by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Since its founding in 1978, Birmingham, Ala.-based Graham & Company has grown into a full-service commercial real estate firm with properties throughout the Southeast. In addition to its home city, Graham & Company also owns and/or manages properties in Huntsville, Ala., Richmond, Va., Orlando and Jacksonville.
The firm entered the Jacksonville market in 2005 with the purchase of an office building in Southpoint. Last November, Graham & Company made its first Downtown acquisition by purchasing the former Flagship Bank Building at 550 Water St. for $23.3 million. After a $600,000 renovation including common area improvements, a new landscape design and removal of the outdoor sculpture at the east entrance, 550 Water Street was open and ready for some new tenants.
The building is currently about 40 percent leased, said Graham & Company Managing Broker Peter Crolius. He also said the building’s unique assets and location are what made it an attractive investment.
“We have some of Downtown’s most amazing views. We’re at least a block from any other major building and above the fifth floor, you have an unobstructed view east, south and west,” he said. “Parking, which is usually a challenge in a Downtown office location, is readily available adjacent to this building in the Water Street garage.”
With 170,000 square feet of Class A office space available including some fully available floors, Crolius said the building could accommodate almost any size tenant and he is looking in particular for a lessee with the need for a lot of space and the desire to have its corporate identity on the building.
“We can accommodate a company that needs multiple floors or just one office,” he said. “We could be the new home for a bank because we have the infrastructure already in place including a vault and a four-lane drive-through.
“At this point, we’re looking for tenants and we’re open to ideas.”
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