Ryan Companies US Inc. applied to the city Dec. 7 for building permit review to develop the JEA headquarters Downtown at a construction cost of almost $31.1 million.
Minneapolis-based Ryan owns the 1.54-acre site at 225 N. Pearl St. Downtown.
Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. is the civil engineer. Ryan A+E Inc. is the architect and interior designer.
The building is designed as 162,741 square feet among seven occupiable floors and the penthouse mechanical level, so it is listed as eight levels.
Ryan broke ground on the project Oct. 22 after beginning site work in August.
In June, the Downtown Development Review Board approved JEA’s scaled-down, lower-cost design for the city-owned utility’s next Downtown headquarters. It now is at 21 W. Church St.
The board approved Ryan’s smaller 162,000-square-foot redesign and adjacent 657-space parking garage.
JEA’s headquarters will include about 153,000 square feet of rentable space.
The reduction in square footage was made possible, partially, because JEA plans to remove its emergency operations center from the corporate headquarters building and establish a 40,000-square-foot “hardened” facility at another Downtown site.
n November, the JEA board approved a 2.27-acre land purchase in LaVilla for $2.44 million for the proposed emergency headquarters that would withstand severe weather.
The new JEA headquarters will house about 784 JEA employees. About 200-220 workers will work at the 40,000-square-foot facility.
The JEA board selected Ryan on April 2, 2019, to develop the headquarters.
On June 25, City Council approved the sale of 1.5 acres on West Adams Street to Ryan for $2.6 million. Ryan executed the lease with the utility July 9.
Ryan secured a $62.9 million loan June 29 from Wells Fargo Bank for construction of the headquarters.