New ownership of the Citigroup campus in Flagler Center wants to amend the center’s development order to allow construction of 750 apartment units.
Through Ordinance 2025-497, introduced July 22, 2025, to Jacksonville City Council the buyers applied to amend a Development of Regional Impact to add residential as a permitted use, increase the amount of multifamily residential development that is allowed and extend the build-out dates.
Lawyer Paul Harden and civil engineering firm England-Thims & Miller Inc. are the applicants.
The legislation is assigned to the Council Land Use & Zoning Committee. It is on the Aug. 5 agenda.
Jax LC Owner 1 LLC, Jax LC Owner 2 LLC and Jax LC Owner 3 LLC own the Citigroup property at 14000 Citicards Way within Flagler Center in South Jacksonville.
New York City-based Citigroup Inc. sold its 73.4-acre campus Jan. 17, 2025, to The Wideman Co. of Orlando for $24 million in a sale-leaseback.
Citigroup Technology Inc. sold the property to Wideman entity Jax LC Owner 2 LLC, which then deeded a portion of the property to Jax LC Owner 1 LLC and Jax LC Owner 3 LLC.
“As of now, we are procuring the entitlements in case we want to use that land for multifamily or town home development,” said Harrison Loew, director of acquisitions with The Wideman Co., on Aug. 3.
“We are proceeding with the office focus but we are ensuring we have maneuverability when and if the time comes to go another route for part of the site.”
About the property
Flagler Center is between Interstate 95 and Philips Highway, south of Old St. Augustine Road and north of Bartram Park.
A conceptual master plan with the legislation details the DRI uses for almost 940 acres. Among its primary users is Baptist Medical Center South.
Previously known as Gran Park at Jacksonville, the DRI, created in 1989, allows uses for industrial, office, commercial, hospital, hotel, multifamily residential, single-family residential, senior care and senior housing.
The Wideman Co. is requesting a change within the designated allowable uses for the additional 750 apartment units.
Such changes can be accommodated by land-use conversions of one use to another.
The amendment does not involve an increase or decrease of development rights. It would increase the maximum multifamily residential development allowed by the land-use conversion in the development order.
It shows the maximum 3,200 multifamily units allowed in Flagler Center would increase to 3,950.
“Increasing the potential for multi-family dwelling units will allow for housing options in proximity to employees within the DRI without any increase in off-site traffic impact,” says the amendment description.
In Florida, a DRI is defined as “any development which, because of its character, magnitude, or location, would have a substantial effect upon the health, safety or welfare of citizens of more than one county.”
Flagler Center is in Duval County and near St. Johns County.
In 1972, the Florida Legislature adopted the Developments of Regional Impact Program to identify regional impacts from large developments and to require development order provisions to mitigate the impacts.
Effective April 9, 2018, the Legislature amended statutes to eliminate the review process regarding changes to existing DRIs. Amendments for those were then considered by the local governments that issued the development orders, without state and regional review, pursuant to their local development review procedures.
After the purchase in January, Loew said multifamily was not a plan for the Citigroup property “as of now.”
“We bought it as office real estate and intend to steward the asset as the high-quality class A office asset that it is,” he said.
The Wideman Co., an affiliate of Susquehanna Holdings Ltd., is a real estate investment firm that focuses on Class A single-tenant office and industrial assets with large, high-profile, stable tenants.
About Citi
Citigroup has operated a major credit card operations center in Jacksonville since 1997, when it bought AT&T’s Universal Card business.
In 2005, Citi Cards moved it from Deerwood Center to the new campus it developed in Flagler Center.
The campus comprises four connected buildings that total more than 530,000 square feet of space with 2,652 parking spaces.
Another 40,000-square-foot building that the Duval County Property Appraiser classifies as a private school remains separate.
The Wideman Co. announcement said that three three-story buildings, totaling 491,386 square feet, are used for offices, and the fourth is an amenity center with a food hall, outdoor dining and a conference facility.
Citigroup said it will retain its 4,000 employees in Jacksonville “with plans for growth in the next two years.”
Because of the hybrid workforce, Citigroup did not need all the space.
The announcement said Citigroup will continue occupying about 230,000 square feet of office space.
Citigroup will lease all of Building C and the first-floor space in Building B for 15 years, with four five-year renewal options, lease agreements show.
Buildings A and B are available for lease, while Building D is the amenities building.
The other 260,000 square feet of space is being offered to new tenants. Colliers International Vice President Chuck Diebel is handling leasing for the property.
Citigroup Inc. has since increased the space it intends to lease to a consolidated 250,000 square feet. It is preparing for an estimated $19 million renovation to it.
The city is reviewing permit applications for work on all three floors of Building C and on the first floor in Building B.
“The work in Building C involves modernizing the workspace with an emphasis on an open working environment, sustainability, and wellness for our employees,” a Citi spokesperson said July 9.
That project is estimated at $18.83 million.
Building B work includes installing doors and dividers on the first floor to separate the Citi space from future tenants on the second and third floors at an estimated $190,246.