March 23, 2026
#AffordableHousing
Building the District: Future of Cities Partners with Live Oak Contracting to Advance PHXJAX
The cities that will define the next century aren’t waiting to be built. They’re being reimagined right now — in underutilized corridors, in historic industrial bones, in the spaces between what a city was and what it could become. The Phoenix Arts & Innovation District is one of those places. And today, we’re announcing the partnership that moves it forward.
Future of Cities has partnered with Live Oak Contracting — a Jacksonville-based firm with a track record of delivering complex multifamily, mixed-use, and hospitality developments across the Southeast — to advance the next phase of PHXJAX. Live Oak Estates Group, their development arm, will work alongside the PHXJAX leadership team on planning and development strategy. Live Oak Contracting will provide pre-development and pre-construction services as the project builds toward execution.
A Catalytic Project for Jacksonville
PHXJAX sits on 8.5 acres in Jacksonville’s historic Springfield neighborhood — just north of Downtown, anchored along the 30-mile Emerald Trail, and positioned at the center of a corridor ready for transformation. The vision is ambitious by design: 120,000 square feet of repurposed historic industrial buildings activated as creative workspace and community gathering space, embedded within a broader mixed-use district with entitlements for up to 830 multifamily units — affordable, workforce, and market-rate housing woven together in a walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood.
This is not a conventional development. It’s a district built around the premise that creativity, culture, and community are not amenities — they are infrastructure.
“This partnership reflects the strength of Jacksonville’s growth trajectory and the confidence we have in the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District as a catalytic project for the city,” said Tony Cho, Founder and CEO of Future of Cities.
The Right Partner for What Comes Next
Turning a vision at this scale into a built reality requires more than capital and a concept. It requires partners who understand the complexity of urban development — the site conditions, the construction sequencing, the community relationships — and who share the conviction that cities can be built differently.
Live Oak brings all of that. As a Jacksonville-rooted firm, they bring proximity, credibility, and construction expertise that the next phase demands.
“PHXJAX represents an opportunity to create a new kind of district for Jacksonville — one centered around creativity, community, and forward-looking development,” said Michael Weil, Chief Operating Officer of Future of Cities. “Partnering with a Jacksonville-based team like Live Oak brings both development insight and construction leadership as we move the vision forward.”
Paul Bertozzi, CEO of Live Oak Contracting and Live Oak Estates Group, sees the same horizon: “Projects like this have the potential to create lasting impact for a city by blending housing, culture, and innovation into a vibrant urban environment.”
The District Is Taking Shape
Planning is active. Additional milestones, development timelines, and programming announcements will follow as work progresses. What’s being built at PHXJAX — a district that integrates arts, innovation, housing, and civic life into something genuinely new — is worth watching closely.
Follow the story as it unfolds.
Visit phxjax.com for the latest on the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District, and stay connected with Future of Cities at focities.com.
The next chapter of Jacksonville is being written. We’re building it.