AT&T Tower 301 owners are clearing out nine floors of space at the Downtown tower, according to a City building permit issued Thursday to Auld & White Constructors LLC.
The building has been considered a leading site for a move by EverBank from the suburbs to Downtown. Site plans don’t show a tenant name, while building representatives have not returned requests for comment.
Lawyer Steve Diebenow, who represents EverBank, had no comment this morning.
The permit, with a demolition project cost of $405,000, shows that Jacksonville-based Auld & White will demolish floor coverings, interior wall partitions and acoustical ceilings of floors 7-9 and 20-25 of the building at 301 W. Bay St.
Auld & White President Ed White said Friday he did not know who the eventual tenant is for the space. The demolition is “to ready it for a potential tenant,” said White, “getting those floors back to their shell space.”
The architect for the project is Rolland, DelValle & Bradley.
Some of the space under demolition had been leased by CSX Corp., which vacated the floors earlier this year to move to space closer to its Downtown riverfront headquarters. A CSX spokesman said the company had floors 6, 8-9, 20, 24, and 27-28 and parts of floors 4 and 29.
CSX leased 240,000 square feet in the 30-floor tower, which is owned by El Ad Florida LCC of Sunrise.
AT&T also uses eight floors in the building that carries its name. AT&T spokeswoman Misty Skipper said Friday that the company does not comment on the specific location of its operations.
In June, City Council approved two incentives deals for EverBank to make the move.
One was an economic development agreement between the City and company to relocate 1,000 jobs Downtown from the Southside and create 200 new full-time jobs.
Under the agreement for a Qualified Target Industry tax refund program, the City will provide $420,000 and the state will refund $1.68 million after the company creates and verifies the 200 jobs.
The second piece of legislation would give EverBank $2.75 million to offset moving costs from the suburbs.
EverBank, based along Riverside Avenue near Downtown, said the $2.75 million would help offset the $26.5 million it said it will spend to move and improve space Downtown to house the 1,000 employees that would relocate from leased space in the Quadrant II and Cypress Plaza office centers, both in Southside. The jobs must be moved by Sept. 30.
A Jacksonville Economic Development Commission project summary said EverBank negotiated to lease more than 225,000 square feet of space and 1,400 parking spaces Downtown. No site was specified in the summary except to say it is within the urban core bounded by Jefferson, State and Main streets and the St. Johns River. AT&T Tower 301 is within that area.
EverBank’s options are to renew its current leases, evaluate new sites for construction or relocate to other existing office space, either in the suburbs or Downtown, according to the commission.
Also, the City deal says that EverBank must maintain at least 1,350 jobs among its Riverside Avenue area headquarters and the urban core for at least five years. EverBank has 284 employees at its headquarters, according to the JEDC summary.
Of those 1,350 jobs, 1,000 must be maintained in the core.
The City would make the payment after EverBank moved the jobs and provided documentation.
If it creates the jobs outside of those areas, the refund would be $1.3 million. In either case, the City would pay 20 percent of the refund and the state would pay 80 percent, after the jobs are created and taxes paid.
Any tenant taking the space in A&T Tower 301 likely could affect Downtown’s office vacancy rates.
A CBRE MarketView for Jacksonville shows a 24.7 percent vacancy rate in the Downtown Central Business District for the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30. CBRE found that the total area office vacancy rate was 21.2 percent.
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