The city issued a permit Feb. 25 for Ameris Bank to build a drive-thru at its Downtown Northbank branch on the ground floor of the 18-story tower at 200 W. Forsyth St.
Choate Construction Co. of Atlanta is the contractor. Warner Summers of Atlanta is the architect.
The drive-thru is in the parking lot on the west side of the structure.
Jacksonville City Council voted March 25, 2025, to allow an exception to Downtown zoning codes that restrict drive-thru and drive-in facilities. Ordinance 2025-0074 was designed to help facilitate Ameris Bank’s plans for a new branch in the building.
Ameris, which anchors Riverplace Tower on the Southbank, announced June 9, 2025, that it opened the branch offering retail banking, business banking and mortgage lending.
The bank, a subsidiary of Ameris Bancorp, said it renovated the ground-floor 5,250-square-foot space. The location employs more than 10 people, bringing a total of more than 330 Ameris employees to metro Jacksonville.
The city issued a building permit April 16, 2025, for Choate Construction to build-out a teller office, collaboration offices and break room areas on the 17,265-square-foot ground floor at a project cost of $502,970.
The 18-story building, developed in 1975, is at Forsyth, Hogan, Bay and Julia streets. Jacksonville-based Ash Properties bought it and a parking garage for $24.47 million in July 2018.
It most recently was Truist Tower. Truist relocated to the Southbank and the West Forsyth Street building seeks an anchor tenant.