MOSH closer to breaking ground for new Jacksonville riverfront museum after $10M gift

Tom Szaroleta, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
·3 min read

Jacksonville's Museum of Science & History took a giant step toward its plans for a new facility on Tuesday when railroad giant CSX donated $10 million to the museum's fundraising campaign.

The donation, which will make CSX the presenting sponsor of the new museum, was announced Tuesday morning on Lot X, the vacant riverfront property where Hogans Creek meets the St. Johns River. That's where the new museum will one day stand.

Alistair Dove, the museum's CEO, said the donation — the largest the museum has received — goes a long way toward helping the museum meet its June 30 deadline to raise $40 million in private funding for the project.

"Obviously, a gift of this magnitude makes a huge difference," he said. "We have soft commitments that will get us to that number."

This is a rendering of the exterior of the planned new MOSH at Jacksonville's shipyards site on the Northbank.
This is a rendering of the exterior of the planned new MOSH at Jacksonville's shipyards site on the Northbank.

He said construction should begin on the site sometime in 2025 and the museum should be ready to open in 2027.

The museum announced MOSH Genesis in 2020, a plan to leave its longtime home on the Southbank and build a new facility on the downtown side of the river. The city has agreed to lease the riverfront site to the museum for 40 years at a dollar a year and has pledged $20 million to the project.

Other donations have been rolling in. The James E. and A. Dano Davis Family Charities and Jed and Jill Davis, from the family that built the Winn-Dixie grocery store chain, donated $1.5 million earlier this month. Other private donations include $5 million from Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan; $2.5 million from VyStar Credit Union; $1.1 million from the Lastinger family, including $1 million from the St. Augustine-based Lastinger Family Foundation and $100,000 from Lindsey Lastinger Riggs and Ryan Riggs; $1 million from the Ponte Vedra Beach-based Neviaser Foundation; $500,000 from PNC Bank and a "significant contribution" from the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Foundation.

Joe Hinrichs, president and CEO of Jacksonville-based CSX, called the $10 million a "landmark" donation. "We're excited to put a shovel in the ground and bring support to STEM," he said.

Dove said projections call for up to 450,000 visitors per year to the new museum once it's opened. It will be part of a renovated Northbank that will include the USS Orleck warship, a Jacksonville fire museum, parkland and Shad Khan's Shipyards West development, plus proposed improvements to EverBank Stadium.

A rendering shows the proposed Innovation Island section of the planned $100-million-plus new Museum of Science & History at the Jacksonville Shipyards.
A rendering shows the proposed Innovation Island section of the planned $100-million-plus new Museum of Science & History at the Jacksonville Shipyards.

Mayor Donna Deegan, who grew up in Jacksonville and said she has many fond childhood memories of going to MOSH, called the CSX donation "an incredibly important step" in revitalizing the riverfront.

"It seems like we use the term 'game-changing' a lot lately, but here it's true," she said.

MOSH 2.0 will have almost twice the space as the current facility, in a three-floor, 100,000-square-foot building. Exhibits are to use aspects of the St. Johns River as a navigation guide for visitors, beginning with a two-story water feature representing the 27-foot drop from the St. Johns' headwaters in Indian River County to where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville. Then guests will follow "pathways that mimic the river’s role in connecting the region" interspersed with collections and content "islands" showcasing the area's "nature, innovation and culture," according to MOSH.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville's MOSH gets $10 million gift from CSX for new museum