• EverBank is moving its corporate headquarters to the still-under-construction, 13-story office building at the corner of Forest Street and Riverside Avenue. The bank — the eighth largest in the state — will become the anchor tenant of the building and occupy 50,000 square feet on two floors. “The new EverBank headquarters in Downtown Jacksonville is an important part of our ongoing commitment to the local area and evidence of our core strategic plan to grow our Florida and Southeastern banking business,” said EverBank Chairman and CEO, Robert Clements.
• CB Richard Ellis has been named the top commercial real estate brokerage firm in the world by National Real Estate Investor in its April issue. The ranking is based on aggregate value of sales and leasing transactions completed in 2005. Local managing director Jim Citrano said he’s proud of the accomplishment from both a local and worldwide perspective.
• Correction. In our Thursday story about the 65 new police vehicle packages, we incorrectly stated that the number of JSO vehicles that have been totaled in the past 18 months has nearly doubled. According to JSO spokesperson Lauri-Ellen Smith, the number of vehicles totaled per year is still in the 35-40 range or 3.3 a month. Also, JSO is voluntarily cutting back on the number of cars it’s requesting as opposed to Council reducing the number.
• Plaza III The Steakhouse will present a donation to the North Florida Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at a ceremony Thursday at 5 p.m. at the restaurant. When Plaza III opened at the Hyatt, owner J. Bard McLean committed to donate a portion of the restaurant’s revenues in January and February to the foundation. JDRF board members and corporate team leaders from April’s “Walk to Cure Diabetes’ are expected to attend.
• Clarification. In Thursday’s city notes, we wrote that lawyers should contact the Jacksonville Bar Association about obtaining CLE credits for the Jacksonville Film Festival’s legal panel. Lawyers should contact the Florida Bar Association instead: Their phone number is (850) 561-5600.
• The Police and Fire Pension Fund is having a hard time understanding why its Laura Street Trio historic redevelopment project was ranked so low by the Florida Legislature on a list of projects to receive state funding. Administrator John Keane is particularly galled that a dilapidated house in Baldwin received $300,000 while the Fund’s buildings got nothing. “$300,000 for a ramshackle house, and you know how historic it is?” asked Keane. “It has a historic TV antenna poking out of the top of it.”
• Jacksonville Bar Association president-elect Kelly Mathis doesn’t buy the argument that young lawyers carry too heavy a workload to devote time to pro bono hours. “That’s an excuse,” he said. “We all work long hours, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put in an hour a week to help people who need it. You’ve got to have the individual commitment.”
The new Downtown This Week is out and the cover story is about this weekend’s World of Nation’s celebration at Metro Park. The magazine is free and available all over Downtown today.