JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Downtown Jacksonville’s effort to land the Culinary Institute of America was supposed to be moving quickly. But city leaders say they’re still waiting for the school to publicly say what it decided.
That uncertainty came into sharper focus during a Downtown special committee meeting on Tuesday, where council members pressed for answers on what came out of the Culinary Institute’s recent board meeting and whether Jacksonville is any closer to landing the campus.
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During the meeting, Downtown Investment Authority CEO Colin Tarbert told council members the Culinary Institute has not made any public announcement and appears to be coordinating a joint rollout with local partners.
“They met. I think they want to wait and do it in partnership with the folks here,” Tarbert said. “I believe they are working with the local parties here to do more of a formal announcement.”
City Councilmember Joe Carlucci pushed back in real time, noting he expected something more concrete.
“OK, I thought that was supposed to happen at their board meeting in June,” Carlucci said. “That’s really unfortunate because we passed an ordinance for that meeting. If they are listening, it feels like we did that for nothing.”
Tarbert responded that the board did meet and the discussion took place, but said the school appears to be waiting to roll out its decision publicly with partners.
“Well, that’s fine, we will take that off line, but I don’t like that,” Carlucci said during the exchange.
News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee and photojournalist Jesse Hanson caught up with Carlucci after the meeting and asked him about the frustration over the lack of clarity.
“Well, I get it, I could probably find out what their board voted, but hey, I am willing to give them time to unroll how they want to unroll it, and I can respect that, and I can understand that,” Carlucci said. “I won’t steal their thunder, I’ll wait to see what that thunder is.”
The discussion comes weeks after the City Council voted 16-2 to approve an emergency ordinance endorsing up to $35 million in public incentives tied to a proposed Downtown riverfront project aimed at bringing the Culinary Institute of America to Jacksonville.
The vote was timed around the Culinary Institute’s June 15–16 board meeting, where leaders were expected to decide whether Jacksonville would become its Southeast campus.
The proposal is tied to a $160.5 million hotel and convention hall project at 330 E. Bay St., where Corner Lot Development Group and Aspect Holdings plan to include the Culinary Institute as an anchor tenant.
Last month, before the vote, officials stressed the ordinance does not immediately authorize spending.
“You’re not — this legislation [is not] authorizing any funds to be expended at this respective point in time,” said Aundra Wallace, president of JAXUSA. “You still have to go through the Downtown Investment Authority’s disposition process, term sheet negotiation, as well as a redevelopment agreement that has to come back to you for final vote.”
The Culinary Institute of America is one of the nation’s top culinary schools, training chefs and hospitality leaders, and Jacksonville is trying to land a Southeast campus on the downtown riverfront right here on this plot of land on Bay Street.
Leaders say it would go beyond classrooms, boosting tourism, supporting hotels and conventions, and helping build a local hospitality workforce.
News4JAX has reached out multiple times to the Culinary Institute of America for comment on the status of its decision, and has not received a response.