Downtown Jacksonville's ten largest office buildings

[thelakelander]

How well do you know Downtown Jacksonville? Here's a list of the 10 largest non-residential buildings in downtown by gross area. Some may surprise you.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/downtown-jacksonvilles-ten-largest-office-buildings/

[Charles Hunter]

If I counted right, 7 of the 10 were designed by KBJ. They've had quite an impact on the Jacksonville skyline.

[marcuscnelson]

I wonder how occupied each of these buildings are.

[fieldafm]

I wonder how occupied each of these buildings are.

Not very

Florida Blue- roughly 60% occupancy

Riverplace Tower and Eight Forty One on the Southbank are both more than 80% occupied, and except for the Fidelity-related buildings.. are some of the most actively full buildings DT (the BofA building for example has a lot of professional services-type offices so the employment density isn't particularly high per floor).

701 San Marco- roughly 60% occupancy

TIAA Bank Center - roughly 75% occupancy, but that is very skewed as most of the residential lending business/employees on the TIAA floors are empty as they exited that business; and Citizens has a fair amount of their employees working from home either full time or part-time.  There are also quite a few spaces that are paying rent, which are currently trying to find subleases (meaning the space is not being used).

The Truist Building and One Enterprise Buildings have about a 60% and 40% occupancy rate, respectively.

Since Morgan and Morgan moved out of the Vystar Tower. and into the Harden/Gallagher Building in Brooklyn.. the campus is pretty empty on Mondays and Fridays as most employees are remote those days.

[heights unknown]

I wonder how occupied each of these buildings are.

Not very

Florida Blue- roughly 60% occupancy

Riverplace Tower and Eight Forty One on the Southbank are both more than 80% occupied, and except for the Fidelity-related buildings.. are some of the most actively full buildings DT (the BofA building for example has a lot of professional services-type offices so the employment density isn't particularly high per floor).

701 San Marco- roughly 60% occupancy

TIAA Bank Center - roughly 75% occupancy, but that is very skewed as most of the residential lending business/employees on the TIAA floors are empty as they exited that business; and Citizens has a fair amount of their employees working from home either full time or part-time.  There are also quite a few spaces that are paying rent, which are currently trying to find subleases (meaning the space is not being used).

The Truist Building and One Enterprise Buildings have about a 60% and 40% occupancy rate, respectively.

Since Morgan and Morgan moved out of the Vystar Tower. and into the Harden/Gallagher Building in Brooklyn.. the campus is pretty empty on Mondays and Fridays as most employees are remote those days.

Depressing. You always want to see healthy occupancy rates in cities the size of Jacksonville and in buildings of these caliber. Anyone know whether this is the norm in most all large cities and mid-sized cities or just in Jacksonville (in which I believe its been this way for decades and even worse in Jacksonville in the past).

[fieldafm]

I wonder how occupied each of these buildings are.

Not very

Florida Blue- roughly 60% occupancy

Riverplace Tower and Eight Forty One on the Southbank are both more than 80% occupied, and except for the Fidelity-related buildings.. are some of the most actively full buildings DT (the BofA building for example has a lot of professional services-type offices so the employment density isn't particularly high per floor).

701 San Marco- roughly 60% occupancy

TIAA Bank Center - roughly 75% occupancy, but that is very skewed as most of the residential lending business/employees on the TIAA floors are empty as they exited that business; and Citizens has a fair amount of their employees working from home either full time or part-time.  There are also quite a few spaces that are paying rent, which are currently trying to find subleases (meaning the space is not being used).

The Truist Building and One Enterprise Buildings have about a 60% and 40% occupancy rate, respectively.

Since Morgan and Morgan moved out of the Vystar Tower. and into the Harden/Gallagher Building in Brooklyn.. the campus is pretty empty on Mondays and Fridays as most employees are remote those days.

Depressing. You always want to see healthy occupancy rates in cities the size of Jacksonville and in buildings of these caliber. Anyone know whether this is the norm in most all large cities and mid-sized cities or just in Jacksonville (in which I believe its been this way for decades and even worse in Jacksonville in the past).

Daytime populations are down throughout CBDs everywhere.  Its why clustering, placemaking, etc is so important.  When Downtowns are nothing more than vertical office suburbs that shuffle workers in and out without creating an environment that entices them to leave their office tower during the workday or hang out once the workday is over... then, this is what happens.  Having more residential and hotels clustered together in a compact and contextually-sensitive setting; having a cluster of complementary uses like bars, restaurants, public spaces, retail,etc in a pleasant walkable setting; and the like... all serve to diversify against swings in office daytime populations.

Hotel occupancy is actually pretty good throughout the larger imagined 'downtown' border... but hotel guests don't really leave with a positive impression as they find nothing to do or walk to. 

[thelakelander]

I wonder how occupied each of these buildings are.

Not very

Florida Blue- roughly 60% occupancy

Riverplace Tower and Eight Forty One on the Southbank are both more than 80% occupied, and except for the Fidelity-related buildings.. are some of the most actively full buildings DT (the BofA building for example has a lot of professional services-type offices so the employment density isn't particularly high per floor).

701 San Marco- roughly 60% occupancy

TIAA Bank Center - roughly 75% occupancy, but that is very skewed as most of the residential lending business/employees on the TIAA floors are empty as they exited that business; and Citizens has a fair amount of their employees working from home either full time or part-time.  There are also quite a few spaces that are paying rent, which are currently trying to find subleases (meaning the space is not being used).

The Truist Building and One Enterprise Buildings have about a 60% and 40% occupancy rate, respectively.

Since Morgan and Morgan moved out of the Vystar Tower. and into the Harden/Gallagher Building in Brooklyn.. the campus is pretty empty on Mondays and Fridays as most employees are remote those days.

Depressing. You always want to see healthy occupancy rates in cities the size of Jacksonville and in buildings of these caliber. Anyone know whether this is the norm in most all large cities and mid-sized cities or just in Jacksonville (in which I believe its been this way for decades and even worse in Jacksonville in the past).

The downtown office market also has never really recovered from the insurance and banking mergers of the 1980s, 90s and early 00s. We have quite a few buildings built to serve as the corporate headquarters of companies like Barnett Bank, Independent Life, Gulf Life, American Heritage Life, etc. that don't exist anymore. All those jobs are in places like Uptown Charlotte and Downtown Houston now. One of our challenges we'll likely face moving forward is how to fill these large empty buildings with uses other than traditional office space.

[jaxlongtimer]

A few comments to add to the discussion:

1. KBJ has designed the most iconic buildings on our skyline.  But, as I review their website, I don't see similar examples of skyline impacts in other cities.  I am wondering why, with their capabilities and experience, that is?  Maybe they have them and they aren't posted but given how may Jax buildings they show I would think they would do the same for elsewhere if they had such examples.

2. By my count, of the 10 buildings listed, only 3.5 (CSX, Florida Blue, the Courthouse and half of 701 San Marco for Prudential) have their original tenants.

3. In other cities, some office towers have been converted into hotels, apartments or condos.  Is that coming our way at some point. Would that be a repurposing wave like we are seeing with the conversion of indoor shopping malls to other uses?

4. Not mentioned by Field but likely close to empty is JEA's former HQ's, the Universal Marion Building.  With all the vacancies, who would fill any office buildings proposed for the formerly named District project on the Southbank.  Also, are we seeing similar vacancy rates in suburban office buildings?

5.  If the Lot J project had gone forward, who would have a need for the office space proposed there?  Who will fill the office building Khan plans to build next to the Four Seasons?  Just Khan's companies?  Will that be enough?  Khan probably happy today the City nixed his Lot J complex as it would likely never have worked out, post COVID, as originally envisioned.

[Steve]

1. KBJ has designed the most iconic buildings on our skyline.  But, as I review their website, I don't see similar examples of skyline impacts in other cities.  I am wondering why, with their capabilities and experience, that is?  Maybe they have them and they aren't posted but given how may Jax buildings they show I would think they would do the same for elsewhere if they had such examples.

One thing of note - if you look at KBJ's buildings, they may be visually appealing from a distance they aren't great at ground level:
- Two Prudential Plaza looks like a bunker on most of its sides.
- CSX, One Prudential Plaza, and Gulf Life are set back significantly from the street.
- Independent Life has the weird, "double sidewalk" thing that really disconnects it from the street.
- Southern Bell was designed to open in
- Don't get me started on the Courthouse

Not a great body of work if you focus on the ground level and what makes a city work. That said, we weren't the only city to make these mistakes in that era.

3. In other cities, some office towers have been converted into hotels, apartments or condos.  Is that coming our way at some point. Would that be a repurposing wave like we are seeing with the conversion of indoor shopping malls to other uses?

I think this will depend on the floor plates. For example, one feature larger companies consider is a decent size floor plate (a positive to Southern Bell or Independent Life for example). At one point a company based here looked at the Enterprise Center as its headquarters. The issue there was they'd need 15 floors. While cool in that it would give them naming rights, it would split some individual departments into multiple floors, which was considered a detractor. That's a positive of some modern office buildings. However, converting to Hotel or Residential use is tough as window access isn't great. Compare that to the Barnett HQ that was built in 1927 in a U shape. While complicated due to its age of course, the floor plates make it a lot easier. You can thank the lack of A/C in the 1927 building for that as L and U shapes made air move a bit more.

[Ken_FSU]

For those of you working downtown regularly, where would you put the 9-5 foot traffic now compared to pre-pandemic?

Feels like maybe 65% to me.

[heights unknown]

I wonder how occupied each of these buildings are.

Not very

Florida Blue- roughly 60% occupancy

Riverplace Tower and Eight Forty One on the Southbank are both more than 80% occupied, and except for the Fidelity-related buildings.. are some of the most actively full buildings DT (the BofA building for example has a lot of professional services-type offices so the employment density isn't particularly high per floor).

701 San Marco- roughly 60% occupancy

TIAA Bank Center - roughly 75% occupancy, but that is very skewed as most of the residential lending business/employees on the TIAA floors are empty as they exited that business; and Citizens has a fair amount of their employees working from home either full time or part-time.  There are also quite a few spaces that are paying rent, which are currently trying to find subleases (meaning the space is not being used).

The Truist Building and One Enterprise Buildings have about a 60% and 40% occupancy rate, respectively.

Since Morgan and Morgan moved out of the Vystar Tower. and into the Harden/Gallagher Building in Brooklyn.. the campus is pretty empty on Mondays and Fridays as most employees are remote those days.

Depressing. You always want to see healthy occupancy rates in cities the size of Jacksonville and in buildings of these caliber. Anyone know whether this is the norm in most all large cities and mid-sized cities or just in Jacksonville (in which I believe its been this way for decades and even worse in Jacksonville in the past).

Daytime populations are down throughout CBDs everywhere.  Its why clustering, placemaking, etc is so important.  When Downtowns are nothing more than vertical office suburbs that shuffle workers in and out without creating an environment that entices them to leave their office tower during the workday or hang out once the workday is over... then, this is what happens.  Having more residential and hotels clustered together in a compact and contextually-sensitive setting; having a cluster of complementary uses like bars, restaurants, public spaces, retail,etc in a pleasant walkable setting; and the like... all serve to diversify against swings in office daytime populations.

Hotel occupancy is actually pretty good throughout the larger imagined 'downtown' border... but hotel guests don't really leave with a positive impression as they find nothing to do or walk to. 

Thanks "Field." I always knew that, and mentioned it a time or 2 in the forum. It seems we're TRYING to go or head in the right direction; but it seems that Jax' organizational skills and prioritizational acumen is poor to nil to say the least. If we don't get nuked, or EMP'd, I think we will get there late in this decade or the next; sadly, I will probably be pushing up daisies, roses, and petunias when it happens.

[thelakelander]

For those of you working downtown regularly, where would you put the 9-5 foot traffic now compared to pre-pandemic?

Feels like maybe 65% to me.

You're generous. Every day feels like a pre-covid national holiday. Now my perspective is warped, as my office overlooks the Landing site. Coastal Cookies alone, generated as much foot traffic as what I see at the intersection of Independent and Laura today. Hopefully, we've already bottomed out and are now in a Northbank comeback.

[jaxlongtimer]

1. KBJ has designed the most iconic buildings on our skyline.  But, as I review their website, I don't see similar examples of skyline impacts in other cities.  I am wondering why, with their capabilities and experience, that is?  Maybe they have them and they aren't posted but given how may Jax buildings they show I would think they would do the same for elsewhere if they had such examples.

One thing of note - if you look at KBJ's buildings, they may be visually appealing from a distance they aren't great at ground level:
- Two Prudential Plaza looks like a bunker on most of its sides.
- CSX, One Prudential Plaza, and Gulf Life are set back significantly from the street.
- Independent Life has the weird, "double sidewalk" thing that really disconnects it from the street.
- Southern Bell was designed to open in
- Don't get me started on the Courthouse

Not a great body of work if you focus on the ground level and what makes a city work. That said, we weren't the only city to make these mistakes in that era.

3. In other cities, some office towers have been converted into hotels, apartments or condos.  Is that coming our way at some point. Would that be a repurposing wave like we are seeing with the conversion of indoor shopping malls to other uses?

I think this will depend on the floor plates. For example, one feature larger companies consider is a decent size floor plate (a positive to Southern Bell or Independent Life for example). At one point a company based here looked at the Enterprise Center as its headquarters. The issue there was they'd need 15 floors. While cool in that it would give them naming rights, it would split some individual departments into multiple floors, which was considered a detractor. That's a positive of some modern office buildings. However, converting to Hotel or Residential use is tough as window access isn't great. Compare that to the Barnett HQ that was built in 1927 in a U shape. While complicated due to its age of course, the floor plates make it a lot easier. You can thank the lack of A/C in the 1927 building for that as L and U shapes made air move a bit more.

Steve, observations noted.  As to KBJ's buildings, I would guess their designs reflected, in part, the wishes of their clients and/or influence by City planners at the time so maybe there is some "blame" to go around.

The Wells Fargo building, originally Independent Life, may have the dual sidewalk arrangement to accommodate a City "master plan" at the time to construct elevated crosswalks connecting towers downtown.  The Atlantic Bank building (last known as BB&T I believe) and the Duval Federal Savings & Loan Building (recently Iberia or Horizons Bank) on the Bay and Hogan corner of the Bank of America block were, I believe, also designed to accommodate this master plan, long ago abandoned (circa early to mid 1970's - maybe Lake could dig it up one day and feature it in a Jaxson article as I recall renderings were published in the Florida Times Union at the time).  Another example of Downtown's inconsistent management.

[Steve]

The Wells Fargo building, originally Independent Life, may have the dual sidewalk arrangement to accommodate a City "master plan" at the time to construct elevated crosswalks connecting towers downtown.  The Atlantic Bank building (last known as BB&T I believe) and the Duval Federal Savings & Loan Building (recently Iberia or Horizons Bank) on the Bay and Hogan corner of the Bank of America block were, I believe, also designed to accommodate this master plan, long ago abandoned (circa early to mid 1970's - maybe Lake could dig it up one day and feature it in a Jaxson article as I recall renderings were published in the Florida Times Union at the time).  Another example of Downtown's inconsistent management.

That I don't know - it might have been to tie into the walkaways there, but not sure. It's not a full level higher than street (only about 1/2 a floor) so if you were to do an elevated walkway to another street corner you'd have to have another 1/2 flight of stairs somewhere.

Personally I always thought they just wanted 2 levels of parking underneath the building and didn't want to go that deep, either for the water table or for the locomotive that's buried underneath the thing that they didn't want to unearth.

[Ken_FSU]

For those of you working downtown regularly, where would you put the 9-5 foot traffic now compared to pre-pandemic?

Feels like maybe 65% to me.

You're generous. Every day feels like a pre-covid national holiday. Now my perspective is warped, as my office overlooks the Landing site. Coastal Cookies alone, generated as much foot traffic as what I see at the intersection of Independent and Laura today. Hopefully, we've already bottomed out and are now in a Northbank comeback.

Hemming/JWJ area isn't much better, unfortunately.

Arriving downtown at 9:30 can still land me a 3rd floor parking spot in the Duval Street garage, 4th floor at worst, when it used to mean I was parking high 5th or on the roof.

Laura Street is where I notice the biggest difference. Pre-pandemic, it felt like we were sneakily creeping on critical mass between City Hall and the Landing.

It's just so quiet most of the time now.

Ditto the Riverwalk at lunch time.

Would hate to see how things would look if the city didn't renew the scooter plan, as that does drive some fairly decent foot traffic at times.