Revitalizing Jacksonville’s Rail Yard District: A Community-Driven Comeback

LISC Jacksonville

LISC has had its Jacksonville operation up and running for over two decades. One accomplishment that lending officer Chuck Shealy finds exemplary of their impact is all the new movement going on in the city’s Rail Yard District.

The district is a historic brick-building industrial area that has long fallen outside local politicians’ redevelopment radar. LISC assisted in organizing business leaders there so they can call political interest to the area with a unified voice, and petition for more neighborhood improvements.

That work started three years ago, just after Shealy joined LISC. “Today when you say the Rail Yard District, people know what you’re talking about,” he said.

But there’s still a lot of work ahead. Vacant buildings dot the area. Perhaps most glaringly, only five percent of the employees there come from surrounding neighborhoods. Shealy joined UMA’s Pathways to Patient Capital cohort because he’s hoping to attract more manufacturers to the area and build up local jobs.

“Small manufacturers create more jobs than a retail store or even a microbrewery,” he said. “It only takes a few people to make beer but if you’ve got a manufacturing concern they’re going to be hiring more people as they grow.”

That would align with LISC’s overall strategy, which is to lift up local businesses who in turn will lift up the neighborhoods where they’re located. Those strategies aren’t developed in a silo—LISC neighborhood development plans are designed by the residents and businesses themselves.

Throughout Jacksonville, LISC has helped neighbors establish a farmers’ market, launch an urban business development incubator, and form business associations like the one in the Rail Yard District. That’s on top of their work creating more space for retail tenants, supporting affordable housing, and improving the infrastructure of vital public corridors.

Right now Shealy is helping a women-owned manufacturing business access LISC loans and consulting. It’s a first step towards building a more manufacturing-heavy portfolio that enshrines their long-standing approach of people first, revenue second.

“We look at our work a lot more as helping people as compared to just trying to find a deal and place money,” said Shealy.

This case study was co-authored by Mark Foggin and Johnny Magdaleno and published in 2020 as part of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance’s “Forging Fairness: How community-based lenders are centering both inclusion and manufacturing to promote equity [link to report].” This report highlights the work of practitioners in UMA’s Pathways to Patient Capital cohort and how these leaders are helping entrepreneurs of color – including makers and manufacturers – access to the capital and know-how they need to realize their business ideas and plans at scale.

LISC has had its Jacksonville operation up and running for over two decades. One accomplishment that lending officer Chuck Shealy finds exemplary of their impact is all the new movement going on in the city’s Rail Yard District.

The district is a historic brick-building industrial area that has long fallen outside local politicians’ redevelopment radar. LISC assisted in organizing business leaders there so they can call political interest to the area with a unified voice, and petition for more neighborhood improvements.

That work started three years ago, just after Shealy joined LISC. “Today when you say the Rail Yard District, people know what you’re talking about,” he said.

But there’s still a lot of work ahead. Vacant buildings dot the area. Perhaps most glaringly, only five percent of the employees there come from surrounding neighborhoods. Shealy joined UMA’s Pathways to Patient Capital cohort because he’s hoping to attract more manufacturers to the area and build up local jobs.

“Small manufacturers create more jobs than a retail store or even a microbrewery,” he said. “It only takes a few people to make beer but if you’ve got a manufacturing concern they’re going to be hiring more people as they grow.”

That would align with LISC’s overall strategy, which is to lift up local businesses who in turn will lift up the neighborhoods where they’re located. Those strategies aren’t developed in a silo—LISC neighborhood development plans are designed by the residents and businesses themselves.

Throughout Jacksonville, LISC has helped neighbors establish a farmers’ market, launch an urban business development incubator, and form business associations like the one in the Rail Yard District. That’s on top of their work creating more space for retail tenants, supporting affordable housing, and improving the infrastructure of vital public corridors.

Right now Shealy is helping a women-owned manufacturing business access LISC loans and consulting. It’s a first step towards building a more manufacturing-heavy portfolio that enshrines their long-standing approach of people first, revenue second.

“We look at our work a lot more as helping people as compared to just trying to find a deal and place money,” said Shealy.

This case study was co-authored by Mark Foggin and Johnny Magdaleno and published in 2020 as part of the Urban Manufacturing Alliance’s “Forging Fairness: How community-based lenders are centering both inclusion and manufacturing to promote equity [link to report].” This report highlights the work of practitioners in UMA’s Pathways to Patient Capital cohort and how these leaders are helping entrepreneurs of color – including makers and manufacturers – access to the capital and know-how they need to realize their business ideas and plans at scale.