Jaguars owner Shad Khan brings big bucks and deal-making track record in stadium talks

While diners ate chicken wings in a sports bar where video screens showed renderings of a rebuilt TIAA Bank Field, Jaguars owner Shad Khan made a surprise appearance at the team's first community meeting about renovating the football stadium at a cost of up to $1.4 billion.

Khan watched the presentation while standing at the back of the room, but in the coming talks with the city, he will be a central figure in his biggest round of football-related negotiations since he struck a deal to buy the franchise 11 years ago.

The Jaguars' proposal for reconstructing TIAA Bank Field and building a cluster of buildings in an entertainment district next to the city-owned stadium could total about $2 billion. The Jaguars have suggested the overall tab could be structured as a 50-50 split between Khan and the city, or a billion dollars apiece at that level of spending.

"Well, it's my money, right? Obviously, I'm going to be involved," Khan told reporters after the event as he pointed to his potential expenditure. "I don't know of one person who's invested the kind of money I have in the city, so I care about the city and yes, I want it to be successful."

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Khan was on hand Monday for the first of 14 "community huddles" the Jaguars have scheduled over a 10-day period to show off the team's stadium design and field questions from the public.

In football terms, the Jaguars had a homefield advantage at Strings Sports Brewery where a standing-room-only-crowd had lots of fans in Jaguars attire. Khan got cheers after he made brief remarks that said Jacksonville is "on fire" and the stadium will fuel more growth.

"I think this is really something that the city needs (and) that we need to take Jacksonville forward and reach its potential," he said.

Khan, who made his fortune in the automobile parts manufacturing business, has a net worth of $12.1 billion, according to Forbes's annual survey of the world's billionaires. An engineer by training, he designed a one-piece bumper that paved the way for his Flex-N-Gate to become a global parts supplier as he inked deals with automobile companies.

He branched out into professional sports ownership by purchasing the Jaguars in a $770 million deal finalized in January 2012. NFL franchises have soared in value since then. Forbes pegs the team's value at about $3.47 billion, which is 28th in the 32-team league. He bought the Fulham soccer team in London in 2013. Based on the Forbes's survey of billionaires, Khan is the fifth-richest owner in the NFL.

In addition to the team's vision for the stadium, which would have a cost of between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion, Khan also wants to build a mixed-use development next to the stadium. The rough estimated cost of that development would be in the range of $550 million to $668 million, according to a document that shows how the city and the team might split the costs.

The Jaguars have not provided as much information about the surrounding development as about the stadium design. Jaguars President Mark Lamping said the development would be a mix of uses that could entail housing, retail, entertainment, offices and possibly a hotel.

"It all depends on what the total package is," he said.

He said the type of uses in the development could be affected by whether the University of Florida chooses the sports complex as the future site of a graduate campus. University of Florida leaders have said they want to build the planned campus in the downtown area. Khan has offered to donate to UF a 14-acre tract he intends to buy from the Greater Jacksonville Fair Association near the stadium.

Lamping, who was the point person for the presentation at Strings, said several times that negotiations about the stadium must extend to the area around it, and if it's "just the stadium, I don't see a path to get it done."

"If the end result of this is just a new stadium, then I think the process failed because this is a significant opportunity for the community," Lamping said. "We need to look at where we are in terms of our potential, understand where we are as a community in terms of our momentum, and try to make sure that the end result of this is a stronger Jacksonville for the benefit of all residents."

He said it's understandable that people have raised questions about the cost to taxpayers.

"But if you're going to focus on that, let's not ignore the other side of it," Lamping said. "This will be an unprecedented level of private investment in downtown Jacksonville. This will be an unprecedented level of private investment into a city-owned stadium."

Jaguars ready to start negotiations when Deegan decides to have them

Lamping said the Jaguars are ready to negotiate whenever mayor-elect Donna Deegan decides to start the talks. She has praised the Jaguars' stadium design and said she wants to reach a deal that will keep the team in Jacksonville "for generations to come." She has not yet staked out any bargaining positions, however, or put out her own schedule for negotiations on the stadium and extending the team's lease that expires after the 2029 season.

City Council member-elect Jimmy Peluso, whose district contains Springfield, said after hearing the presentation at Strings he has questions about the Jaguars proposal but will wait for Deegan to weigh in on how the negotiations will move forward. He said her administration "is going to be setting the pace."

"We really just took the first step out of a 25-step process, I think," he said.

Deegan will put as much as $2 million into her proposed 2023-24 budget to cover the cost of hiring outside advisers who have experience in negotiations for NFL stadium.

Lamping said the Jaguars would welcome the city hiring such advisers, saying they can compare what the Jaguars are proposing with what's happened with stadium financing in other small-market cities that have NFL teams.

Khan did not take sides in the high-spending mayor's race when Deegan defeated JAX Chamber CEO Daniel Davis in a runoff. Khan made large contributions to Alvin Brown when he ran unsuccessfully for re-election in 2015, and Khan contributed to Mayor Lenny Curry's re-election campaign in 2019. Curry couldn't run again because of term limits and Khan stayed neutral in the wide-open race to replace Curry.

Khan and Deegan did speak during the campaign as he met with candidates running for mayor.

"We spoke to all the candidates because it was important to understand what we’re doing," Khan said.

He shut down a reporter's query about whether there is any wiggle room in the Jaguars goal of a 50-50 split with the city on the financing of stadium renovation and the entertainment district.

"You know, are you negotiating for the city?" he said. "OK, so end of question."

Khan has usually won city support on development deals

More often than not, Khan has won City Council approval for development in the sports complex area.

Lamping said the first phase of the future stadium already started with construction of Miller Electric Center, which will have outdoor and indoor fields plus a building that houses the team's football staff and football operations such as locker rooms, training and medical facilities, office space and a draft room. The city and Khan agreed in 2021 to split the cost 50-50 for the city-owned $120 million facility.

Khan and the city agreed in 2015 to a 50-50 cost share for $90 million of construction that built the city-owned Daily's Place amphitheater, an indoor training field and revamped club section at the stadium.

But Khan fell short in getting City Council approval for a $450 development on Lot J near the stadium that would have involved up to $233 million in taxpayer investments and incentives for construction of an entertainment district, two mid-rise apartment buildings, a boutique hotel and parking facilities. City Council voted 12-7 for the deal in January 2021 but because it required supermajority support by two-thirds of council members, the legislation failed.

Opponents of the Lot J deal said it asked the city to shoulder too much of the cost. Deegan criticized the terms of the proposal when she was running for mayor.

The city and Khan reached agreement in October 2021 on a development deal for construction of a planned Four Seasons Hotel and Residences and office building on the riverfront near the football stadium. City Council approved an amended deal in January that requires at least $387.6 million in private capital investment for that development.

The city's portion the Four Seasons development will pay up to $42.8 million for work on the public marina, bulkhead, pier, marina support building and riverwalk section. The city will pay $25.8 million to Khan's firm Iguana Investments after the project is done and also provide property tax rebates projected at $58.7 million over 20 years.

While the Jaguars are doing their community huddles about the stadium, Deegan's transition team is making plans for meetings that will examine a variety of policies for her upcoming administration. The stadium isn't listed among those topics. For instance, her transition team's infrastructure committee will focus on neighborhoods, the downtown riverfront, parks and recreation, resiliency, affordable housing, and homelessness.

"I think for the city to get better, those are all very important issues that have to be addressed," Khan said when asked about other needs facing the city.

He said in the case of homelessness, California has spent huge amounts of money without moving the needle.

"So money is part of it, but not the only thing, so we better look at this holistically," he said.

He said public-private investment in the stadium will "pay dividends for generations to come" and it's "absolutely not a trade-off" between the stadium and addressing other issues the city faces. He said done right, the investment in the stadium and the entertainment district will have a broader impact on the city.

"What we have to look at is one plus one equals five," Khan said. "This should be something that’s a multiplier effect. It’s got to be great for the city or it makes no sense.”

Asked whether the team's success last year in making the playoffs will help get a deal done with the city, Khan said the team started working on a future plan for the stadium three years ago.

"I'm not going to be a psychic on how the football team's going to do," he said. "We have looked at this regardless of what the football record is as to what I really think we can do to contribute to the city."

He said the "top global architects in the world" came up with the ideas for the future football stadium.

"We want to get that vision shared with the people and let them decide," he said.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan will be central in stadium deal