Auld & White Constructors landed the job as the contractor to build out about 270,000 square feet of space Downtown for EverBank in the former AT&T Tower 301.
Auld & White, based in Jacksonville, will start construction as soon as the City approves the permit applications. Building owner El-Ad Florida LLC applied for the permits in late December.
Completion is expected in phases through June and July, when 1,500 to 1,600 EverBank employees will relocate from the Southside to the building, which is being renamed EverBank Center.
The building is at 301 W. Bay St.
Pamela Smith, the owner’s representative, said Wednesday that several contractors were interested in the project. Auld & White had been chosen for demolition work to prepare the space for eventual tenant build-out.
“We had a lot of great contractors come forward,” she said. “Auld & White had done the demolition and knew the building quite well. We are real excited.”
Smith declined to provide the contract amount.
The permit applications show a project cost of $8.5 million. As the property owner, El-Ad Florida, based in Sunrise, applied for the permits with the City of Jacksonville Building Inspection Division.
Separate applications show tenant construction on nine floors, 7-9 and 20-25, and cosmetic renovations to the elevator lobby and restrooms on those floors and cosmetic renovations to the second-floor restroom.
Smith said EverBank employees will move in phases. The EverBank name and logo should be put on the building in June as well, she said.
In addition to office space, EverBank Center is expected to include a fitness center, Wi-Fi hot spots, a food court and a national vendor coffee shop.
Smith said she wants the Downtown community to welcome EverBank employees. She said the Landing, Downtown Vision Inc., the parking garage operators and merchants are working with her on a program to do that.
“We want to give the EverBank employees a comfort level for Downtown. A lot of them might not have been Downtown in a while,” she said.
“It is real important for merchants to get involved with this,” she said.
Smith didn’t want to provide all the details, but said merchant coupons were one element and she encouraged retailers to think about the needs of Downtown employees and what they might need to buy in the area.
“We want to make it easy for them,” she said of the employees.
She wants merchants “to open their arms for this arrival.”
Regarding parking, Smith said that parking veteran Mark Rimmer would serve as a parking concierge or “a parking broker” to help identify and secure parking spots for the employees. She said future EverBank Center tenants also could use the service.
Smith said that EverBank also is working with other vendors for some specific needs.
Rolland, DelValle & Bradley is listed as the project architect for the nine floors of tenant improvements. Gresham, Smith & Partners is listed as the architect-engineer for the cosmetic renovations.
Jacksonville-based EverBank announced in December that it will relocate 1,500 employees from the Southside into nine floors in the Downtown tower.
EverBank is based along Riverside Avenue near Downtown and will maintain its headquarters there. The employees moving to EverBank Center are from the Southside suburbs.
The City and state agreed to offer EverBank $5.15 million in incentives to move jobs from the suburbs Downtown and create 200 more jobs.
In June, City Council approved two incentives deals. One of those gives EverBank $2.75 million to offset the moving costs. EverBank said it would spend $26.5 million to move and improve the space.
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