The Duval DOGE committee spent Tuesday afternoon wading through downtown crime stats and shelter capacity reports while EverBank weighs relocating its headquarters off the Northbank. The meeting highlighted a familiar tug-of-war: business leaders pushing for a busier, safer commercial core, and city officials trying to balance enforcement with services that get people off the street.
EverBank has asked the city for roughly $10 million in tax incentives to blunt higher operating costs and keep its headquarters downtown, according to the Jax Daily Record. Bank representatives told council members the annual cost gap for operating downtown runs into the millions, and the proposal surfaced during a special committee meeting in February.
Local television coverage first floated the possibility that the city might offer roughly $9.8 million over ten years to persuade EverBank to stay, a package sources described as part of ongoing talks about security and parking costs. As first reported by Action News Jax, negotiators worry that losing another marquee employer could knock downtown’s sputtering revitalization off course.
Committee Review Shows Mixed Progress
Committee members walked through numbers that offered cautious optimism with plenty of caveats. Property crimes in the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office downtown district are down nearly 12 percent year-over-year, the Homeward Bound program has reunited about 260 people with family since last October, and officials said about 650 arrests have been made since the city began enforcing its public sleeping and camping ban, according to Action News Jax…