By Karen Brune Mathis, [email protected]
Two Downtown towers, one on the Northbank and one on the Southbank, are slated for $4 million in renovations –– and food.
On the Northbank, Akel’s Delicatessen leased the long-closed café in the Bank of America Tower at Laura and Forsyth streets. Look for that to open this summer.
Also in the Bank of America Tower, the Smith, Gambrell & Russell LLP firm is expanding and renovating, becoming the third major law firm there to remodel in the past year.
The Akel’s renovation is a $230,000 project, while the Smith, Gambrell & Russell remodeling is almost $770,000, according to building-permit applications.
On the first floor, Marwan Akel, who owns several Akel’s Deli locations Downtown and in Southside, will take the lobby space where an eatery closed in 2009.
Akel said Tuesday he anticipates 75 to 100 seats, inside the café and in the lobby, and to serve 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday.
“We draw a lot of business,” he said. “People learn who we are and follow us.”
Akel, who works with family members at the delis, said he would be running the new Downtown location. It won’t be far from the Akel’s Delicatessens in the JEA Tower at 21 W. Church St., near EverBank Center at 315 W. Forsyth St. and at 245 Riverside Ave.
Smith, Gambrell & Russell is renovating space on the 26th and 29th floors, totaling more than 24,000 square feet of remodeled space. Dav-Lin Interior Contractors will renovate the space.
The firm’s website shows it has 34 attorneys in the Jacksonville office. The firm operates in Jacksonville, Atlanta, New York, Washington, D.C., and Frankfurt, Germany.
Jenny Wilkes, property manager for landlord Hertz Investment Group, said the law firm renewed its lease for the 26th floor. She said it also had been subleasing some space on the 29th floor and now will take that space and add to it, totaling 28,295 square feet.
On the Southbank, Stein Mart is investing an estimated $3 million in renovating its headquarters at 1200 Riverplace Blvd.
That’s the construction cost on a building-permit application, but the total investment is expected to be more. The company budgeted $4 million this year for “reconfiguring our corporate office space,” according to its annual 10-K SEC filing.
Jacksonville-based Stein Mart said it leases 110,000 square feet. The permit application covers about 98,000 square feet among six floors. Parkway Realty Services says the fashion retailer renewed its lease last year.
Stein Mart Director of Investor Relations Linda Tasseff said the company signed the original lease at the building in 1998 and occupied the space beginning in 1999. The new 10-year lease expires in 2026.
She said 450 associates work in the corporate office.