Dun & Bradstreet wants to relocate its corporate headquarters to Jacksonville this fall, spending $67 million for an existing building and bringing 500 jobs.
That means the Short Hills, New Jersey, financial services and data management company must choose its next location quickly.
One building in Jacksonville appears to be a good fit – the Town Center Two office structure in South Jacksonville near St. Johns Town Center.
Here’s why.
The building has available space for a quick move-in and it last sold for $64.52 million in 2020, which makes $67 million seem like a reasonable price.
Dun & Bradstreet announced plans May 20 to relocate its corporate headquarters to Jacksonville and invest $75 million to include the real estate purchase and $8 million in tenant improvements, IT equipment, furniture and fixtures.
City Council member Aaron Bowman said June 10 that Dun & Bradstreet could announce the location soon, but he did not say where it would be.
“You saw a big announcement with Dun & Bradstreet last week. There might be another big announcement in a few days or a week. So we do have some big office projects going on,” Bowman said June 10 during a presentation to the Jacksonville Chapter of the Appraisal Institute.
He said June 11 the “big announcement” referred to Dun & Bradstreet’s pending office location.
Bowman is senior vice president of business development with the JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development division of JAX Chamber.
Dun & Bradstreet’s incentives deal with the city and state call for the $75 million capital investment.
As for the size of the building, the incentives agreement does not specify the square footage of office space Dun & Bradstreet will need, but traditional industry standards show that 500 employees would need up to 100,000 square feet of space.
Bowman said companies are calculating their square-footage needs differently as the U.S. comes out of the pandemic and they evaluate hybrid office and work-from-home models.
Jacksonville-based VanTrust Real Estate LLC developed the six-story, about 224,000-square-foot Town Center Two in 2019 on 14.2 acres at 5335 Gate Parkway across Butler Boulevard from St. Johns Town Center.
Newmark Phoenix Realty Group’s marketing brochures show that at least 73,400 square feet of space is available for sublease in Town Center Two on the fourth and sixth floors. That size space would accommodate at least a phase of Dun & Bradstreet’s employees, if not all of them.
Jim Sebesta, CEO and principal of Newmark Phoenix Realty Group, said June 12 he cannot comment.
VanTrust developed the building for lease to Jacksonville-based Web.com, which downsized to the first three floors and made the top three available for sublease.
Siris Capital Group bought Web.com Group for $2 billion in October 2018.
In August 2019, SoFi, a California-based personal loan products company, executed a lease to sublease the 37,000-square-foot fifth floor. The company opened in January 2020, pledging to hire up to 300 full-time staff in return for city and state incentives.
This year, Web.com merged with competitor Endurance Web Presence into a new company called Newfold Digital, the companies announced Feb. 10.
Newfold Digital Inc is headquartered at the Web.com offices. The announcement said Newfold Digital also will continue to have a major presence at Endurance’s headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts.
A Newfold Digital spokesperson did not respond over the weekend to questions about how much space it leases and uses at Town Center Two.
As for a purchase, Dun & Bradstreet, or an affiliated developer, could buy the building from a San Francisco investor.
VanTrust Real Estate developed both the Town Center One and Town Center Two office buildings and sold them in January 2020 for $107.1 million to TPG Real Estate of San Francisco.
TPG Real Estate declined comment June 13 when asked if it will sell the Town Center Two building in Jacksonville for Dun & Bradstreet’s new headquarters.
TPG Real Estate paid $42.61 million for Town Center One. Availity Inc. anchors the five-story, 160,196-square-foot office building developed in 2018 on 10.59 acres at 5555 Gate Parkway.
Council is considering incentives for Dun & Bradstreet.
The company will receive $4 million in incentives from the state through its High-Impact Performance Initiative.
Council will consider an additional $21 million in incentives.
The average salary of the 500 new jobs will be about $77,000.
Dun & Bradstreet’s Jacksonville connection is that it was acquired in 2019 by an investor group including Jacksonville-based Black Knight Inc..
Black Knight remains a significant investor after Dun & Bradstreet’s July 2020 initial public offering.
Anthony Jabbour, who serves as Black Knight CEO, also leads Dun & Bradstreet.
Staff writers Mike Mendenhall and Mark Basch contributed to this report.