JWB Real Estate Capital is working toward renovating two of the five floors it intends to use as its headquarters in the Downtown Greenleaf & Crosby Building.
Now called The Greenleaf, the building will be Jacksonville-based JWB Real Estate Capital’s new offices when it relocates in phases from Deerwood Center in the Southside.
The historic building is at 208 N. Laura St. at northwest Adams and Laura streets.
Avant Construction Group of Jacksonville is the contractor listed on two permits in review. Studio 9 Architecture & Interior Design, also based in Jacksonville, is the architect.
Those are a 3,842-square-foot renovation on the fifth floor at an estimated cost of $552,000 and a 6,394-square-foot renovation on the second floor at $207,224.
The second-floor space includes open office space, collaboration space, a kitchen and lounge area and conference rooms.
The fifth-floor space has many of the same uses as well as an atrium.
The permit applications follow one for Regus, which leases space to provide flexible offices, to open on the eighth and ninth floors. The city is reviewing a building-permit application for Avant Construction Group to renovate that space at a project cost of $1.1 million. Studio 9 Architecture is the architect.
JWB Real Estate Capital says on a property brochure that:
“Originally built in 1927, Greenleaf Tower is now undergoing a $16 million-dollar interior renovation that will include an on-site restaurant on the ground floor space that was once home to Jacksonville’s finest jewelry store,” which was Jacobs Jewelers.
In October 2023, the Jacksonville City Council voted to designate the Greenleaf & Crosby Building a local historic landmark.
The structure is one of the few remaining examples of the mixed-use commercial buildings constructed in Downtown soon after the Great Fire of 1901 that destroyed most of the city.
It was designed by Marsh & Saxelbye, considered a prominent local architecture firm during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.
The building reflects design elements of a commercial high-rise style referred to as the Chicago School, the Chicago Style or the Commercial Style, and is identified as the forerunner of the modern skyscraper.
JWB Real Estate Capital bought the building for nearly $7 million in 2022.
The city Downtown Investment Authority approved a $4.97 million forgivable loan package in August 2023 for JWB to finance improvements at the building at an estimated cost of $16.88 million.
The renovated building provides 44,000 square feet of office space for lease as well as restaurant space on the ground floor, including the former Jacobs Jewelers location.
JWB said it intends to relocate its headquarters from 7563 Philips Highway in Deerwood Center to The Greenleaf when renovations are complete.
JWB President Alex Sifakis said in a July 23 email that the company plans to move 20% of the staff to the second floor of the building by the end of this year or early next year, “then everyone else (and the first floor restaurant space) mid-late 2025.”
“Occupancy will be 100% when we move in,” he said.
Sifakis said in the email the former Jacobs Jewelers space “will be a high end full service restaurant.” He said he hoped to be able to provide details by the end of the year.