Fanatics Inc. intends to consolidate more than 300 employees from several offices around Jacksonville into one building at Cypress Point Business Park in the Southside near Baymeadows.
Thomas Baumlin, chief financial officer of the Jacksonville-based company, said in a March 11 letter included with building plans that Fanatics will lease the 57,000-square feet-foot building at 8100 Nations Way.
The company retails officially licensed sports merchandise and maintains its corporate headquarters at its Westside distribution center.
Fanatics, created in Jacksonville in 1995, has been seeking a headquarters office site for some time. It primary warehouse is in West Jacksonville at 5245 Commonwealth Ave., which corporate records show is its principal address.
Baumlin explained the building in Cypress Point will have a combination of open and private office spaces and conference room spaces to accommodate meetings of different sizes. It also will be renovated to include several collaborative spaces to feature break-out areas with TVs as well as a staff lounge.
Baumlin specified the building will be a “single tenant office space.” While the two-story building will have the capacity for 540 occupants, the intended staff count will be more than 300.
Auld & White Constructors LLC is the contractor for $1.34 million renovation project. The building formerly served as corporate offices for EverBank. Gresham, Smith and Partners is the architect.
HGL Properties LP Ltd. owns the property, which was developed in 1999.
A Fanatics spokesman did not return calls Thursday or Friday. A message left at the company’s headquarters was not returned either.
Fanatics is an online retailer that says it offers the broadest online assortment of officially licensed items through both fanatics.com and fansedge.com, as well as the largest selection of sports collectibles and memorabilia through Fanatics Authentic at fanaticsauthentic.com.
It says it also powers the e-commerce sites of all major professional sports leagues — NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, PGA; major media brands — NBC Sports, CBS Sports, FOX Sports; and more than 150 collegiate and professional teams.
Fanatics has been adding space around town. Last fall, it leased at least 212,000 square feet of space at 4300 Bulls Bay Highway in the Westside Industrial Park. A spokesman said then the space was for the Fanatics Apparel division, which handles all the personalization and customization side of the business.
Fanatics also operates a call center at 6800 Southpoint Parkway in Southside.
Football Fanatics was founded in 1995 with a single store in Jacksonville. Brothers Alan and Mitch Trager created Fanatics after the Jacksonville Jaguars franchise was announced in 1993.
Almost a year ago, Doug Mack, CEO of One Kings Lane, was named CEO and a board director of Fanatics as Alan Trager retired as CEO.
The company was acquired in 2011 by GSI Commerce Inc., which soon after agreed to a buyout by eBay Inc. As part of the eBay deal, Fanatics and two other GSI businesses were spun off into a private company formed by GSI Chief Executive Michael Rubin called Kynetic.
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