Downtown’s EverBank Center is preparing for a $4.1 million renovation of five floors for the first phase of the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. lease.
It’s a big project expected to total almost $49.1 million and bring at least 1,000 jobs to the urban core.
Auld & White Contractors LLL submitted building plans to the city to renovate 132,362 square feet.
Citizens Property will phase in the work, adding more than another 100,000 square feet. The total lease of 234,150 square feet encompasses eight floors and part of the first.
Total tenant improvements are estimated at nearly $10.5 million, according to a lease document.
The project elevates the 30-story building’s occupancy to more than 90 percent.
The Tallahassee-based property insurer chose the center, at 301 W. Bay St., to house its consolidated office and IT center. It will move operations from four Baymeadows-area locations and also relocate some IT jobs from Tallahassee and Tampa.
The 10-year lease term is valued at $41.7 million, not including potential renewals. Furniture, equipment and other items to start up the center are estimated at $3.5 million, while the one-time cost of IT infrastructure could reach $3.9 million.
The move is expected to start this fall and be completed by the first quarter of 2016.
Plans under review show work on part of the first floor as well as renovations on all of the third, fifth, 12th and 13th floors.
Citizens Property intends to also occupy the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th floors.
Most of that space formerly was leased by AT&T.
Studio 9 Architecture is the architect and TLC Engineering for Architecture is the engineer.
Citizens Property was created by the Legislature in 2002 as a not-for-profit tax-exempt government entity to provide property insurance to Florida policyholders unable to find coverage in the private market.
InMotion buys competitor stores
InMotion Entertainment Group LLC has broadened its reach by acquiring Airport Wireless Holdings LLC’s airport electronics stores.
Jacksonville-based InMotion is the largest airport-based retailer of headphones, mobile device accessories and other electronics. It announced the purchase Friday.
APW is the second-largest airport-based retailer of consumer electronics and accessories in the country, InMotion said in a news release.
It operates under five banners: Airport Wireless, Techshowcase, Tech Interaction, Tech in a Sec and Touch Table.
InMotion President and CEO Jeremy Smith said Monday the company bought 34 stores from APW in three separate closings the past six months.
One of those 34 units will become Headphone Hub while the other 33 will be renamed InMotion Entertainment. Headphone Hub is an InMotion brand.
The deal also adds about 175 employees to InMotion, boosting the workforce to 755 jobs, Smith said.
InMotion said the deal increases its airport channels to 120 locations in 42 of the nation’s major airports. It did not disclose the purchase price.
Before the acquisition, InMotion had locations in 39 airports.
“This acquisition accelerates the growth of InMotion by enhancing our footprint and increasing our market share,” Smith said in a news release.
InMotion said in April it expected to reach more than $135 million in revenue this year and more than $200 million within a few years.
Fifth Street Finance Corp. provided debt financing for the deal. Kirkland & Ellis LLP was the legal adviser to Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. and Palladin Consumer Retail Partners LLC.
Those two private-equity investment firms bought into the company in 2013 and incorporated InMotion Entertainment Group LLC.
Baptist closer to building Town Center emergency center
Emergency medical care is coming closer to the Town Center area.
Baptist Health has taken two major steps toward developing its free-standing Baptist Health/Wolfson Children’s Hospital Emergency Center near St. Johns Town Center and the University of North Florida.
The Jacksonville-based health system filed site and construction plans with the city and applied with the St. Johns River Water Management District for the project at Town Center Parkway and St. Johns Bluff Road, just off Interstate 295.
Construction is expected to begin this year. The center should open before the end of 2016.
It will be the health system’s second free-standing emergency center in Northeast Florida. The first opened in 2013 in Clay County. It saw 22,000 adult and pediatric patients last year, Baptist Health said.
Darin Roark, administrator for the Baptist Clay Medical Campus and Emergency Services for Baptist Health, said the system found a demand for emergency care close to home for residents in and around the Town Center area. The facility also will serve growing needs at UNF, he said.
The Baptist/Wolfson Emergency Center will serve as two emergency centers in one building and will be staffed 24/7 by a board-certified emergency medicine physician.
Baptist Health said the building will have a common entrance. The 17,030-square-foot structure has been designed to meet the needs for children and for adults.
One side will be dedicated to children and their families, with a separate waiting area and eight pediatric emergency beds staffed by Wolfson Children’s Hospital-trained pediatric staff.
Pediatric emergency medicine physicians with privileges at Wolfson Children’s Hospital will be on staff.
The other side will have a dedicated waiting area and eight adult emergency beds supported by a full-service laboratory, CT scanner, and ultrasound imaging services on-site, Baptist Health said.
Plans also show available expansion space.
The R-A-M Professional Group Inc. is the agent.
Baptist Health paid $2.14 million in March to buy the 1.76-acre site from Gate Petroleum Co., which operates a Gate gas and convenience store next to the property.
Baptist Health expanding at Metro Square
Baptist Health is leasing additional space at Metro Square office park in Southside for its back-office operations.
The health care system already occupies 118,920 square feet of space there with 700 employees. In July, it will add 17,601 square feet, although it doesn’t intend to add staff.
The center is at Philips Highway and Emerson Street and decades ago was a shopping center.
Spokeswoman Cindy Hamilton said Baptist Health will centralize its coding team by putting hospital and physician coders together for consistency and efficiency.
The reconfigured space also will accommodate call center specialists and clinical documentation resources who obtain insurance authorization for physician offices.
She said the functions are part of Baptist Health’s Central Business Office. Departments at Metro Square vary, including some employees from purchasing, billing, human resources, accounts payable, home health care and other functions.
Adams Interior Contractors Inc. is shown on a pending building permit as the contractor for the $510,036 renovation project for the expansion.
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