The owner of the historic Laura Street Trio of buildings in Downtown Jacksonville has found a potential new buyer for the long-vacant properties, Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico said Aug. 5.
Appearing on the WJCT-News talk show “First Coast Connect,” Carrico said he heard that Trio owner SouthEast Development Group was again trying to sell the buildings at Laura and Forsyth streets after several failed attempts to renovate them.
In text-message comments after the meeting, Carrico said the would-be buyer is from outside of Jacksonville and may have negotiated a purchase with SouthEast.
Asked about the new buyer, Steve Atkins, principal of SouthEast, said in a text message, “it’s a bit early for me to offer any comments on this matter.”
Carrico’s comments came as a lawsuit proceeds between the city and SouthEast over what the city says are unpaid fines owed by the owner for municipal code violations. SouthEast counters that the city unfairly used incidents of vandalism and graffiti as the basis for the suit.
“It’s complicated,” Carrico said when asked about a possible timeline for the project to move forward. “I don’t think anything happens soon, but I think something happens.”
In March 2025, the city said a potential sale of the Trio from Southeast to Live Oak Contracting had stalled and that the city was resuming action on the lawsuit after pausing it to allow the negotiations between the two parties to play out.
Phil Perry, the city’s chief communications officer, said Aug. 5 that Mayor Donna Deegan’s office had spoken with “several interested parties” on the Trio but had nothing concrete to report on any of them. Perry said the lawsuit against Southeast was moving forward and that the emergence of a new buyer would not likely affect the city’s actions.
No Live Oak deal
In January 2025, Live Oak Contracting President and CEO Paul Bertozzi told Council members he had entered into a purchase and sale agreement with SouthEast and expected to close on the deal within 45 days.
Live Oak said in March that it was still “actively working” to move the sale forward.
On Aug. 5, a company spokesperson said Live Oak is no longer involved in negotiations for the property.
“We continue to support meaningful efforts to revitalize Downtown Jacksonville and hope to see positive momentum for the site moving forward,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Carrico has been involved in the Trio both as Council president and the chair of the Council Special Committee on the Future of Downtown, which was formed in mid-2024 to examine the progress of the long-running effort to revitalize Downtown and make recommendations on how to expedite it.
Trio a ‘linchpin’
On “First Coast Connect,” Carrico called the Trio the “linchpin” of Downtown progress due partly to its central location between the Sports and Entertainment District to the east and Brooklyn and LaVilla to the west.
In those areas, work is either underway or planned on such large projects as the renovation of EverBank Stadium, the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, the proposed University of Florida graduate campus and the One Riverside mixed-use development.
Carrico also noted the Trio’s proximity to the Bay Street and Gator Bowl Boulevard corridor, along which the Four Seasons and UF campus are sited.
He noted recent news reports that developers are eyeing the former site of the Berkman II condominium tower, which is on the south side of the corridor at 500 E. Bay St., for a Hard Rock Hotel. The city says it has spoken with a group interested in the possibility of a hotel at the site, and it potentially being a Hard Rock.
Atlanta-based Choate Construction Co. sold the Berkman II site on July 18 for $7.3 million to a Texas buyer connected to Jacksonville developer Michael Munz.
Trio history
The Trio comprises the Florida Life Insurance, Bisbee and Marble Bank buildings, which were among the first built in Jacksonville after the 1901 fire that destroyed much of the city.
The three buildings are shielded by historic preservation protections under two separate classifications, having been identified as local historic landmarks and listed as contributing structures within the federally designated Downtown Jacksonville Historic District.
Atkins purchased the buildings in 2013. Three times since, the city approved incentive packages for him and his group to resurrect the structures in various forms, including as a hotel with apartments, retail spaces and restaurants.
The redevelopment project never launched, and the city did not pay out the incentives.