The Jessie Ball duPont Fund has entered into a purchase-and-sale agreement for the former Haydon Burns Library Downtown for potential conversion into offices for nonprofits.
The Jacksonville-based fund is a national foundation that provides grants to organizations identified by the late Jessie Ball duPont.
Fund President Sherry Magill said the organization has leased space for its offices Downtown for about three decades and buying a building is an idea that's been "kicked around" for the past couple of years.
"We're passionate about Downtown," she said.
The fund leases space in the Wells Fargo Center at 1 Independent Drive and supports 330 eligible organizations. Its areas of focus are strengthening the independent sector; building the assets of people, families and communities; and building the capacity of eligible organizations.
Magill said The Library at 122 N. Ocean St. would be converted into a center to house mission-oriented nonprofit organizations. She said they would rent office space and share open areas.
"It's big, but not too big, and wonderfully open and transparent. We can imagine doing a lot of things with it," she said. "It's attractive and in a great location."
Magill said the fund will conduct a due-diligence review and hire a company to examine mechanical, plumbing, utility, environmental and structural aspects of the building to determine the costs to remedy any issues.
It can withdraw from the agreement for any reason during that time.
Magill said the deal could close by the end of June and then start build-out.
Neither Magill nor Bill Cesery, part of the building's ownership group, would discuss financial details.
Magill said the fund has a list of nonprofits it would approach during the review period to determine any interest in moving to the building. She said some nonprofit leaders already had approached her for more information, but she declined to identify them.
The fund completed a similar project to house nonprofits in Wilmington, Del., in the 1990s. The Community Service Building houses 73 nonprofits that share space in a 12-story building in downtown Wilmington.
Asked about the potential for street-level commercial space in The Library, Magill said the Wilmington structure provides it, but she had no announcement for Jacksonville and does not want to "close off any options at the moment."
Asked about approaching the City for financial incentives, Magill said it is not the fund's intent at this time to do so. "It's not our top priority," she said.
She said the building is a historic structure and the fund will examine the costs to accomplish its plans.
The fund is the second company to sign an agreement for the building in the past six months.
Latitude Global Inc. signed a letter of intent in September, to lease the building, but allowed the agreement to expire earlier this year.
Cesery said he was approached by the fund shortly after the Latitude deal expired and has worked with the organization for at least 30 days on the agreement. "It would bring a lot of people Downtown," he said.
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