Tony Cho, CEO & Founder, Future of Cities
Tony Cho, CEO and Founder of Future of Cities, has a dream to be net zero and create much more affordable housing, but he knows that developers are limited by the need to ensure a return on investment. “It’s all of our responsibility,” he told Invest:. “It’s not just the Future of Cities. It’s not just the city of Jacksonville. It’s everybody together.”
What is the state of the urban real estate market in Jacksonville?
Jacksonville has been a place for a long time where its downtown was neglected, underinvested, and not exciting or vibrant.
Today downtown is truly emerging as a cultural hub for Jacksonville, where people will come from the peripheries, from the beach and other places, and in the next few years it will be a thriving, major metropolitan city. People have short-term memories and sometimes forget what’s happening downtown between the Jaguars, art and entertainment, the Four Seasons, Gateway, and what we’re bringing to the table. There’s a lot of growth happening that’s no longer in question. Will downtown happen? Yes. The question is how quickly and how well is it going to be executed.
There’s a lot of momentum, and there is also support from the federal government. I believe Jacksonville has received almost $650 million from the federal government in the last couple of years.
For me, though, the development that is the most significant for Jacksonville is the Emerald Trail project. With that now being fully funded, we know it’s going to be completed within five years. I don’t think there’s another piece of infrastructure that’s going to have more of an impact on Jacksonville than that project. That was one of my motivations for investing in Jacksonville –because the Emerald Trail goes right through Phoenix and the Arts and Innovation District. We’re working alongside Groundwork Jacksonville to develop something unique and special that will go through Springfield and the Phoenix Arts and Innovation District and build spaces of connection throughout the city.
In what sectors are you looking to pursue projects or new initiatives?
Future of Cities is focused on small, independent businesses, which are the heart and soul of Main Street, — the butcher, the baker, the barber, the creative, the maker, and the small-office business. We’re not allowing large national-credit tenants or fast food in the project, which makes it harder to finance, because it makes it harder to raise capital. But to me, it’s the right way. The best way to do business development and revitalize a community is to invest in small businesses. We know that. It has been proven. There’s data behind it. That’s what we’re doing.
This small business focus for Phoenix, coupled with the growth in sectors like aerospace, defense, and financial services, are the drivers for economic employment in Jacksonville. This is a formula for success, because you can tap into large employers, but they can also look to support the small businesses by coming to those restaurants, using creative agencies, and hiring the artists whose work graces all of our buildings in the district. That’s really what we’re doing: We’re creating a guild of makers, artists, and creatives, and supporting small businesses in partnership with the city. That’s going to have a ripple effect across the state, not only in Jacksonville.
How do you make your projects sustainable and affordable?
I always say that nothing in life is guaranteed except for death and taxes. So, I can’t guarantee anything beyond my control. I can only have the best intentions, be authentic, and do the best within the frameworks that we’re working in, which currently is a capitalistic model. A regular real estate project is about return on investment, and that’s only financial capital. The government oversees land use; different regulatory bodies that create or allow for what we want to create. I don’t have the budget to make the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District a net-zero project. My investors are not going to pay for hundreds of kilowatts of solar rooftops that don’t have a return on investment. I can’t promise anything in that regard. All I can do is try to create new models of public-private partnership, which we’re seeing successfully unfolding with the first round of incentives from the city. Affordable housing is something we can do, but we cannot make that possible without incentives. There is a need in the Jacksonville community, but we have to be partners with the community in creating the solution.
It’s all of our responsibility to provide affordable housing, low-cost options for artists, independent and small-business incubation, and acceleration. It’s all of our responsibility. It’s not just the Future of Cities. It’s not just the city of Jacksonville. It’s everybody together. And it does require public-private partnerships. It requires local, state and federal incentives to do that.
My vision is to be net zero, build affordable housing, and create a food forest in a food desert. But I need incentives to do that.
What is the outlook or focus for the Future of Cities in the near term?
Future of Cities goal is to impact the lives of a billion people through innovations in the built environment using regenerative placemaking and demonstration projects to demonstrate what’s possible, not to theorize or talk about it, but to put our money where our mouth is.
We are doing this work across the state of Florida already. There is the Future of Cities Climate Innovation Hub in Little Haiti, Miami, which is a multipurpose venue focused on climate solutions, co-working, and events. The ChoZen Eco-Retreat & Sanctuary is an eco-resort and a regenerative farm and venue in Sebastian that’s a demonstration project of regenerative living. And then the Phoenix Arts and Innovation District is the other demonstration project, which is a neighborhood-wide model of regenerative placemaking.
We’ve also launched a Future of City’s Golden Visa fund in Portugal. This initiative will operate as a fund for people to get their golden visas, so we can invest some of that capital back into our projects in the United States. It’s creating this circular ecosystem that’s elevating all the players within it, and hopefully achieving a higher state.
I’m also writing a book now on our framework of regenerative placemaking that will be published later this year or in Q1 next year. It is our goal to educate and inspire others working in the world of development to pursue a more sustainable model for future growth.
