Joining the Riverside Avenue renaissance, the Alexander DeGance Barnett law firm intends to move from leased space in One Enterprise Center Downtown into a building it will develop in Riverside near The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens.
“We have been looking to buy for quite some time. We decided on our location in Riverside because it is a beautiful area with a lot of exciting development going on,” said Mark Alexander, a founding partner of the firm.
He estimates the total investment will be more than $2 million.
The firm represents management in litigation and trial practice, specializing in labor, employment, civil rights and other business interests.
“Our location also is centrally located, close to our clients, and convenient to our employees,” he said.
Alexander DeGance Barnett, with three partners, three associates and five staff members, leases about 3,500 square feet of space in Suite 1200 at One Enterprise at 225 Water St. The building is connected to the Omni Jacksonville Hotel.
The firm, founded in April 2010, bought the property at 1500 Riverside Ave. on Dec. 10 through a limited liability company. It is filing plans to raze the existing one-story 4,300-square-foot structure on the site and develop a two-story, 10,000-square-foot office.
ADB Real Estate Holdings LLC paid $910,500 for the 0.59-acre site at Riverside Avenue and Lomax Street. Alexander is the registered agent with the LLC.
The other founding partners are Kelly DeGance and Michelle Bedoya Barnett. Samantha Guidici, Erin Whitmore and Meredith Carlo are associates with the firm.
Alexander said construction on the new building should start in June and be completed in 10 months to a year. The firm expects to occupy most of the building at first and eventually all of it.
“We are planning to build a beautiful two-story building that complements the surrounding area,” Alexander said.
Riverside Avenue is undergoing significant development and redevelopment from Brooklyn, at the Acosta Bridge, into the area where the firm is building, west of the Interstate 95 overpass.
In Brooklyn, Riverside Avenue is gaining two new apartment communities, a civic plaza, a shopping center and a redeveloped YMCA of Florida’s First Coast center.
Near I-95, the Cummer has redeveloped its grounds and parking lot, and not far from there, the 16-story Beacon Riverside riverfront condo tower is planned.
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