If you could own just one commercial building in Northeast Florida, which building would it be and why?
Trip Stanly, a commercial real estate investor and managing member of Blackwater Capital, conducted an admittedly unscientific poll to his e-mail list and got 137 replies.
His guidelines were an existing commercial building of any size in Duval, St. Johns, Nassau or Clay counties.
Duval County accounted for 82 percent of the building choices, followed by St. Johns at 11 percent, Nassau at 7 percent and Clay, 1 percent.
The top 10:
1. Independent Square.
Built as the headquarters for the old Independent Life Insurance Company, it now houses various businesses including brokerages houses, attorneys and the Internal Revenue Service. It’s best known by its signature tenant, The MPS Group, which put the name of one of its subsidiaries on the building: Modis.
2. Bank of America Tower.
The city’s tallest building was build as the Barnett Bank headquarters. Mergers gave it two future names: NationsBank Building and Bank of America Tower.
3 (tie.) Jacksonville Landing.
Downtown Jacksonville’s festival shopping center has had its issues but the distinctive semicircle is Party Central for visitors.
3 (tie.) Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island.
The area’s biggest hotel is an imposing sight on the ocean between Fernandina Beach and Amelia Island Plantation along with the tall condo towers on each side.
5 (tie.) Ponte Vedra Inn & Club.
The area’s oldest resort dates back almost a century and renovations haven’t changed the Old Florida style.
5 (tie.) St. Johns Town Center.
It’s a mall that looks like a neighborhood.
7. Enterprise Center.
The glassy structure has two elements: Wachovia bank’s state headquarters and the Omni Jacksonville Hotel, joined by a walkway.
8. Alta Lakes Commerce Center.
It just opened and will serve various needs around the ever-expanding port in Northeast Duval.
9. Annie Lytle School.
It’s the distinctive structure that’s now almost hidden by the giant interchange that’s being built at the confluence of I-10 and I-95. Once a school, it’s now empty.
10. Laura Street Trio.
The three mostly-marble buildings in Downtown Jacksonville near the Bank of America Tower that are being developed.