant public space that links the sports complex to Jacksonville’s downtown.

Populous senior architect Ben Stindt joined Shad Khan, owner of the NFL Jaguars, on Tuesday to unveil a 48-acre plan for largely vacant and unused property adjacent to Jacksonville’s riverfront.

The plan calls for a “walkable destination” with restaurants, retail, a hotel, residential units, offices, a marina and other public spaces. No cost projections were included in the presentation.

The proposed Shipyards development by Khan’s development entity, Iguana Investments, appears to indicate Khan’s interest in keeping the team in Jacksonville’s EverBank Field.

“I assure everyone in Jacksonville that my commitment to making this happen is unqualified,” Khan told civic leaders.

To become reality, it needs approval from the city’s Downtown Investment Authority and participation from additional developers.

“We’re still working on specifics,” said Ben Stindt, senior architect at Populous, who joined Khan and Jaguars team president Mark Lamping in a public presentation. “Since the 1980s, they’ve been trying to get something going on that property in Jacksonville and it’s never succeeded. But this feels very positive.”

Stindt compared the project to work that Populous did in Pittsburgh providing commercial and public space around Heinz Field, home to the Steelers.

“It’s a master plan that has transformed Pittsburgh’s North Shore area in an amazing way,” Stindt said. “That’s the vision for Jacksonville.”

The Jacksonville site is city-owned property. It includes abandoned docks on the riverfront and a partly finished and abandoned apartment project. The planners said due diligence needs to be conducted to determine the specific kinds of development that would succeed in the proposed mixed-use district.

Populous also worked on a recent redevelopment of EverBank Field to upgrade the stadium’s video boards and other fan amenities.

This story was originally published February 17, 2015 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Populous joins NFL Jaguars owner to present a development plan for Jacksonville."