Susan Barnett Ricke wants to make something perfectly clear: Despite the “store closing” and “everything must go” signs in the store and the flag-waver with the same message on the street in front of Wells Fargo Center Downtown, Barnett Jewelers is not going out of business.
But the store in the building that opened 40 years ago the day the Independent Life building opened its doors will be gone by the end of the year.
“The number of people in the building has really gone down,” she said.
At its peak when the Independent Life & Accident Insurance Co. was the anchor tenant, about 2,500 people worked in the building, said Bill Barnett.
Barnett is the third generation of his family that started in the jewelry trade Downtown 100 years ago, when his father, O.F. Barnett, and W.G. Ferrell went into business.
Ricke said she understands the building is more than 80 percent leased, but “there just aren’t as many people on the floors as there used to be” and the building is closed Saturday and Sunday to all but tenants’ employees with an access card.
She also remembers when there was much more retail activity in the building.
In its glory days, in addition to Barnett Jewelers, there was a women’s clothing and accessories store, a florist, a card and gift store, shoe repair, a car rental office, an alterations shop, a dry cleaner, Morrison’s Cafeteria, radio and television stations and a couple of bank branch offices on the ground floor.
On the second floor, there was a pharmacist and a restaurant and bar that overlooked the atrium.
“At one time, it was like a little town,” Ricke said.
Now, it’s more of a retail ghost town.
There’s a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office stop station, a hair salon, a restaurant, a copy center, a Wells Fargo retail office and Barnett Jewelers.
Michael Loftin, director of leasing for Banyan Street Capital, the building manager, said retail in an office tower Downtown can be challenging, particularly when there’s as much space as is available at Wells Fargo Center.
‘The ground floor was originally designed as a mall,” he said.
Loftin also said there are about 1,500 people working in the building, but the trend in commercial interior design is to make employees content in their workspace with breakrooms and lounge areas.
That makes people not want to get out of the office, even for lunch, as much as they did in years past.
Ricke said Barnett Jewelers is working with a broker to look for a smaller space Downtown, but might consolidate operations at its store at River City Marketplace off Interstate 95 in North Jacksonville.
The River City Marketplace store opened four years ago and is managed by Oscar Barnett and his wife, Anna, the fourth generation in the family business.
Barnett’s neighbors there include more than 50 retail businesses such as Walmart, Best Buy and Ashley Furniture HomeStore along with restaurants and a multiplex movie theater.
Barnett has signed a letter of intent to open a store at a shopping center under development by Gate Petroleum, “but that’s three years away,” said Ricke.
In the meantime, the Downtown store is conducting a closing sale, with merchandise discounted as much as 50 percent.
“In our hearts, it’s a very difficult decision,” Ricke said. “But for our family business, it’s the only thing we can do.”
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