The Downtown Development Review signed off July 27 on a special sign exception to rename the TIAA Bank building Downtown as EverBank and approved a code deviation that allows First Baptist Church Jacksonville to build a wall around its proposed playground on the church’s vacant parcel on Main Street.
EverBank
The board voted 5-2 to allow Integrated Sign Associates of El Cajon, California, to install two EverBank logo signs atop the 30-story tower at 301 W. Bay St. that exceed the size outlined in the city’s sign code.
The two, 2,201-square-foot EverBank signs will replace the slightly larger 2,629-square-foot TIAA Bank signs.
The name change comes after New York City-based TIAA announced in November it was selling the bank to a group of investment funds to focus on its retirement and asset management business and said the bank would be renamed.
The city’s Downtown overlay zone code allows 400-square-foot identification signage for buildings more than five stories, although the review board has approved several signs that exceed that limit.
Examples include upgrades approved early this year to the signage on the Wells Fargo Center at 1 Independent Drive W. and in January 2019 for VyStar Credit Union’s sign on its 23-story tower at 76 S. Laura St.
Board Chair Matt Brockelman and member Gary Monahan voted against the sign exception. Brockelman said his no vote stems from his work on the board’s Downtown sign revision committee, which will recommend changes to the code in the next few months.
The name change returns the EverBank name to the tower.
EverBank Financial Corp. became the building’s anchor tenant in 2012 and put its name at the top of what became EverBank Center.
The tower became TIAA Bank Center in 2018 when EverBank merged with TIAA Direct.
Amkin West Bay LLC of Miami owns the tower. It bought the building for $47.4 million from El-Ad Florida LLC, according to property records.
Because of the sale, the TIAA Bank also will likely be coming down from the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars by September and replaced with EverBank Stadium.
First Baptist playground
The board approved First Baptist Church’s request for a deviation from screening and landscaping requirements for its proposed playground on its lot at North Main and West Beaver streets.
The board voted 7-0 to allow a 4½-foot wall supporting a 6-foot wrought iron fence around the playground.
The wall exceeds the city’s 3-foot height restriction by 1½ feet, but First Baptist originally requested the wall be 6 feet tall in addition to the fencing.
The board deferred the request June 8 for the church and DDRB staff to reach a compromise.
First Baptist’s latest proposal added a 6-foot landscape buffer between the wall and Main Street to help screen the barrier.
First Baptist Executive Pastor Coty Hoskins told the board the church hoped to keep the 6-foot wall as a playground security measure.
He told the board there have been instances of people reaching through fencing or jumping fencing at the church’s Downtown campus.
Brockelman said he’s sympathetic about traffic and other safety concerns along the Main Street corridor, but he supports the staff height compromise. He said he also appreciated First Baptist’s design change to “soften” the wall on Main Street with the buffer and landscaping.
“Obviously, I don’t think any of us, including you all, in a perfect world would want such a high wall. However, I do acknowledge Main Street, in particular, is a fairly high-traffic (and) high-speed DOT roadway,” Brockelman said.
Hoskins said the church hoped to “protect” the original wall height in the design, but board member Bill Schilling pushed back to clarify the city staff’s position.
“I hear you saying you’re good with staff’s recommendations, but then I also hear you saying that I think you need the 6 feet. And you’re thinking that when you leave this hearing you’re going to have the 6 feet. I feel like that’s a disconnect,” Schilling said.
“And I want to make sure that it is very clear that my opinion and the position I have right now is that I think the maximum height of the wall should be 4½ feet,” he said.
Hoskins said the church wants to be part of the ongoing revitalization of Downtown and added the stonework on the wall and other design changes to work with the board and city staff’s comments in June.
“All the cards on the table, I’m trying to do everything I can to go above and beyond on the exterior so that you guys feel really satisfied with what we’re doing,” Hoskins said. “Because I really do want to protect what’s happening on the inside (of the playground).”