An option has emerged for replacing the Duval County jail, but few details are available.
Phil Perry, the city of Jacksonville’s chief communications officer, said May 8 in response to a records request that the city received an unsolicited proposal from a team of private companies to build a new jail.
Perry confirmed that the proposal, first reported by Daily Record news partner News4Jax, came from HOK, Ajax Building Co. and Sustainability Partners.
The city did not immediately provide a copy of the proposal. Perry said portions of it are exempt from public records laws and are being redacted by the city Office of General Counsel.
In 2024, a special Jacksonville City Council committee examined how to address problems with the 34-year-old jail, formally the John E. Goode Pre-trial Detention Facility, at 500 E. Adams St.
The committee reported that the jail suffered from overcrowding, staffing shortages and outdated infrastructure, with the city spending more than $12 million over the previous five years.
“Despite this investment, current maintenance issues include mold, plumbing leaks and pipes that need replacement, electrical and HVAC issues, and power outages,” the committee stated in its final report.
The committee envisioned closing the jail and building a campus-style facility away from Downtown that would include on-site health and mental health treatment, among other services. The cost of the new facility could exceed $1 billion.
HOK Architects
Among the partners in the unsolicited proposal, St. Louis-based HOK Architects’ work in Jacksonville includes designing the transformation of EverBank Stadium into the Jacksonville Jaguars’ $1.4 billion “Stadium of the Future.”
In the early 1990s, HOK Sport Venue Event was the architect for a renovation of the stadium, then called the Gator Bowl, for the expansion Jaguars. The team played its first game there in 1995.
In 2009, HOK Sport would leave HOK in a managers’ buyout and be renamed Populous.
Ajax Building Co.
Ajax Building Co. was listed at No. 16 in the Daily Record’s Northeast Florida’s Top 25 Contractors list this year.
Projects started by Ajax in 2024 include the $160 million, 256,000-square-foot Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ new Conner Facility. That facility is expected to consolidate about 940 FDACS employees across 13 divisions in Tallahassee into a single location.
The company, which specializes in construction management at-risk and design-build, listed portfolio projects such as the University of North Florida East Ridge Honors Residence Hall, a 165,000-square-foot facility that will include space for 520 beds, standard amenities such as study areas, lounge areas and a central kitchen on each floor.
Sustainability Partners
Sustainability Partners, headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, said on its website: “We work with Municipalities, Universities, Schools, Hospitals, Water/Rail/Power Districts, Ports, and HOAs to provide unique alternatives to traditional finance (on or off balance sheet, CapEx or OpEx, debt or non-debt).”
Domino effect
Moving the jail could have domino-type ramifications for other projects.
The jail site has been discussed as a potential location for a new convention center, a possibility that Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer mentioned in a public appearance in June 2024.
“We think it’s (convention center) ideally located there because it is kind of equal distance between the sports and entertainment facilities — the baseball grounds, the arena and the current Hyatt (Regency Jacksonville Riverfront) and the entertainment district — with Florida Theatre and the bars that are developing,” Boyer told the Meninak Club of Jacksonville.
The current Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center in LaVilla factors into the University of Florida’s proposed LaVilla graduate school campus. UF’s plans call for the newer portion of the convention center to be razed to make way for classroom buildings.
Under a provision in the DIA resolution affecting the disposition of the convention center, a developer may not exercise the option to close until five years after the effective date of a redevelopment agreement and option agreement on the property.
The developer also would need to have completed construction on two other related properties before closing in the convention center.
The provision is designed to allow the city to continue using the Prime Osborn while developing a new one.
The DIA board approved the disposition via Resolution 2025-02-02 in February 2025.