Seven Decisions That Killed Downtown

[jaxlongtimer]

The Charter Company was founded in 1949 by Raymond Knight Mason. Initially, in the mortgage, banking and development industries, it expanded into the gas and oil industry in the late 60s and early 70s, acquiring gas stations, tanker contracts and a refinery in Texas. When the Arab Oil Embargo struck in 1973, Charter cashed in, becoming a Fortune 500 company and the apple of Wall Street's eye.

Charter also purchased the du Pont Trust's interest in Florida National Bank (see page on the rise and fall of FNB), when Congress forced du Pont to divest itself of FNB. Charter's downtown headquarters were located in the Universal-Marion Building. Located at 21 West Church Street, the modern 19-story tower was the tallest building in the Northbank when it was completed in 1963.

By 1981, Charter's sales totalled $5 billion and the time had come for the company to put its mark on Jacksonville's skyline. Charter teamed up with Southern Bell, proposing a 30-story skyscraper that would house both of the company's offices. With nearly 1 million square feet of leasable office space, the Charter/Southern Bell Tower would be Jacksonville's largest. Now, known as EverBank Center, a notable feature of the 447-foot tower is that each floor has 16 corner offices.

Unfortunately, Charter's fall from grace would be quick. On July 29, 1982, four of the company's senior executives died in a helicopter crash in Ireland. At the same time, Charter took a beating when a serious surplus of crude oil led to a major oil glut in the 1980s. Hemorrhaging revenue, Charter backed out of plans to locate offices in the Charter/Southern Bell Tower, which was completed in 1983.

Less than a year later, downtown's lone Fortune 500 company laid off 200 of its downtown Jacksonville workforce, filing for protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy law on April 20, 1984. By 1985, Charter's downtown workforce was down to 350. By the time it emerged from bankruptcy protection in 1987, the majority of its 180 subsidiaries had already been sold off. What was left of the company was then relocated to Cincinnati, OH.

I would like to fill in some blanks here and correct what I believe is at least one "overstatement" re: Charter based on my personal experience with the company. 

Based on the Florida National Bank article on Wikipedia, Charter's stake in FNB is described as follows:

Congress forced the du Pont Trust to divest itself of banking interests when they withdrew the trust's 15-year exemption from the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956. The trust sold 34.7% ownership in Florida National Banks to Charter Company in 1971 for $42M, leaving the du Pont Trust with 24.9%, below the legal definition of a bank holding company. The CEO of Charter was Raymond Mason, a protégé of Ed Ball. Additionally, Ed Ball personally owned 6.4% of FNB and was executor of his sister's estate, which owned 4.5% of FNB. 

On July 9, 1973, the Federal Reserve Board issued a preliminary determination that the du Pont Trust had retained enough stock that would allow the trust to continue to exert some control over the bank.   Ball was forced to sell the trust's remaining shares and resign as chairman of FNB. However, the du Pont Trust owned a significant block of Charter stock, and the close personal relationship between Mason and Ball still allowed some indirect control.

From what I know, Charter was fully divested of FNB and FNB of Charter well before the late 1970's.  Charter did own Jacksonville National Bank and Charter Mortgage Company.  Those two companies were spun off to Jack Uibile and a management team that created a holding company, Alliance.  Ultimately, they sold Alliance for stock to Florida National Bank, and Alliance management pretty much took control of FNB.  Under an agreement with Charter, they were then required to change the name of Charter Mortgage, which became Alliance Mortgage.  Ultimately this company was sold by FNB to Owens Illinois when it was in vogue for manufacturing companies to get into financial services.  After several years, OI realized mortgage banking wasn't for them and they sold AMC back to a management group.  As noted in another post, this ultimately became the core of what is now Everbank.  Meanwhile, FNB was required to spin out JNB, and, as I recall, sold it to another Florida bank, Ellis Banking. Ellis eventually was acquired by NCNB, which became Nationsbank, then B of A.  FNB ultimately was itself acquired, as noted, by First Union, making, I believe, Jack Uible the largest personal shareholder in First Union at the time.

What Raymond Mason and Charter also did with Ed Ball was to swap an interest in Charter to St. Joe Paper Company in return for Charter getting an interest in St. Joe.  This "swap" was ultimately undone after a few years.

I don't recall Charter seriously planning to move into the Southern Bell/Bellsouth Building.  As I  recall, Charter had assembled this entire block, including the old Mayflower Hotel.  As such, it served as a developer/owner of the building as Southern Bell did not wish to own it due to regulatory peculiarities.  Unfortunately, while the building was under construction, interest rates approached 20% and Charter's cash flow fortunes started to decline.  The workout was Charter selling the unfinished building to Southern Bell (or a designated interest of theirs) to complete on their own.

Charter did "plan" at its peak to develop another city block they owned, the Sears store block (now home to the Omni and the older First Union/Wells Fargo tower plus garage & surface lot).  Charter proposed building a 70 story headquarters there but, obviously, that never happened.  Maybe MJ could check this out as another building that "never was" 

FYI, prior to the Universal Marion building, Charter once occupied the Greenleaf Building and before that, was in IBM's Southbank building (now the Suddath Building).

[thelakelander]

^Great insight on Charter. I'll edit the line about Charter acquiring du Pont's ownership in FNB to Charter acquiring the majority of du Pont's ownership in FNB. Also thanks for going into detail about Charter's involvement with the Southern Bell building. My source was an old 1980s FTU article on the building's development that was stashed in a verticle file about Charter in the library's special collections department. The paper mentioned Charter as the tower's developer but also stated that it planned to split office space with Southern Bell. Oh, and a 70-story building a block away? Now that certainly would have made its mark on the city's skyline!

[jaxlongtimer]

Lake, Charter may have floated the idea of space in So. Bell or it may have just been street rumors or something in between.  I am pretty confident it never really went anywhere beyond that.

You should find some T-U articles on the 70 story proposition.  Check around 1979 to 1980 as that was near the top of Charter's ascendancy.

I assume you are also aware that Barnett wanted to build its tower originally on the river bank where the T-U center sits.  They were going to tie it in with a new performing arts center as I recall.  But there was an outcry over turning public riverfront over to private interests at the time and Barnett backed down from the public pressure.  There should be lots of T-U articles on that too.

Thanks for all your reporting.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Lake, thanks for all the details on Jacksonville Plaza!  I was thinking you meant the old courthouse lot, not the current one.

[Wacca Pilatka]

I assume you are also aware that Barnett wanted to build its tower originally on the river bank where the T-U center sits.  They were going to tie it in with a new performing arts center as I recall.  But there was an outcry over turning public riverfront over to private interests at the time and Barnett backed down from the public pressure.  There should be lots of T-U articles on that too.

Correct - the plan was for a 33-story HQ and performing arts center directly on the riverfront, with the former Civic Auditorium being torn down.  If I recall correctly, this was also going to be tied to a waterfront aquarium and arts museum that Rouse had proposed as proximate developments to the Landing.

The outcry was not only over turning over public riverfront but that Barnett was doing a like-kind exchange land swap to obtain the Auditorium site in exchange for its parking lot (where the Barnett Center ultimately was built).  Perceived as an unfair exchange to Barnett's benefit.

[vicupstate]

he plan was for a 33-story HQ and performing arts center directly on the riverfront, with the former Civic Auditorium being torn down.  If I recall correctly, this was also going to be tied to a waterfront aquarium and arts museum that Rouse had proposed as proximate developments to the Landing.

Where are all this going to go? The tower, the Performing Arts Center and the Aquarium were waterfront on just the parcel the T-U Art Center is on today? 

[Wacca Pilatka]

^ I'm not entirely clear on where everything was going to go other than that the tower was waterfront and the other developments were contiguous to it and the Landing in some way.  Although I should clarify this plan died in 1986, so the Landing was not complete yet.

[finehoe]

Mayor Tommy Hazouri put together a huge package of incentives to lure the National Football League franchise

This was another issue at the time.  In typical Jacksonville fashion, The Powers That Be thought luring an NFL team was the silver bullet that would catapult the city into the big time.  Consequently much time, money and effort that could have been more productively spent on other things was poured into landing a football team.

[I-10east]

Yada yada...

[Adam White]

I love how people are so offended by the idea of taxes and "big government" but have no problem with wasting everyone's tax dollars in order to finance their favorite sports team. It's a joke.

[Ocklawaha]

It would be pretty easy to isolate 7 other major reasons for downtown's stumble.


Kinkisharyo International, Los Angeles Metro Rail Car, assembly plant CANCELED.

1. @1932/36 'Bustitution' (Term for a rail replacement bus service include bustitution; a portmanteau of the words "bus" and "substitution") in our case; "trashing 60 miles of electric railway, much of it on private/exclusive right-of-way, for 'modern diesel buses."
2. @1974, Closing Jacksonville Terminal and ill-advised conversion into a too-small-for-our-needs convention center.
3. @1985/2002, building an ill-advised and disconnected 'people mover' as opposed to a tried and true technology.
4. @ 1950's to date: Building surface level freeways that dice up neighborhoods into isolated pockets
5. @1930/50: conversion of vast swaths of on street parking to metered spaces which discouraged retail and street level activity
6. @1920/2000: Closure of passenger, mail and express terminals along the waterfront virtually giving this business to South Florida
7. Throughout: Failure to present a united and powerful argument and rewards that would have focused on keeping BK, Hornes, National Airlines, Amtrak and a host of other companies in town/downtown.

EXAMPLES:
A. We presented a plan for commuter bus service using comfortable over-the-road coaches. At the same time Silver Eagle Motor Coach was restarting production of their iconic buses and was looking for both a customer and a home, speaking to the COJ, JTA and CofC it was learned that a 6-coach order would have been incentive enough to open their plant in Jacksonville... CHIRP!
B. Two companies, Industrial Rail Services (remanufactured RDC/DMU type self propelled rail cars) and Kinkisharyo International (modern streetcars, trams and Light-Rail-Vehicles), could both be easily swayed to building their plants here, if the city/JTA/FDOT would consider purchase of their products... CHIRP!

[spuwho]

It would be pretty easy to isolate 7 other major reasons for downtown's stumble.


Kinkisharyo International, Los Angeles Metro Rail Car, assembly plant CANCELED.

1. @1932/36 'Bustitution' (Term for a rail replacement bus service include bustitution; a portmanteau of the words "bus" and "substitution") in our case; "trashing 60 miles of electric railway, much of it on private/exclusive right-of-way, for 'modern diesel buses."
2. @1974, Closing Jacksonville Terminal and ill-advised conversion into a too-small-for-our-needs convention center.
3. @1985/2002, building an ill-advised and disconnected 'people mover' as opposed to a tried and true technology.
4. @ 1950's to date: Building surface level freeways that dice up neighborhoods into isolated pockets
5. @1930/50: conversion of vast swaths of on street parking to metered spaces which discouraged retail and street level activity
6. @1920/2000: Closure of passenger, mail and express terminals along the waterfront virtually giving this business to South Florida
7. Throughout: Failure to present a united and powerful argument and rewards that would have focused on keeping BK, Hornes, National Airlines, Amtrak and a host of other companies in town/downtown.

EXAMPLES:
A. We presented a plan for commuter bus service using comfortable over-the-road coaches. At the same time Silver Eagle Motor Coach was restarting production of their iconic buses and was looking for both a customer and a home, speaking to the COJ, JTA and CofC it was learned that a 6-coach order would have been incentive enough to open their plant in Jacksonville... CHIRP!
B. Two companies, Industrial Rail Services (remanufactured RDC/DMU type self propelled rail cars) and Kinkisharyo International (modern streetcars, trams and Light-Rail-Vehicles), could both be easily swayed to building their plants here, if the city/JTA/FDOT would consider purchase of their products... CHIRP!

Kinki Sharyo made those cars in Glendale CA.

One thing to note in the "could have been" department, is how much the loss of locally controlled banks led to a starvation of financing for projects to kick off.

Good history on the transition from Alliance to EverBank. I was always curious how EverBank started here.

I do agree with Stephen, demolishing the old properties so quickly suffocated the SMB lease market and forced them all out of the core.

[jaxlongtimer]

Here is some interesting additional info from a December 11, 1986 article in the Miami News about Barnett Bank's plans to build a 42 story tower (which I recall is the number of stories in the tower they actually did build) on the Civic Auditorium site being frustrated by a lawsuit from, of all possibilities, Charter Northside, no doubt a subsidiary of Charter that probably didn't want a Barnett tower obstructing a potential riverfront view from a future development on the Sears block owned by Charter:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_e4lAAAAIBAJ&sjid=K_MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3345%2C3091235

[mtraininjax]

It would be pretty easy to isolate 7 other major reasons for downtown's stumble.

I knew we could get a monorail debate going if we just kept the thread alive long enough.

[thelakelander]

I left this note out of the article. Downtown's largest private sector employers in 1985:

Downtown's Largest Private Employers in 1985

3,763 - Southern Bell
3,438 - Blue Cross Blue Shield
3,401 - Seaboard Coastline Railroad
3,273 - Prudential
2,644 - Barnett Bank
2,500 - Jacksonville Shipyards, Inc.
1,952 - Florida National Bank
1,780 - Baptist Medical Center
1,384 - Atlantic National Bank
1,310 - Independent Life

Source: Jax Biz Journal 1986 Book of Lists