After The JAM announced its closing, the rumor mill spiked with concerns that a block-wide buyout was imminent near downtown.
The Florida Innovation Hub at UF owns the 800 block on West University Avenue, where the music venue and several other local businesses are located.
The area is slated for Innovation Square, a 40-acre research and innovation community complete with businesses, residences, retail and hotel space meant to connect UF with downtown Gainesville.
Still, the area is years from construction, said Ed Poppell, director of economic development for Innovation Square.
“We have a long-term redevelopment plan,” Poppell said. “We told all of the tenants months and months ago that we would give them adequate notice when we thought that would be imminent.”
Lilli Wiggins, owner of Unified Training Center at 809 W. University Ave., said the fear that the area’s other tenants would be kicked out after The JAM’s closing is unfounded.
“I think what happens is it becomes a fear factor,” Wiggins said. “I don’t personally think it’s going to happen anytime soon.”
Wiggins, who is the biggest renter of the block, said they all went in knowing the area would one day be demolished.
But Eddie Arenas, owner of The JAM, said the developers of Innovation Square did not provide him with a lot of information on the construction plans.
He said his leases became shorter and shorter until he was open on a month-to-month lease that threatened closing at any time.
“Trying to stop what is in motion is kind of futile,” Arenas said.
He said he has considered reinventing the spot to make any stay in the area more profitable, but as it is now, The JAM’s lack of profit and the imminent construction justified the decision to close.
“We are in limbo, where we can’t make any improvements to the business, and the business model as it is right now cannot make enough revenue to keep up the music venue,” Arenas said. “But we are not getting kicked out.”
Poppell said a deal for the area is nearly signed. If it goes through, the new developer could start building as early as summer 2015.
“We don’t have a signed deal,” Poppell said. “Until it’s done, it’s up in the air.”
Wiggins and Arenas said their major concern is the loss of a home built in 1890s that sits on the block, but Poppell said the home has been condemned due to safety issues.
“I hope that whoever does develop it realizes how special at least our space is,” she said. “We will be knocked down, absolutely one day we will. But it is going to be really sad when it does.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 11/12/2014]
