Festival spotlight shines on downtown businesses

by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
In addition to selling out theaters and parties, this year’s Jacksonville Film Festival filled downtown’s restaurants, bars and hotels.
Even organizers were surprised by the size and consistency of the crowds drawn downtown. A Sunday showing of low-budget “Dorian Blues” drew about same size crowd as the Friday night premiere of John Landis’ “Slasher.” Area restaurant and bar owners said they were excited by the steady stream of foot traffic passing by their doors.
The Casa Dora Italian Restaurant on Forsyth Street saw sales jump about 15 percent compared to non-event weekends.
“It was exciting to see all the people,” said Kathy Matkovic, Casa Dora’s manager. “We needed it, all the small business people downtown need more people walking around.”
Matkovic said the crowds in her restaurant compared favorably to the numbers brought in by a concert at the Florida Theater next door. What excited Matkovic is that the people kept coming. Afternoon to evening, the staggered starting times for the movies kept foot traffic steady throughout the weekend.
Two blocks north of Matkovic, The London Bridge Pub benefited from its location between the Florida Theater and the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, another venue for movies and parties.
Co-owner Ginger Martin said the pub’s sales were up 15 percent on Saturday and she doubled her business on usually dormant Sunday. London Bridge even turned itself into an impromptu venue, projecting a local independent film in the parking lot. Martin said she’s considering showing a movie every month.
Stationed between venues, Martin said the pub benefited from “a continuous onslaught” of walkers on the street. The downtown locals hangout saw a lot of new faces this weekend, Martin said. Many of her patrons told her the festival had brought them downtown for the first time.
“It worked out really well the way they spread the events out and spread them around downtown. People walking from the Florida Theater stopped in on their way to JMoMA,” said Martin.
“I didn’t see all the same faces. A lot of new people came downtown and discovered us this weekend.”
As general manager at the Omni and executive director for Jacksonville’s Cultural Council, the festival was doubly successful from Bob White’s perspective. His hotel’s 354 rooms were “almost sold out,” compared to a seasonal average of about 80 percent capacity.
White estimated the festival resulted directly in about 30 to 40 room rentals over the weekend although he said many of those rooms were rented at discounts to actors, directors and others from the film industry.
White said he actually saw less people walking through his lobby than last year when his hotel housed the festival headquarters. The Landing filled that role this year, reducing traffic at the Omni. However, White said he rented more rooms than last year and said the late-night showings and parties resulted in “brisk” sales for the bar at Juliette’s, the Omni’s restaurant.
He said many of his guests from the entertainment industry were making their first trip to Jacksonville. He said they walked away impressed.
“A lot of the guests were surprised at how nice Jacksonville is,” said White. “We gave the City a lot of great exposure just like we gave a lot of those movies great exposure.”