At least $400,000 in renovations are proposed at the Prominence office park in Baymeadows for RP Funding, which intends to open a servicing center that will expand to 150-175 employees.
CFO Jon Woods said RP Funding expects a further $100,000 investment in furniture and equipment. He anticipates a mid-May opening.
Woods said previously the company would lease 26,500 square feet of office space and he expected the center to reach 175 jobs in a year to 18 months.
Marand Builders Inc. is the contractor for build-out at 8381 Dix Ellis Trail, which is Building 500 at the Baymeadows office center.
Maitland-based RP Funding is hiring mortgage loan processors and closers for the Jacksonville office. Woods said the company has about 35 employees working in temporary space at the park.
RP Funding Direct Mortgage Lender is a full-service lender that underwrites, closes and funds its loans. The Jacksonville office will service, process, underwrite and close loans.
Robert Palmer started the company in 2008. In addition to its Maitland offices, it opened an operations center in Lakeland, Palmer’s hometown.
Scott Henley of Newmark Grubb Phoenix Realty Group represented RP Funding in the lease negotiations. Woods said Jesse Shimp of JLL represented Crocker Partners, who is the landlord at Prominence.
Westside could gain new commercial center
Westside landowner Chuck Boyd is working on plans for a commercial development he calls Chaffee Hills along Chaffee Road at the pending New World Avenue extension.
Site-grading plans show three buildings on the 12.95-acre site, which Boyd said includes some property set aside for retention, right-of-way and other uses. The actual parcel that can be developed will be 5.84 acres.
AVA Engineers Inc. is the engineering consultant and ECT Inc. is the environmental consultant.
Boyd said he asked engineers to design a maximum use of the property, although those plans are tentative uses.
Those plans show a potential 28,000-square-foot commercial building, a fast-food restaurant and a gas station of 8,000 square feet and 18 pump islands.
He said the property is zoned as a Planned Unit Development for commercial uses.
Boyd said he does not intend to develop the property. He wants to sell it as a whole or in parts. He said construction should start on the New World Avenue extension after the city obtains property for right of way. The extension should come through the southern part of his site.
Boyd said there are no prospective buyers or tenants.
City spokeswoman Tia Ford said the design/build contract was awarded to Petticoat-Schmitt Civil Contractors Inc. last month. Survey work is under way and the project schedule calls for completion in summer 2017.
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