Six property owners, including a representative for Regency Square Mall, bid in the latest round to land a consolidated Jacksonville operations center for Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
The state government corporation provides insurance protection to Florida property owners and seeks about 226,400 square feet of space for the operations center. Responses were due Tuesday.
All four properties proposed in the first round were submitted in the second one, as well as two new ones – Regency Square Mall at 9501 Arlington Expressway and Graham & Co. for 7215 Financial Way, where Citizens Property now operates. The current landlords did not bid in the first round.
The original four are Ivy Investments for 7960 Arlington Expressway; Crocker Partners for 8935 Freedom Commerce Parkway in the Prominence business park; CRT Baymeadows Ltd. for 8800 Baymeadows Way W.; and Amkin West LLC for the EverBank Center Downtown at 301 W. Bay St.
EverBank Center’s former owner, El Ad Florida LLC, submitted a bid in the first round. It sold the tower last week to Amkin West Bay LLC of Miami.
Citizens Property provided only the vendor names and building addresses for the bid sites. It would not disclose the bid amounts, citing a Florida Statute.
Citizens Property also said the responses to the Invitation to Negotiate are exempt from disclosure as public records until Citizens provides a notice of decision or 30 days after the opening of the bids. It said it has chosen to keep the information confidential as provided.
Regency Square was sold in February and its owners want to reposition the West Mall portion of the 47-year-old Arlington shopping center with new uses, as well as retail. A church recently leased space there and representatives have talked about nontraditional mall uses.
The first bids for the Citizens Property center were submitted June 24, but Citizens rejected those, saying it identified at least one deficiency in each. It issued a new Invitation to Negotiate.
Citizens Property now leases 211,288 square feet among four buildings in the Baymeadows area and wants to consolidate into a single building or among several buildings at a single site. The offices comprise underwriting and claims operations.
Citizens Property intends to consolidate its Jacksonville operations, which have 800 employees, and move another 148 IT jobs into one large office. The bid documents say it is interested in bids for 215,080 to 237,720 square feet of space.
Citizens Property’s next step is to recommend a vendor or vendors for presentations and after that will recommend a vendor or vendors for negotiations. The calendar shows the “best value determination” is expected Nov. 3.
The company wants to start moving staff into the space July 1 and start the lease Jan. 1, 2016.
Cushman & Wakefield of Florida Inc. represents Citizens in seeking the lease opportunity.
For more information, visit citizensfla.com.
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