After purchasing the Barnett National Bank Building in December, Indiana-based Becovic Management Group has taken over the mortgage on the historic Laura Street Trio across the street in Downtown Jacksonville.
In a court filing recorded Feb. 2, the mortgage for the three buildings at Laura and Forsyth streets was assigned to BMG Trio LLC from ROCF II Series, a series of Red Oak Capital Fund Series LLC. The principal on the mortgage is listed at $6.3 million.
The mortgage transfer comes after Becovic’s late 2025 purchase of the Barnett building through BMG Barnett LLC from Barnett Tower 2 LLC, which is affiliated with SouthEast Development Group. SouthEast’s principal is Steve Atkins, longtime owner of the Trio.
Before Becovic purchased the Barnett building, it announced it also planned to purchase and renovate the Trio with an adaptive reuse of all three buildings and new construction on the site.
BMG Trio LLC’s manager is Muhamed Becovic, the president and owner of Becovic Management Group.
According to the court filing, Delaware-based Red Oak Capital Fund Series LLC was formerly Red Oak Capital Fund II LLC, which held the mortgage on the Trio. Red Oak Capital Fund II LLC was part of Red Oak Capital Holdings, a commercial real estate financing and investment company based in North Carolina.
Before Becovic purchased the Barnett building, it said it had set a tentative closing date of Dec. 18 on the Trio.
During a Feb. 9 meeting of the City Council Special Committee on the Future of Downtown, city Chief Administrative Officer Mike Weinstein said negotiations between Becovic and SouthEast on a sale agreement had fallen through.
He said the city has worked with Becovic since then and that he is “more optimistic than ever before” that restoration of the Trio will move forward.
Foreclosure action
Weinstein said the city will continue to press forward on the foreclosure lawsuit.
Court records show the city filed a foreclosure lawsuit in November 2024 naming SouthEast-affiliated Laura Trio LLC and Red Oak Capital Fund II LLC as defendants. In the suit, the city claimed Laura Trio LLC, the owner of the buildings, owed the city $827,500 in fines for municipal code violations.
In May 2025, the city filed a notice of lis pendens against Laura Trio LLC and Steve Atkins. A lis pendens is a precursor to a foreclosure.
On Feb. 6, 2026, a motion was filed to substitute BMG Group for Red Oak in the foreclosure action.
In assuming debt while the lawsuit plays out, Becovic gained leverage toward a potential acquisition of the Trio. If the property were to be foreclosed upon and auctioned, the winning bidder would have to pay off the debt that has been assumed by Becovic.
The Trio has been nearing foreclosure since 2024.
The city paused its action in early 2025 after Jacksonville-based Live Oak Contracting announced it had reached an agreement to purchase the Trio from Atkins.
Negotiations on a finalized purchase deal fell through, prompting the city to resume action on the lawsuit.
At the time, Jacksonville City Council member (now president) Kevin Carrico said obstacles on the deal included liens on the property that SouthEast had been unable to satisfy. The liens had been placed on the property by an architect, he said.
Dasher Hurst Architects P.A. filed a lien Feb. 6 saying it is owed $474,149.45 for work done between 2013 and 2024.
Trio’s history
The Trio comprises the Florida Life Insurance, Bisbee and Marble Bank buildings at northeast Laura and Forsyth streets. The buildings, which have been vacant for decades, were among the first built after the 1901 fire that destroyed much of Jacksonville.
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.
Requests to demolish any of the buildings would be subject to approval by the city Historic Preservation Commission. If approved, the Council Land Use and Zoning Committee would review the request and make a recommendation to the full City Council on whether to grant final approval for razing.
Atkins purchased the buildings in 2013.
In 2017, Council OK’d $5.8 million in public incentives toward a $44.6 million project that included only the restoration of the historic buildings.
In 2021, the Council-approved incentive amount increased to $26.6 million for a $70.4 million version of the redevelopment that included new construction for a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel.
In 2023, SouthEast returned with a request for $63.5 million in incentives for updated plans that added new construction for 149 apartments with market-rate and workforce housing units. The price for that version of the project was $175 million.
In June 2023, the Downtown Investment Authority board voted 5-1 to send a term sheet for that version of the project to Council with neither a recommendation for or against it. DIA staff reported at the time that SouthEast did not meet certain DIA criteria for incentives, including the level of private investment and the return on public investment.
After rejecting legislation aimed at moving the project forward, Council voted in January 2024 to send the issue back to the DIA.
That prompted another round of negotiation in which the total cost of the project rose to $191.2 million and SouthEast’s requests for incentives climbed to $87.2 million, which would be almost 46% of the cost being backed by the city.
As the asks for incentives went up, Atkins faced rising concerns among city leaders that he was not bringing enough private capital to the project and that his requests for public funding would put the city at increasingly outsized financial risk.
This story has been updated with new information