National Park Service expects decision soon on relocating Jacksonville fair

David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
Updated ·4 min read
A sign beside a construction site access road identifies the fairgrounds relocation project at the Taye Brown Regional Park on the Westside. Construction of buildings could start in early 2024 depending on the outcome of a National Park Service review of the city's lease of land to the Greater Jacksonville Fair Association.
A sign beside a construction site access road identifies the fairgrounds relocation project at the Taye Brown Regional Park on the Westside. Construction of buildings could start in early 2024 depending on the outcome of a National Park Service review of the city's lease of land to the Greater Jacksonville Fair Association.

The carnival rides, livestock exhibits and racing pigs are back in full swing at the sports complex where the annual Jacksonville fair has operated since 1955, but out on the Westside, construction of the fair's future home is waiting for the National Park Service to finish reviewing the city's big relocation plan.

Six months ago, City Council approved leasing 82 acres to the Jacksonville Fair Association from a much larger tract the city received for free from the U.S. Navy after the closure of the Cecil Field military base.

The National Park Service still must sign off on the lease, but if all goes as planned, the fair association will be staging the annual Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair out west in two years.

Jacksonville Fair: Everything you need to know for this year's fair, Nov. 2-12

Big move: Navy connection means Jacksonville needs federal sign-off on fairground relocation

"Sitting here today for the relocation project, we're still on track to break ground in January on our building," Greater Jacksonville Fair Association President Bill Olson said. "Start construction in January, be done the following spring, and then rocking and rolling."

This year's fair started Thursday and will run through Nov. 12 with carnival rides and game booths, livestock exhibits, live music on concert stages, and the kind of entertainment that's simultaneously odd and traditional such as Robinson's Famous Racing Pigs competing on an obstacle course to win a prize of an Oreo cookie.

Olson said fair officials have a mix of emotions about moving on from the place that's attracted fair-goers over the past 68 years, but the Westside site will provide more space for the fair association and help boost youth groups such as 4-H and the Future Farmers of America.

Heavy equipment stands on the large swath of land alongside Normandy Boulevard where site work has begun on the grounds of Taye Brown Regional Park for construction of a new Jacksonville Fairgrounds that could host its first Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair in 2025.
Heavy equipment stands on the large swath of land alongside Normandy Boulevard where site work has begun on the grounds of Taye Brown Regional Park for construction of a new Jacksonville Fairgrounds that could host its first Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair in 2025.

"It's going to grow that because of the convenience of the new location, the bigger facility, having a dedicated agricultural center for the fair," he said. "It's just a lot of positives. Where we are now, we're limited to how much we can park cattle trailers for different shows. There are all these speed bumps we have to overcome."

He said the association also will be able to do more events the rest of the year, including concerts featuring country-and-western acts that bypass Jacksonville now because there's not a venue that's the right fit for the crowd size they attract.

"That's all exciting," he said. "So change sometimes is difficult, but it's good."

The National Park Service said in an email that its review should "wrap up soon." City spokesman Phillip Perry said the city's Office of General Counsel and the park service are "still negotiating the lease agreement, specifically the length of the contract."

Greater Jacksonville Fair Association President Bill Olson stands on the sidewalk in the Jacksonville Fairgrounds where artists were painting murals in the days leading up to the start of this year's fair.
Greater Jacksonville Fair Association President Bill Olson stands on the sidewalk in the Jacksonville Fairgrounds where artists were painting murals in the days leading up to the start of this year's fair.

City Council approved a 40-year lease agreement in April with the fair association, a nonprofit organization, to use land at the Taye Brown Regional Park off Normandy Boulevard.

The 4,000-seat Equestrian Center has been at the park since 2004. The Cecil Recreation Complex has a community center with an indoor Olympic-sized swimming pool and a four-field softball complex. Most of the park is woodlands with trails for hiking and biking.

The National Park Service must approve the lease to the fair association because it's within 2,000 acres the city received in 2002 from the U.S. Navy through the Federal Lands to Parks program. The federal government turned over the land on the condition it be used forever for public parks and public recreation, so the National Park Service is examining how the lease terms would mesh with that requirement.

A new expo center, shown in this rendering, would be a centerpiece of the new Jacksonville fairgrounds at a Westside regional park. The first edition of the fair at the park could happen in fall 2025.
A new expo center, shown in this rendering, would be a centerpiece of the new Jacksonville fairgrounds at a Westside regional park. The first edition of the fair at the park could happen in fall 2025.

If that review determines the uses outlined in the lease conflict with Federal Lands to Parks, the National Park Service could require the city to offset that by establishing comparable park land elsewhere. But that's not part of the negotiations taking place.

"Currently, there aren’t any plans to offset the leased parkland with other recreational land," Perry said of the ongoing talks.

After the fair association gets the official go-ahead for being able to use the Westside site, the association has a contract to sell its land at the sports complex to Jaguars owner Shad Khan and his Iguana Investments development firm.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: National Park service reviews Jacksonville Fairgrounds site