by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Legislation that would allocate the $23 million the City needs to purchase one of downtown’s biggest buildings was introduced to the City Council Tuesday night. Part of a proposed, but mostly unformed, plan to consolidate City employees into one area of downtown, the Mayor’s Office hopes to close on the 11-story Edward Ball Building before the end of March.
Susie Wiles, one of Mayor John Peyton’s top advisors, said no decision has been made concerning which City offices would go where, but that those discussions have been ongoing for some time.
“Right now we’re still very much looking at all aspects of this plan,” Wiles said. “There are a lot of moving parts to this so we want to be very careful before we commit to anything specific.
“We need to determine who really needs to be in this area because, believe it or not, the range and size of the departments we’re looking at are bigger than the square feet in that building.”
However, Wiles did confirm that the City’s recent acquisition of the Haverty’s Building on the corner of Duval and Laura streets would also play a part in developing a “government center” around Hemming Plaza.
Doing that, she said, would improve inter-office efficiency and, at the same time, free up some valuable waterfront property where the City Hall Annex is located. Offices housing the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the Public Works Department are currently located there.
The writing may literally be on the wall: the Haverty’s building has a large sign reading “Future Home of City Hall Annex.”
The current Annex property isn’t for sale yet, but City Council president Elaine Brown said she’s pleased it will eventually be put back on the City’s tax rolls.
“I think it’s great and I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of development we can attract there,” Brown said, adding that a government square is “desperately needed.”
“It’s a wonderful idea and it can only better serve the City’s offices and the taxpayers, she said. “The closer each of our offices can be to each other, the better. As it is, we’re already bursting at the seams.”
Per Peyton’s request, Brown said the Ball legislation would be fast tracked through only one Council committee cycle. That way, Wiles said it could be approved before the necessary due diligence is completed.
“If it went through a regular Council cycle,” Wile said, “our due diligence would end on about the same day and that’s cutting it pretty close.”
Located at the corner of Hogan and Monroe streets, the Edward Ball Building — named for the late financier who ran the old Florida Bank and the
Florida East Coast Railroad — was purchased by Pennsylvania-based American Financial Realty Trust in May from Wachovia Corp.
Since then, the 2,000 bank employees who worked there have slowly been relocating to other offices across the City, vacating more and more space in the massive building every month.