RockTenn Corp. plans to move its Regional Shared Services Center in June to the Downtown Southbank, where it will provide back-office functions for the company's U.S. facilities.
RockTenn is based in Norcross, Ga., and is a leading producer of corrugated and consumer packaging as well as recycled operations.
It employs about 26,000 people and operates more than 240 facilities, including a Jacksonville containerboard mill, in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile, Argentia and China.
Robin Keegan, director of communications, said Monday the processing center will move from a smaller building near its Eastport Road mill in North Jacksonville to the Southbank.
She said while the space is larger, the employment level will remain at 70.
RockTenn bought Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. in 2011,.
Plans show RockTenn will move the center to the duPont Center II building at 1660 Prudential Drive.
Building plans show tenant improvements for 12,791 square feet of space on the second floor of the four-story, 80,000-square-foot building.
C. Harrison Construction of Callahan is listed as the contractor for the $614,503 project.
Plans show space for offices and open- office areas, meeting and break areas, a mail room, a privacy room and a mother's room.
Keegan said the majority of RockTenn's facilities are in the U.S. and the center will provide functions for those. Those functions include invoice processing, purchasing orders, invoicing for suppliers and similar functions.
"They are moving to a more modern office space to accommodate the work they do," she said.
"The reason they are looking at Downtown is there is space there that is appropriate for the work that they do and they were able to negotiate a lease that was an appropriate price for the space," she said.
The leasing representative for duPont Center with the Flagler development company who worked on the deal did not immediately respond to questions.
Downtown jobs, especially those that might be associated with regional headquarters or financial operations, are among the targeted industries by the JAX Chamber and Mayor Alvin Brown.
Smurfit-Stone has been a well-known name in the area.
In June 2010, Chicago-based Smurfit-Stone, with operations in Jacksonville and Fernandina Beach, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after restructuring its debts during a recession that weakened demand for packaging.
RockTenn and Smurfit-Stone announced a merger agreement in January 2011 and shareholders approved it in May 2011. Smurfit-Stone became a wholly owned subsidiary of RockTenn. The North Jacksonville RockTenn Seminole containerboard mill is at 9469 Eastport Road, off Heckscher Drive.
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