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Press Pass | Jaguars President Mark Lamping on Impact of New Business Headquarters in Downtown Jacksonville · Press Pass

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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it behind all these stories, there's someone
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: who really believes in a cause, and in this particular case,
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  Speaker 1: it's the con family that has chosen to invest hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of millions of dollars in downtown Jacksonville when not everyone
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  Speaker 1: had that same level of belief. So, you know, today's
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  Speaker 1: a great day because it's a little bit of validation
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  Speaker 1: of their belief in downtown Jacksonville. But just as important, collectively,
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  Speaker 1: all of us who care about downtown, this is something
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  Speaker 1: we should begin celebrating because it's been for so long
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  Speaker 1: we've talked about what's not happening downtown, and it's great
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  Speaker 1: when you can see tangible evidence of yes, things are
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  Speaker 1: moving forward, and they're moving forward in an unbelievably great direction.
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  Speaker 2: I mentioned this is kind of a boosting point for
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  Speaker 2: downtown to get this opened. I mean there's not many
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  Speaker 2: office buildings like this one that have been opened in
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  Speaker 2: the area. How big of a step forward is this.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's something that people can see and they can
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  Speaker 1: go into. It's not just a rendering you might see
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  Speaker 1: to printed, you know, in a newspaper or shown on
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  Speaker 1: somebody's web page. It's real evidence. It's real people that
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  Speaker 1: make the construction happen. It's real people that are working
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  Speaker 1: here day and day out. And you know, even like
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  Speaker 1: today's announcement we're going fully lardener, it's evidence that people
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  Speaker 1: that are downtown continue to believe in downtown. And as
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  Speaker 1: we spread this story, I think what's going to happen
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  Speaker 1: is the retention rate for employers who is going to
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  Speaker 1: continue to go up, and we're going to continue to
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  Speaker 1: draw more and more people, which is what the goal is.
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  Speaker 1: It's not just to keep the existing employers downtown, which
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  Speaker 1: is an important goal, but also to bring new people
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  Speaker 1: into experience how special this place lives.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of work's gone into all the construction that
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  Speaker 2: people are seeing in this area. Just seeing things like
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  Speaker 2: this start to open, start to come to fruition, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: that's got to be satisfying.
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  Speaker 1: Right Well, it's just like anything else. I mean, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's you know, you have your child graduate from high school,
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  Speaker 1: your child graduate from college. That day is celebration, is
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  Speaker 1: a reminder of all the years of hard work that
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  Speaker 1: you did along with your child, and I think this
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  Speaker 1: is the same sort of thing. So many people work
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  Speaker 1: on this, very few of them are known to the public,
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  Speaker 1: but it's real a sense of satisfaction. Even the you know,
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  Speaker 1: the hundreds of highly skilled, trained construction workers that make
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  Speaker 1: this project happen, they feel great pride in a finished product.
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  Speaker 1: Four seasons twenty twenty seven.
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  Speaker 2: Is there a date during twenty twenty seven? And it
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  Speaker 2: does seem like it's taking a little bit longer than
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  Speaker 2: y'all are anticipated.
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  Speaker 1: The world Now, yeah, sometimes you have to have patients
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  Speaker 1: for special things. But you know, it's you can see
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  Speaker 1: how complex of a project it is just by coming
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  Speaker 1: down here and looking at it. But it's it's spectacular
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  Speaker 1: as as it's unfolding. As I said today, we would expect,
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  Speaker 1: you know, in about a year or so we'll have
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  Speaker 1: substantial completion and then the opening of the hotel and
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  Speaker 1: the residents will follow. We don't have any exact timetable
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  Speaker 1: right now, but it's obviously getting closer and closer day
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  Speaker 1: by day.
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  Speaker 3: What does this mean as an NFL franchise to be
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  Speaker 3: up there with state of the artifer and all other terms.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it means we have happier employers employees, so it's
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  Speaker 1: a much better place to go to work. And I
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  Speaker 1: think happy motivated employees are more productive and get more
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  Speaker 1: things done, so you know, you think about it. Over
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  Speaker 1: the course of the last two years or so, first,
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  Speaker 1: with the opening of the Miller Electric Center, are our
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  Speaker 1: football operations went from arguably the worst facilities in the
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  Speaker 1: league too amongst the best, and the same can be
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  Speaker 1: said for our business operation. And both of those pieces,
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  Speaker 1: as all of you recall, were the critical first steps
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  Speaker 1: that we had to address in order to be able
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  Speaker 1: to do the renovation in the stadium. So all these
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  Speaker 1: things are our complimentary of one another, and we continue
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  Speaker 1: to inch closer and closer to the ultimate goal, which
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  Speaker 1: is a consistently competitive, financially stable NFL franchise in Northeast
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  Speaker 1: to Florida for generations to storry.
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  Speaker 3: To clarify, you say this and need to be done
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  Speaker 3: before the stadium? Is that kind of just so construction.
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  Speaker 1: Could happen well, because we couldn't have two people working
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  Speaker 1: inside a construction site, okay, nor could we have all
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  Speaker 1: the football folks. We had to get you know, because
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  Speaker 1: the NFL is a three hundred and sixty five day
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  Speaker 1: a year business. We're still conducting business even while construction's
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  Speaker 1: going on. So we had to get our business people out.
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  Speaker 1: We had to get our football people out and we've
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  Speaker 1: done that with the opening of two new facilities in
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  Speaker 1: downtown Jacksonville. Is there something you would like to see
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  Speaker 1: happen next, You'll always have something else kind of on.
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  Speaker 2: The back burner.
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  Speaker 3: You'd like to move to Front Burger the stadium, obviously,
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  Speaker 3: but anything outside that that.
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  Speaker 1: You'd like to see have for the use, well, there's
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  Speaker 1: there's always a need. I don't know that that need
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  Speaker 1: is going to to be totally satisfied by just one
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  Speaker 1: interested developer being the con family. I mean, the thing
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  Speaker 1: that makes us feel so optimistic about downtown is how
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  Speaker 1: many different people believe in downtown. So it's not just
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  Speaker 1: you know, Shad that's investing in downtown. There's dozens of
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  Speaker 1: developers that believe in downtown. So, you know, I think
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  Speaker 1: on a list of things, you know, in order to
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  Speaker 1: fully develop the potential convention business here in Jacksonville, we
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  Speaker 1: probably need better convention facilities, and that's something which you
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  Speaker 1: know others will deal with, not us. I think being
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  Speaker 1: able to present a more robust and vibrant nightlife in
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  Speaker 1: downtown Jacksonville that not only supports those that visit downtown,
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  Speaker 1: but it helps us attract huge marquee events that have
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  Speaker 1: such a great economic impact. In order to get a
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  Speaker 1: big event, it's it's no longer just having the facilities
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  Speaker 1: to attract it. You also have to have the hotels
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  Speaker 1: and you have to have the things for people to
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  Speaker 1: do when they're not in their hotel room, are at
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  Speaker 1: their meeting or at the sporting events. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: just from our perspective, convention facilities, entertainment downtown, those are big,
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  Speaker 1: big idea stuff.
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  Speaker 3: For one more, he's got to just on the sports
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  Speaker 3: and entertainment concept that the team has discussed before. Where
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  Speaker 3: are we on that? And you anticipate any kind of
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  Speaker 3: announcements on that anytime.
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  Speaker 1: So now there's there's nothing imminent I can tell you.
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  Speaker 1: We have our handsful right now. You know, it's good
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  Speaker 1: that this project is done. There's a ton of work
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  Speaker 1: that's going on at the four seasons, and we've got
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  Speaker 1: a long way to go on to the Stadium of
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  Speaker 1: the future. So you know, there's there's there's there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of things we need to deal with that we
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  Speaker 1: have to figure out long term. You know, what's going
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  Speaker 1: to happen with the fairgrounds property that that the con
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  Speaker 1: family owns now but you know, there are no imminent announcements,
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  Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean that somebody else might not be
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  Speaker 1: planning something downtown. And look, the more the merrier as
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  Speaker 1: far as as far as we're concerned,