Duval County Public Schools received 16 bids in its effort to sell its Downtown Southbank administration building and develop a new headquarters off the riverfront.
Companies making offers include Jacksonville-based CSX Transportation Inc., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc. as well as developers with active Downtown projects including Miami-based The Related Group and Ryan Companies US Inc. of Minneapolis. The Jacksonville Transportation Authority also bid.
A spokesperson for CSX said April 11 it did not submit a bid to purchase the school district's riverfront headquarters. It said it provided information to the district about surplus office space to consider as an option for relocation.
At a meeting April 6 after the 2 p.m. submission deadline, procurement officials opened the responses and released the bidders’ names.
District Purchasing Services Director Terrance Wright said a six-member scoring committee will create a list of finalists.
The Duval County School Board will approve the list to allow the committee to start negotiations with those companies before returning to the board for a final decision.
The invitation to negotiate, released Nov. 30 by real estate firm CBRE Inc. on behalf of the school district, solicited bids for the new headquarters and offered the sale of the office building at 1701 Prudential Drive along the St. Johns River as well as the option to buy three surplus school properties, including the Schultz Center event venue.
This marks the closest the district has moved toward its goal of moving from the St. Johns River since making it a priority nearly two decades ago.
These are the bidders:
• EastGroup Properties Inc.: A Ridgeland, Mississippi-based equity real estate development trust. According to the company’s website, EastGroup focuses on development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties “in major sunbelt markets.”
• Amkin West Bay LLC: A Miami-based property management company that Duval County property records show owns TIAA Bank building at 301 W. Bay St.
• Vanderbilt Office Properties and SREIT Deerwood Park South LLC: The Chicago-based Vanderbilt is affiliated with SREIT, a subsidiary of a company that paid $231 million for an 11-building office portfolio in Deerwood Park in May 2019.
• PSF 1 Jax Metro LLC: Records from the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulations and the Florida Division of Corporations show the company shares an address with The Meek Companies, a Jacksonville-based real estate, project design, procurement financing and construction management firm.
• Suddath Van Lines Inc.: A Jacksonville-based moving and logistics company.
• Silver Hills and the Edwards Companies: The Ohio-based joint venture has mixed-use urban development and multifamily project in Fort Myers and Daytona. The group submitted a bid in January to the city Downtown Investment Authority but was not awarded the contract to redevelop the former Duval County Courthouse site Downtown, now called The Ford on Bay.
• Midtown Centre Office LLC: The subsidiary of North Carolina-based Nova Capital Partners LLC, led by principals Jason Tuttle and Andy English, owns much of Midtown Center Office Park.
• The Easton Group: The Miami-based commercial real estate group comprises three companies: Easton & Associates, Easton & Associates Management Co. and Easton Development Co.
• Related Development LLC: The subsidiary of The Related Group plans to raze the former River City Brewing Co. on the Downtown Southbank for a $99 million, 327-unit apartment community and restaurant. The Miami-based developer also is building the luxury Azure condominium high-rise in Jacksonville Beach.
• Ryan Companies US Inc.: The owner and developer of JEA’s new corporate headquarters at 225 N. Pearl St. Downtown.
• Jacksonville Transportation Authority: The independent government public transportation authority for Duval County. The JTA board voted unanimously Feb. 24 to submit a bid. The board did not provide details about the scope of its offer.
• CSX Transportation Inc.: The Fortune 500 company owns and operates 20,000 route miles of train track in 23 states, the District of Columbia and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, according to its website.
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc.: A Jacksonville-based health insurance provider.
Little information was available about these three bidders:
• Southside Industrial Development Group
• Merritt Acquisitions LLC
• Spectrum Properties Ltd.
What’s next
Although the identities are public, the invitation to negotiate allows the district to keep the details of each bid out of the public record until the school board selects a winner.
Wright said the six school district employees on the selection committee do not have a deadline to score the bids.
“We want to make sure the committee members have an opportunity to do a thorough job to evaluate those proposals,” he said.
Before they begin, Wright said the committee members will complete a conflict of interest questionnaire that will be vetted by the city Office of General Counsel before each receives a packet of proposals to score.
After the committee members score the proposals, Wright said the purchasing office will compile and rank the bids.
The committee will meet to decide which bids should move on to the negotiation phase. That list will go to the school board for initial approval.
The committee will make an award recommendation to the school board after it completes negotiations with the bid finalists.
The school board will make the final decision on the winner.
What’s in the invitation to negotiate?
According to the invitation to negotiate, the school district wants to relocate away from the Downtown riverfront to “consolidate DCPS’ operational footprint, improve organizational effectiveness, business strategies, and daily operations to better serve DCPS’ students, employees, and taxpayers.”
The district advertised for an “office of the future” to accommodate 618 full-time employees with 100,000 to 120,000 square feet of space.
The invitation says the building must have wireless technology, be energy efficient and be sustainable with an environmentally responsible design.
The Downtown Investment Authority considers the district’s 4.98-acre Southbank headquarters site as valuable for economic development.
The Duval County Property Appraiser assessed the Prudential Drive site at $11.15 million in 2021.
The 122,822-square-foot structure, built in 1981, and land are exempt from taxes under school district ownership.
In a resolution approved Sept. 7, the school board set a $12 million to $60 million cost range spread over 20 years for its new administration building and invitation to negotiate.
The resolution says the district is not using revenue from a half-cent sales tax voters approved to build new school facilities for the new headquarters.
Paul Soares, DCPS assistant superintendent of operations, said Dec. 1 that a potential site for the new administration building will be part of the pitches to the district.
He said one option could be for a buyer/developer to acquire the Schultz Center and other school district assets at 4019 and 4037 Boulevard Center Drive in the Midtown Centre Office Park and lease them back to the district for a consolidated administrative campus.
Revenue generated by the sale of surplus district property will be used toward the new headquarters, according to Soares.
In addition to the Prudential Drive headquarters, the school district is putting a 3.47-acre site at 120 King St. in the Rail Yard District on the market. The property includes a 66,487-square-foot building.
The Midtown Centre properties are on 7.99 acres with 117,100 square feet of space among three buildings.
According to the invitation, 4019 Boulevard Center Drive, which is the Schultz Center, is leased to a conference center operator until June 30, 2023.
The adjacent 4037 Boulevard Center Drive building is used as office space.
The district plans to relocate those employees if the property sells.
The third property and other optional sale is 43.65 acres with a 78,000-square-foot cross-dock warehouse at 11231 Phillips Industrial Blvd. E.
The invitation to negotiate says the district will need to lease back that property for up to one year to move and vacate after a sale.
Soares said officials understand the surplus property sales are not guaranteed.
“We just don’t know because you don’t know who may be interested,” Soares said.
“And we may not sell some of them if the offers aren’t there.”
