JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Fair has called the corner of A. Philip Randolph Boulevard and Beaver Street home for decades, but a new home will be built on Jacksonville’s west side after the city issued a building permit this week.
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“These are people who have loved and enjoyed the fair for generations,” said Jacksonville Fair spokeswoman Teresa McClush.
McIlsu said the fair has been a fixture in Jacksonville for 70 years.
“It’s really something the community looks forward to and it’s part of the community,” McClush said.
The new location is not far from Cecil Airport and next to the Jacksonville Aquatic Center.
The Jacksonville Fair, a private, nonprofit organization under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Agriculture, will pay $17 million to build the new venue.
At one time, the fair was located under the Old Gator Bowl along with the offices, and livestock were also located around the bleachers at Old Gator Bowl.
The current fairgrounds were built in the late 1980s.
Jacksonville Fair CEO Bill Olsen said the new move brings excitement and mixed emotions.
“It’s kind of bittersweet, but it’s exciting to think that in the future, the sports complex will be able to do things downtown that we can’t do right now with a larger footprint and more options,” Olsen said.
“Due to the increased scale of business in the new location, there will also be some opportunities to hire new staff,” Olsen added.
In addition to the increased staff, the new location will be more than three times larger than the current location.
The Jacksonville Fair currently sits on a total of about 25 acres, and the new site will be more than 80 acres, and will also utilize the nearby equestrian center.
The city is only funding infrastructure improvements on the site.
As a private organization, Olsen and his staff are challenged with generating revenue each year by renting out the grounds for various expos and events in addition to the annual fair. The opening of the new grounds will give them more options for generating revenue.
“We’re also going to have a bigger exhibition centre and an amphitheater, so we’re going to need more staff as we have more festivals and things like that throughout the year,” Olsen said.
The team projects the new Jacksonville fairgrounds could open as early as 2025 or as late as the winter of 2026.
This year’s fair will be held at the same location downtown from Nov. 7-17.
For more information about this year’s fair, check out this website
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