JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Brentwood residents are continuing their fight to turn what would have been a liquor store into a community center.
Over the years, community members have protested against the store opening, which is located next to the KIPP school.
In 2023, the city purchased the property and Mayor Donna Deegan said the residents would decide what should go there.
“A news reporter asked her, ‘What was the building going to be? The liquor store was going to be?’ She said, ‘it can be a community center, whatever the residents want,‘” Lydia Bell president of the Metro Gardens Neighborhood Association in Brentwood said.
She also talked about the group’s demands.
“What we are demanding is a meeting with anyone who made that decision so we can have a conversation that we never got, a conversation about this building,” Bell said.
In March 2025, the city issued a permit for Warden Contracting Corporation of Jacksonville to convert the property to the Jacksonville Small and Emerging Business Entrepreneurship and Workforce Development Center.
Residents said this decision was made without notifying them.
The mayor’s office sent a statement to News4JAX that read in part, “We determined that this location would work best as a workforce development center due to the large number of small businesses in the area and the opportunity to accelerate economic growth and job opportunities for Brentwood.”
The statement went on to highlight the size of the building, saying it’s less than 3,000 square feet compared to the recommended size of 15,000 or more for a city community center.
It also said the Brentwood Library already offers free meeting space to community groups, and it’s less than a mile away.
Kathleen Murry doesn’t live in Brentwood, but she has advocated alongside the residents for quite some time. She addressed Deegan directly.
“Please hold your word,” Murray said. “There is time to convert that building into a community center and give these people what they want. Because I know Lydia Bell and these people here pretty well now, and I can tell you they are not going away.”
Another controversial property is the morgue that is under construction near the school, which residents said they hadn’t known about for years. They said the city violated their civil rights by not informing them of the project until after construction began in 2023.
Residents said they will continue to fight for the property’s use as a community center and fight against the “illegal” building of the morgue and forensic lab in Brentwood.
“Instead of sitting at a computer looking for a job, we could be teaching them how to make a job, so that’s my conclusion. It’s just wrong, and we’re gonna continue to fight,” Bell said.
The group said it plans to rally Saturday at 11 a.m.
