A fourth law firm is renovating and expanding in the Bank of America Tower Downtown.
Dawson Orr will expand into about 1,730 square feet next to its 6,000-square-foot offices on the 16th floor of the 42-story high-rise at 50 N. Laura St.
Partner Michael Fox Orr said the firm plans to hire more lawyers with the expansion, which should be completed this month.
“We employed a slow growth strategy, but the market seems to disagree with that approach,” he said.
Orr said law partner Carl Dawson’s 64 years of practicing law in Jacksonville has well-positioned the firm. He said three lawyers were hired in the past year and more will be added soon.
In addition to the expansion, the firm also will be renovating some of its existing space.
Dawson Orr’s practice areas include commercial and business, real property, professional liability, construction, insurance and personal injury litigation.
Three other firms that are completing renovations are Holland & Knight, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough and Smith, Gambrell & Russell.
Law firms are well represented among tenants, with 15 firms leasing a total 225,000 square feet, or 34 percent, of the 660,000-square-foot building.
Steinemann files for $13M office building
Steinemann & Co. Real Estate is taking more steps to develop a three-story office building in Southside, submitting a building permit application for a $13 million project.
Jacksonville-based Steinemann filed the application for the next phase of Sutton Place at Windsor Parke at 13885 Sutton Park Drive S.
The FaverGray Co. is shown as the contractor for the 154,116-square-foot building, which is designed as two buildings with a connecting structure.
CEO Frank “Duke” Steinemann said he could not provide any details, including whether the structure would be speculative or if there was a tenant. He declined to provide a time frame for development.
It’s a suburban project at northeast Butler and Hodges boulevards.
It would join the completed first phase, comprising 169,000 square feet of office space. The entire site is 19.5 acres.
Another $4M in work pending for Citizens Property Downtown
Another almost $4 million in work is pending for Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in the EverBank Center Downtown.
That will be the second phase of the Tallahassee-based insurer’s renovations designed to eventually accommodate 1,000 jobs.
EverBank Center, at 301 W. Bay St., will consolidate Citizens Property’s offices from four Baymeadows locations and some IT functions from Tallahassee and Tampa.
Approved and pending renovations total almost $8 million.
Jacksonville-based Auld & White Constructors LLC is the contractor for the job.
Auld & White recently pulled a first phase of nine permits to renovate part of the first floor as well as all of the third, fifth, 12th and 13th floors.
That phase was a $4.1 million project.
It recently applied for six more permits to renovate space on three more floors — the 15th, 16th and 17th — at a construction cost of $3.85 million.
The last phase will involve two more floors –– 18th and 19th, according to Terry Durand-Stuebben, Auld & White vice president of business development.
Total tenant improvements are estimated at nearly $10.5 million. The move is expected to start this fall and be completed by the first quarter of 2016.
The entire project is expected to total almost $49.1 million, comprising the 10-year lease, furniture, equipment and other items and startup costs.
Belk offer expected
Reuters news service reported Thursday that Sycamore Partners is preparing an offer to buy Belk Inc. that could value the department store chain at $3 billion to $3.5 billion, including debt, and become the buyout firm’s largest deal.
Reuters attributed the information to people familiar with the matter. The news service said Sycamore is finalizing financing arrangements for the potential acquisition and the family that owns Belk is expected to decide this month whether to sell the company.
New York-based Sycamore Partners is a private equity firm specializing in retail and consumer investments.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk operates 297 stores in 16 states, primarily in the South. It has four stores in Jacksonville and one in St. Augustine.
Reuters said it wasn’t immediately clear what competition Sycamore faced for Belk and whether its bid would meet the Belk family’s valuation expectations.
It reported that private equity firms TPG Capital LP, KKR & Co LP, Bain Capital LLC and Golden Gate Capital considered offers for Belk earlier. It said all declined to comment.
@MathisKb
(904) 356-2466