Dixon Hughes Goodman is relocating from Southpoint to the 245 Riverside Ave. building Downtown.
"We like to be good corporate citizens, contributing corporate citizens, and we know Jacksonville has a major initiative to promote Downtown and make that a center of our financial community and we want to be supportive of that," said Lance Windley, office managing partner of the accounting firm's Jacksonville operation.
Dixon Hughes Goodman will move from the Bank of America Building at 6622 Southpoint Drive S. Windley expects the move to be completed by Oct. 18.
Windley said the move brings Dixon Hughes Goodman closer to its clients and business partners as well.
Windley said Dixon Hughes Goodman will move its 40 employees to 15,000 square feet of space on parts of the third and fourth floors at 245 Riverside Ave., which is on the Northbank of the St. Johns River and overlooks the corridor of development in the Brooklyn area.
The square footage is less than the 18,000 square feet the firm leases in Southpoint, but Windley said it is designed more efficiently and suitably for current work trends.
"It's indicative of the future," he said. "The same amount of people do not need as much space and when you look at the space, the private space is much smaller and the public space is much larger," he said.
He said the design brings workers together more easily. While there will be offices that provide for confidential work, those offices have glass fronts and provide more visibility within the workplace.
The public space is set for teamwork and allows for more flexibility, he said.
"We want the office to be set up for you to be as productive as possible," he said.
He said the two floors are connected by an open stairway and that the lower of the two floors will offer a café-type environment with a soda fountain, coffee makers and other features.
The offices will overlook the Riverside Avenue area, where 220 Riverside is under development. Several developments are planned or underway in the corridor that links the Riverside and Five Points areas to the Downtown core.
He said the office space is designed for 50 people.
Windley declined to say the investment Dixon Hughes Goodman is making in the new space. A pending building permit shows a $375,861 renovation cost for about 12,000 square feet of the space.
Dav-Lin Interior Contractors is shown as the contractor and ASD is the architect.
Windley said the goal was to provide the team "the tools they need, which include the technological tools and the atmosphere to be as productive as possible."
"It's going to be open so the sun will shine from one side all the way through to the other side," he said.
He said the main conference room will be a centerpiece for the public space.
Dixon Hughes came to Jacksonville when it merged with the Jacksonville-based Presser, Lahnen & Edelman firm in 2009. Accountingtoday.com reported in April 2009 that the practices would be combined effective June 1 that year. (It later became Dixon Hughes Goodman).
Presser, Lahnen & Edelman was formed in 1986 and is an outgrowth of a firm co-founded by Neil Presser in 1966, according the report.
Windley said the offices have been in Southpoint for 30 years. Among the eight local partners are brothers Daniel Edelman, Florida managing partner, and Matthew Edelman.
Dixon Hughes Goodman is based in Charlotte, N.C., and employs more than 1,800 people, including more than 240 partners and principals, more than 30 offices in 11 states. It says it is the largest certified public accounting firm based in the Southern U.S. and the 14th largest in the nation.
In addition to accounting and advisory services, the firm focuses on eight major industries and serves clients nationwide, according to its dhgllp.com site.
Windley said the firm inquired about incentives with the City, "but I don't think it fit what we were trying to do."
David DeCamp, director of communications for Mayor Alvin Brown, said he could not talk about the discussions.
"We always appreciate businesses that take action to elevate their company and invest in the Jacksonville economy. As a practice, we do not discuss terms of negotiations," DeCamp said.
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