Nigelle Kohn is the executive director of Florida Avenue Main Street, a new nonprofit meant to connect residents, business owners and property owners on the Eastside with the wider Jacksonville community. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on December 23, 2024 at 4:07 pm
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A Jax Today Q&A with Florida Avenue Main Street’s Nigelle Kohn
The $115 million investment the Eastside is set to receive from the city of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Jaguars in the coming decades is a financial infusion in its infrastructure and people not seen in more than 50 years.
A new nonprofit, Florida Avenue Main Street, sprouted this fall with the aim of connecting the businesses along A. Philip Randolph Boulevard with the city as a whole.
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The organization is part of a network of nonprofits across America meant to encourage economic development in historic downtown neighborhoods while keeping the soul of the communities intact. In more than 40 years, Main Street America has touched nearly 1,200 communities through a network of affiliates who help individuals and small businesses with advocacy, professional development and promotion.
Florida Avenue Main Street’s inaugural Executive Director Nigelle Kohn is a Jacksonville native who grew up in Washington Estates on the Northside and graduated from Bishop Kenny High School before earning a degree at Chicago’s DePaul University. She worked for Ability Housing and LISC Jacksonville before taking over Florida Avenue Main Street this September.
Q: You are a Jacksonville native. How will your roots influence the work that you are able to do with Florida Avenue Main Street?
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A: The story that I get to tell is that my great-grandmother and my grandfather actually grew up in this community. My grandmother’s house was eminent domained for the Mathews Bridge construction. It was located at 1528 Hill Street. And, my grandfather’s house is now where A. Philip Randolph Park is.
So, growing up in Jacksonville and having those two things be a part of my history really impacts the work that I will be doing here. It also brings in that culture and history that matters in the work that we do in being sensitive to what the current residents hold dear. This neighborhood has generations of Eastside families that still live here. There are still generations of Eastside families – while they may not live here – still live in the city and still consider this place home. Having that history, having that connection to the community, I think, makes me want this community, especially the A. Philip Randolph Boulevard corridor, the Florida Avenue corridor, to really thrive and come back to that bustle of activity that was there when they all grew up.
Q: There are other communities in Jacksonville that have been able to capture that very intimate, Main Street-type of corridor. A lot of people immediately think of San Marco, but Florida Avenue was here first. Because there are those other examples, does that help in terms of shifting minds and saying: ‘This is possible again, because it was here previously?’
A: The idea that Florida Avenue can be all those things again is always there. But I think the difference is the culture. The culture of the community, the culture of the neighborhood. Preserving that is also what’s important for this community.
Q: One of the reasons why Florida Avenue and the Eastside joined the National Register of Historic Places was because of that almost 140-year culture. How much can that be leveraged in terms of creating economic development without losing the charm that made it appealing for generations to live here?
A: A lot of what my work is about is engaging the community about what happens on the corridor. It’s not something that we just go into a room and say, “Hey, we think this (business) should come” or “We think there should be a restaurant” or “There should be a boutique” or this or that.
The community will be heavily engaged in those thoughts. What do they want to see? What’s going to make this community really wrap themselves around what comes. We also know that we have to be sensitive to the residents that are here but also the visitors that visit this area as well.
Florida Avenue receives 30,000 to 60,000 unique visitors a year. A lot of that happens right around Florida-Georgia time, when everything is happening throughout the sports and entertainment district. Throughout the year, we’re also getting people that just come to the neighborhood.
Q: The nonprofit is relatively new. Describe your goals and aspirations for Florida Avenue Main Street.
A: Main Streets are a unique nonprofit. We don’t own a business. Our job is to coordinate and engage the business community that is here, engage the property owners.
Our vacancy on the avenue is 60%. We have parking lots right now. We have places where people park to go to the games, to go to the concerts. Our hope is that, over time, you will start seeing less parking lots and more structures. Before that even happens we want to see more activity, whether that’s events, or place-keeping activities that bring people to the community. That’s our first goal: get people used to coming here, frequenting the businesses that are here, spending time here and recognizing there are things that are happening on the avenue.
Over time, our goal is to create opportunities for people to come and experience the Eastside in a different way.
Q: I know that since 1969 there has been about 50 years of little public investment in the Eastside. With money specifically pegged for the Eastside from the Jaguars and the city in community benefits agreement , what kind of impact do you think that will have on the community, as well as some the work that your organization will be doing?
A: That money will be catalytic to the work that’s been happening. Those funds are for a number of things: economic development, housing, education and investment in the community. It spans a lot of different things. Working with my partners with LIFT Jax and the Historic Eastside Community Development Corporation and places like LISC Jacksonville, we are trying to strategize how those funds can be used, how they can be leveraged.
That money is going to be huge. It sounds like a lot – and it is a lot. But, there’s still more to be done. And, to really address the disinvestment that has happened for decades, there’s going to have to be a lot more money coming into this community as well. That is the spark.
Q: Money is nice.
A: Money is great.
Q: How do you believe Florida Avenue Main Street can change sentiments? Investing in something monetarily is one thing. But, if someone doesn’t believe that money will make an impact, it probably won’t make as much of an impact as it would. Describe working with people and trying to, if not change sentiments, expose new options?
A: A lot of that has already started occurring. I came on board in September to head up the organization. Work had already been happening in the community for years.
Places like the Historic Eastside CDC and Suzanne Pickett have been working in this community for years, getting residents engaged and the businesses engaged. LISC Jacksonville started their Project Boots program and started doing home ownership and economic development activities in the community.
I think my role at Florida Avenue Main Street is to coordinate with the activities that have already been here, but work with them and work with the business owners and the property owners that are long the district and get them to activate and engage in a different way along Florida Avenue.
Growing up in Jacksonville, you avoided the Eastside for a number of reasons. Our goal is to bring that back. To bring back the bustling activity. This was the heart of this community for a long time. We can only do that by changing people’s minds about what they historically thought about the Eastside. Having those events and activities, having things like the Melanin Market that have already started bringing people back to the community, are already starting to change ideas about what’s here.
I always say its about behavior change. You have to change people’s behaviors. Part of that is realizing there are things happening and, if you’re not here, you’re going to miss out.
Q: As someone who has deep roots here, what excites you most about Out East?
A: The people. The people Out East are amazing. Our office is in the middle of the avenue. All day long, we see people walking the streets and coming to the community. It’s a hodgepodge of young and old, visitors and long-term Eastsiders.
It is just fun to be out here and to listen to the conversations and listen to everything we hear. The other piece is working with business owners. What has happened so far and what will happen in the future is amazing. But, it all centers around the people.
This Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity.
