by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
When the Prudential building opened its doors on the Southbank in 1955, it was the tallest building in Florida.
The building, now bearing the name of primary tenant Aetna, no longer dominates Jacksonville’s skyline. After 50 years of downtown growth, the 19-floor building has company on the north and south banks. But with the building celebrating its 50th birthday this month, building manager Betsy Reichert has spent the last seven years making sure it still stands out in the crowd.
The building’s management group has planned a series of events this month to commemorate the opening of the downtown landmark. Plans are still being developed, but Reichert wants to celebrate downtown’s development over the last half century.
Reichert has been working downtown since 1977 and has watched from the inside of downtown’s most prominent buildings — Stein Mart, Humana, Barnett Bank — as downtown has gone from bustling to near-desolate. She now sees momentum swinging back and says buildings like the Aetna will play a big part in the comeback.
As important as the structure is the name on the top, she says. Having a corporate name like Aetna or Bank of America attached doesn’t just help pay the bills for the building owner, it also brands the City with a corporate presence.
“Think about the drivers driving across I-95 on that bridge,” said Reichert. “They look out and see that Aetna, Humana, Wachovia, all these companies do business here.”
Aetna leases about half the building; the insurance giant occupies floors two through eight. When Prudential downsized its local presence and sold the building in 1998, Reichert said her biggest challenge was converting the single-tenant building into one that could accommodate multiple tenants.
She oversaw a $15 million renovation that blended the old and the new. The idea was to create a building that could compete in downtown’s competitive Class A office market without losing the distinct historic feel.
Communications and security equipment was installed. The lobby’s bank of pay phones was removed to make way for a sundries store. Reichert worked with the KBJ architectural firm to design an open lobby featuring hanging lights and using the building’s original marble pillars.
Brass fittings and railings gave way to stainless steel, although not without some difficulty.
“It turns out that stainless steel doesn’t really lend itself to being curved like we needed for these railings,” said Reichert, chuckling at the memory. “It was a lot of work, but we got the result we were looking for.”
Reichert was sure the building had to be updated to compete with newer office space on both sides of the river, but not everybody was thrilled to see one of Jacksonville’s landmark buildings undergoing an extreme makeover.
“I think there was some sentiment of ‘What is this crazy person doing?” she said.
At times, Reichert wondered if they were right. She remembers a particularly stinging letter to the editor printed in The Florida Times-Union that said she was turning “Jacksonville’s grand old lady into a tired, old prostitute.”
But the results now speak for themselves.
The redesign preserved many elements of the original building. When the redesigned elevators arrive at the ground floor, the building’s original lights flash “This car up.” Several of the office suites feature the building’s 50-year-old stainless steel clocks hanging from the ceiling.
Reichert also set out to increase the services offered to the building’s tenants. She had a ground-floor mailroom installed. A coffee shop serves drinks, snacks and lunch. Reichert tries to fill up the lobby with retail that her tenants will use. A skin-care clinic has recently moved in next to the ground-floor dry cleaners.
“You have to give people services. You have to give them gathering places,” said Reichert. “It’s a big part of managing a multi-tenant building.”
It is increasingly important to cater to your tenants in a competitive market for renters of Class A office space. Reichert estimates that about 70 percent of her building’s 515,000 square feet is rented but, to fill up the remainder, she knows she will compete against Independent Square and the Bank of America Building on the Northbank.
Those buildings benefit from their location’s prestige, said Reichert.
“There is a perception that the Northbank is more prestigious,” she said. “That usually lasts until people walk into our building.”
Reichert said the Aetna Building’s spot on the Southbank gives it some advantages that downtown can’t match — for instance, the building’s riverside park and views of the Northbank. But Reichert said the building’s biggest advantage sits outside in the multi-level parking deck.
“Our biggest plus is parking,” she said. “On the Northbank, parking is a scarce commodity. They won’t even quote you their availability.”
The Aetna Building offers four parking spaces for every thousand feet of office space, she said.
The garage was partially financed by tax breaks parceled out by the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and Reichert said parking was “a big issue” for Aetna when they worked out their incentive package with the City.
Reichert credited those incentives for keeping Aetna downtown. She managed the American Heritage Life Building — later Humana and now Sun Trust — when its main tenant left downtown for a suburban office park.
With Aetna as its anchor tenant, and with new owner South Shore Group contemplating condominiums on the lot’s east end, Reichert thinks the Aetna Building will eventually be looked at as more than just an office building.
“I really see this as a place where people come from all over the Southbank,” she said. “This building will play a large part in turning downtown into a 24-hour city.”