Crowley Regency Inc. sold the Regency headquarters building for Crowley Maritime Corp. on Wednesday for $20.1 million.
Jacksonville-based Crowley Maritime intends to continue occupying the building at 9487 Regency Square Blvd., north of Regency Square Mall.
“We are committed to staying here,” said spokesman David DeCamp. “We have entered into a sale-leaseback agreement for the property, and will be located here for the foreseeable future.”
About 950 of Crowley’s 5,300 global employees work in Jacksonville facilities. It occupies the entire Regency building.
Crowley Regency sold the property to CH Jacksonville FL Landlord LLC, in care of SunTrust Equity Funding LLC of Atlanta.
The five-story, 112,060-square-foot building was developed on 5.4 acres in 1984, Duval County property records show.
Crowley bought it in 1993 from Aetna Life Insurance Co. for $6 million. The property is assessed at almost $5.5 million for tax purposes, according to property records.
“Crowley is not in the office real estate business. This was one of the few properties that we owned, and we decided to monetize the value of the building and use the proceeds to help fund our growth plans,” said DeCamp, manager of corporate and marketing communications.
“This is something that we’ve been looking to do for quite some time,” he said.
Crowley Regency Inc. Senior Vice President and Treasurer Daniel Warner signed the deed. He holds the same titles with Crowley Maritime.
Crowley Maritime is a U.S. owned and operated marine, transportation and logistics company. It provides domestic and international services through six operating lines of business: Puerto Rico/Caribbean liner services; Latin America liner services; logistics; marine contract solutions; deep sea petroleum transportation; and petroleum transportation, distribution and sales in Alaska.
Thomas Crowley founded the company in 1892 in San Francisco. It added Jacksonville in 1974 as a mainland port of call for cargo bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Crowley Maritime Corp. was formed in 1975 and added operations to Jacksonville over the years, ultimately moving its headquarters in 2007 to the Regency building it earlier acquired.