A rendering shows the $160 million hotel, convention center and office project proposed by Corner Lot and investment partner Aspect Holdings LLC on the Northbank of Downtown Jacksonville. | Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on May 20, 2026 at 5:31 pm
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The Jacksonville City Council could soon endorse a plan to provide $35 million in public incentives to lure the Culinary Institute of America to a new Downtown riverfront development.
The council’s Finance Committee voted 7-1 on Tuesday to advance Ordinance 2026-0419.
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The bill signals lawmakers’ support for investing in plans to bring a Culinary Institute campus Downtown. Corner Lot Development Group and Aspect Holdings LLC want to sign the school as an anchor tenant for 25,000 square feet of office space in its $160.5 million hotel and convention hall proposal at 330 E. Bay St. on the Downtown riverfront.
The committee’s approval sends the bill to the full City Council next week for a final vote.
Supporters, including the JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development arm of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, and players in the city’s food and hospitality scene say a Culinary Institute campus would bring more than just prestige.
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“My biggest need right now is quality workforce in general, quality workers and chefs. This would be a game changer,” Jon Insetta, an executive chef and Jacksonville restauranter, told the committee.
Council members heard from five local chefs Tuesday who said it’s difficult to find highly trained restaurant staff when there’s a perception that the hospitality industry is a temporary job on the way to more permanent employment.
They hope landing the Culinary Institute — whose alumni include chefs like the late-Anthony Bourdain and Roy Choi — could help shift that viewpoint.
“A lot of talent leaves this city to go elsewhere in our industry. And this would allow them to stay here, get an education where and, hopefully, reinvest in the community that they grew up in and care so much about,” Insetta said.
Funding the Culinary Institute
If council approves the legislation May 26, it would be an endorsement of a future incentives package, but it would not appropriate any money. Any final deal would still need to return to city lawmakers and Mayor Donna Deegan for final approvals.
The legislation filed by council President Kevin Carrico is to gauge council members’ appetite to appropriate city dollars. A preliminary term sheet attached to the ordinance would provide the project $4 million in funding in the 2026-27 city budget year; $6.25 million per year the following two years; $16.5 million over the next two years; and the final $2 million in the sixth year of the deal.
Council member Will Lahnen said Tuesday that $27 million of the cash incentives would likely come from a $30 million set-aside last year in Ordinance 2025-0385 for private development incentives for several Bay Street riverfront properties that included 330 E. Bay St.
The other $8 million would be paid from the city’s $40 million commitment to countywide improvement projects in the Community Benefits Agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars that’s linked to the the EverBank Stadium renovation deal.
“We’re heard from a lot of cooks but not a lot of accounts,” Lahnen said. “So I think we need to have a serious discussion on it, if this gets approved, how we pay for it.”
Lahnen says he wants council to determine the funding source for the incentives before the bill is approved. He’s been a leading voice on council against unfunded cash completion grants that have been approved by lawmakers for past Downtown development projects.
Council member Rory Diamond was the only no vote Tuesday.
JAXUSA President Aundra Wallace said Corner Lot and its partners had been working on attracting the Culinary Institute to Jacksonville for 18 months. City leaders say the organization has not made a final decision on the location that will become its Southeastern U.S. regional campus.
But they hope a willingness to approve incentives will give it the final sway. The Culinary Institute of America has its main campus in Hyde Park, New York. It also has sataline campuses in Napa, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Singapore. It offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a range of food-related studies.
Wallace told council member Ju’Coby Pittman that Corner lot has been speaking with Florida State College at Jacksonville and Duval County school district officials about potential career partnerships that could be created with the institute, should it select Jacksonville.
“This is an all-tent conversation,” Wallace said. “We do recognize and do not take lightly the amount of ask in terms of the financial support. So that means everybody citywide — this is not just about Downtown, even though this is where the project may very well reside.
“This is about making sure the culinary industry of Jacksonville has the prepared talent that they need to work in a small business restaurant, as well as a large established restaurant.”
330 E. Bay St.
The city has been trying to find a developer to build something on the former Duval County Courthouse and Jacksonville City Hall site on Bay Street for years.
The city’s Downtown Investment Authority started negotiations in April with Corner Lot after the agency selected its project proposal submitted in a notice of disposition on the site.
In addition the 54,397 square feet of office space, the Jacksonville-based developer plans show a 14-story tower with a hotel and a 600-capacity convention hall on the 0.8-acre site. Council member Joe Carlucci says the developer could also seek state and federal funding sources.
After the government buildings were demolished in 2019, the DIA tried to market the property as The Ford on Bay. A plan for a $150 million high-rise called The Hardwick fizzled in 2024.
Carrico said he began his professional life in hospitality. According to a March 2008 report by the Savannah Morning News, he was once the director of food and beverage for the Dataw Island Club.
He says a school like the Culinary Institute could give people a “sustainable life” and “a path to independence.”
“There was a point in my life when I was 22 or 23 years old where I had worked hard enough — and got to a place where I was earning a salary that I knew if I did nothing else with my life — I’ve gained the skills to be independent,” he said. “I could take care of a family, because I gained those skills in the hospitality industry.”
