Scheduled to open in August 2025, IDEA Public Schools is renovating the former VyStar Credit Union headquarters along Blanding Boulevard.
The city issued a permit March 29 for HGR Construction Inc. of Altamonte Springs to convert the building at 4949 Blanding Blvd. into the charter elementary school at a project cost of $6.47 million.
IDEAPublicSchools.org calls it the Compass Campus and says it will open in August 2025. It will be the third IDEA school in Jacksonville.
Jacksonville-based VyStar sold the four-story, 102,364-square-foot building on almost 12 acres to IPS Florida LLC of Weslaco, Texas, for $12.65 million in July 2022.
The structure was built in 1999.
IDEA Public School announced March 27 that it would launch the new campus featuring two schools, IDEA Compass Academy and College Preparatory, in Jacksonville for the 2025-26 school year.
IDEA Compass will serve K-6 grade levels in its first year.
The permit says the scope of work on the first three floors includes demolition of the existing business space and adding a dining cafeteria and building classrooms for kindergarten through fifth grades.
Plans show a fourth-floor renovation of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms, offices and support space.
RS&H is the project architect.
VyStar formerly was known as Jax Navy Credit Union and Jax Navy Federal Credit Union, the deed states.
VyStar bought two Downtown buildings in 2018 and 2019 and moved its headquarters and more operations to VyStar Tower at 76 S. Laura St. and the adjacent 100 W. Bay St. after renovations.
IPS Florida was registered with the state July 18, 2022.
Jeff Cottrill is the organization's superintendent and CEO. Simaran Bakshi is the executive director that oversees the IDEA Jacksonville region.
Ideapublicschools.org says that since 2000, IDEA Public Schools has grown from a small school with 150 students to the fastest-growing network of tuition-free, pre-K-12 public charter schools in the United States.
The site says the nonprofit IDEA Public Schools serve more than 80,000 college-bound students in 143 schools in Texas, Louisiana, Ohio and Florida. “For the last 16 years, IDEA has sent nearly 100% of its graduates to college and remains on track to uphold that legacy,” it says.
IDEA’s website shows the two Jacksonville locations are the Bassett Campus at 1845 Bassett Road in Northwest Jacksonville and the River Bluff Campus at 2354 University Blvd. N. near Jacksonville University in Arlington.
Both campuses opened in 2022.
IDEAPublicSchools.org says the Bassett Campus has 780 students and the River Bluff campus enrolled 750 students for the K-4 and 6-7 grade levels for the 2023-24 year.