by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Escaping from reality is something everyone likes to do and The Florida Theatre offers a variety of venues to do just that. But, don’t try and lease office space; even though there are 30,000 square feet, it’s all taken and there’s a line of City agencies waiting to get in.
Many look at the building as only an entertainment venue. It has over 200 shows a season including international dance, opera classics, children’s shows, music concerts and films. Thousands of people a season go through its doors.
“Everybody has been in this theatre at some point in time, from every walk of life,” said Saundra Floyd, director of rental operations for The Florida Theatre.
But, there’s also the office space. Its entrance is a few feet west of the theatre box office and there’s a small lobby with a guard.
The city’s Planning and Development Department takes up about 85-90 percent of the building’s office space. The other tenant is The Florida Theatre’s administrative offices which are operated privately by The Florida Theatre Performing Arts Center, a non-profit corporation.
The City will move many of the second floor workers out when the new Emergency Preparedness facility is complete, but there will be more moving in. Plus, there will be a bit more room in the already-crammed offices.
The entire building has been a part of Jacksonville’s history since April 8, 1927.
As the city’s last remaining example of fantasy architecture, it was designed by architects R.E. Hall of New York and Roy Benjamin in a mix of Byzantine, Egyptian, Spanish, Persian, Italian, French and Georgian styles.
The elegant main lobby is reminiscent of a Moorish courtyard at night with hand crafted wrought iron railings, grand balconies, sparkling fountains and glittering stars.
Following a number of owners, dwindling attendance and a disappearance of downtown nightlife, The Florida Theatre — not the office building — closed in 1980.
In 1981, a $500,000 State of Florida grant, a $350,000 City of Jacksonville Community Development Block grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and $100,000 in private commitments made it possible for the Arts Assembly of Jacksonville to purchase The Florida Theatre and save it for the community.
It was brought back to life by Jacksonville’s arts community as a multi-use performing arts center and reopened in 1983.
Since the restoration and reopening, it has hosted over 3,000 different events attended by more than three million people. The theatre has three levels, seats 1,900 people and has 20 wheelchair accessible areas.
The building was purchased by the City in 1985 and the office spaces were taken over by city workers. The building had housed a variety of professionals — Judge William Maness perhaps was its most prominent tenant — but it became dedicated to City workers.
Renovations on the office space are done on an as needed basis and one of those was to update the elevators.
“The elevators were manually driven until 1990,” said Joe Collier, who acts as the building’s maintenance supervisor. “The city decided to upgrade because the equipment was very old, parts were not attainable and the cost of paying operators.”
Since the building was designated as a national and local historical landmark, all renovations have to be back to the original design.
Part of the roof was recently restored back to the original design.
“We put back the original terra cotta barrel tile that was originally on the building,” said Collier.