A big deal for years, the city is reviewing a building permit for the largest $696.5 million portion of the $1.4 billion “Stadium of the Future” renovation of EverBank Stadium, expected to be completed for the 2028 season.
The city issued what was then the biggest permit for the transformation Sept. 11 at a project cost of $532.14 million.
Permits topping $640 million have been issued since Dec. 10, 2024, when the foundation was approved.
Adding in the permit in review, the project costs total more than $1.3 billion.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are renovating the 30-year-old stadium Downtown with such features as a partial roof cover, expanded and elevated concourses, a park-like entrance and upgraded amenities.
More foundation work started in February.
The Jaguars played at the stadium during the 2025 NFL season with a slightly reduced capacity and are scheduled to return to EverBank in 2026 with a capacity of about 43,500.
In 2027, the Jaguars are expected to play their home games in Orlando, but with the possibility of playing in London on three of their home game dates.
Jacksonville City Council finalized a $1.45 billion package of legislation June 25, 2024, to modernize the stadium and keep the team in it for 30 years.
The deal includes $775 million in public funding from the city and $625 million from the team. The city said in December costs might rise about $100 million but that the Jaguars would pay that.
Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc. started 2025 by spending $42 million on Jan. 13 to buy the 52.23-acre Merrill Lynch Deerwood Park North campus from Bank of America for the new Jacksonville headquarters for its Mortgage Technology Division.
The deal started in 2024 when ICE announced in December it would spend at least $173 million to locate the headquarters of its Mortgage Technology division in Jacksonville.
That came after the Jacksonville City Council agreed in November to $21 million in property tax refunds and cash grants for the ICE deal to create the campus.
ICE came to Jacksonville through an earlier purchase. ICE, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, bought Jacksonville-based Black Knight, a software, data and analytics company that serves the housing finance market, for $11.9 billion in 2023.
ICE pledged to retain the existing 1,500 Black Knight jobs in Jacksonville and create 500 more.
The campus in Deerwood Park North is south of Gate Parkway east of Southside Boulevard near the commercial area known commonly as Tinseltown.
The city issued a permit in September to demolish interior space in Building 1.
The ICE campus comprises two properties divided by a lake and totaling almost 600,000 square feet of office space among four buildings.
That amount of office space could accommodate at least 2,600 workers. Merrill Lynch developed the structures in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1998, adding two garages in 1998 and 2007.
Ending a decades-long discussion, the Duval County School Board voted Nov. 4 to sell its current headquarters building along the Southbank Downtown and purchase a building in Baymeadows that will become the new administrative headquarters for Duval County Public Schools.
The board approved selling its building at 1701 Prudential Drive to Chase Properties Inc. for $17.2 million and approved purchasing a building at 8928 Prominence Parkway in Baymeadows for $13.65 million.
Chase plans to demolish the DCPS building and then develop a riverfront high-rise with 300 condominiums, 300 apartments and 200,000 square feet of commercial and retail space on the site.
The Baymeadows building, owned by a division of Dream Finders Homes, is the former headquarters for Southeastern Grocers, which is the parent company of Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie.
The agreements marked the end of a 20-year effort to move the Duval County Public Schools HQ out of its now-45-year-old building along the St. Johns River into more modern office space.
DCPS began considering selling its current administration building in 2005. A 2021 effort generated 16 bids but ultimately did not result in a sale.