Five months into ownership, the buyer of The Residences at Barnett 18-story building Downtown is preparing to build-out a third-floor amenities space for its tenants at 112 W. Adams St. and also plans to convert two more floors for apartments, a plan ownership pledged upon the purchase.
Amenities
Plans show a kitchen and bar, fitness center, stretch and mobility space, billiards, rentable storage, laundry area, media lounge, conference and cowork uses, a lounge, leasing and offices, and a podcast room, along with mechanical and other space.
Avant Construction Group is the contractor for the estimated $750,000 project to renovate about 7,000 square feet of space. Group 4 Design Inc. is the architect and interior designer. Both are based in Jacksonville.
Through BMG Barnett LLC, Becovic Management Group owns The Barnett at southwest Adams and Laura streets.
Ground-floor cafe
The project comes as the city reviews a separate permit for a cafe, barista and market on the ground floor along West Adams Street.
The city is reviewing a permit for tenant build-out of 646 square feet for the Barnett Cafe for dining, coffee, a market and back-of-house space.
The permit specifies tenant build-out of cafe space on the first floor. Access is shown as through The Barnett’s entrance on Adams Street. It is adjacent to Chase Bank, which anchors the ground floor.
The cafe is designed next to a reception desk. The space now appears to be the package room, which other plans show will be moved past the reception desk.
Avant Construction Group also is the contractor for that estimated $95,000 project.
Group 4 Design is the architect and interior designer.
More apartments
The building now features 11 stories of apartments from the eighth through 18th floors. Those total 107 units.
Second-phase plans show that the Residences will add 18 apartments with nine each on the sixth and seventh floors.
The second through seventh floors had been occupied or available for lease to office tenants.
The Barnett purchase
In December, Indiana-based Becovic Management Group closed on the historic Barnett National Bank Building for $15.63 million.
Becovic bought the Barnett through BMG Barnett LLC. The seller was Barnett Tower 2 LLC, which is affiliated with SouthEast Development Group.
The deed stated existing leases with JPMorgan Chase Bank and the University of North Florida.
Becovic took out a $14 million mortgage with Wells Fargo Bank in Indianapolis.
SouthEast and Las Vegas-based Molasky Group of Cos. renovated the Barnett building into The Residences at Barnett, a mixed-use development, in 2018. Danis Construction was the contractor for the project.
In 2017, the building owner applied for a permit for almost $22.4 million to transform the structure built in 1923.
Joshua Roberts, director of acquisitions for BMG, said Dec. 4, 2025, that the building was not fully renovated.
He said Becovic planned to finish it by completing a planned amenities center on the third floor and building-out two other floors.
“That building has no amenities. So the third floor will be an amenity center, which will start immediately,” he said. “Then the sixth and seventh floor, which were initially planned to be additional commercial space, we’re actually going to convert that into multifamily.”
Roberts said in December the group was working with architects on a plan for the sixth and seventh floors but believed it would involve 18 to 20 units.
Privately held Becovic Management Group is led by president and owner Muhamed Becovic. It was founded in 1973.
The group has developed and sold luxury apartment developments in Northeast Florida. It owns the Lost Lake at 8681 AC Skinner Parkway and sold The Howell at the Preserve Apartments at 780 Island Point Drive in August for $37.75 million.
Becovic Management Group also has taken over the mortgage on the historic Laura Street Trio across the street.
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.
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.