Old Haskell Building

[acme54321]

Does anyone have the scoop on what's going on with the old Haskell building now that they have moved?  A they recently had a drill rig out in front of the building doing what I can only assume was geotech work, there are a bunch of survey stakes out there, and today there were a group of people meeting out there looking at things.  Seems like something may be afoot with that property!

[jaxlongtimer]

Hope (however vainly) whatever happens there, it is better than another One Riverside with heights right up to the rivers edge.  The Haskell Building is both distinctively curved back from the river over its frontage and tapered down to the waterfront showing a little respect to the river. 

I am guessing it's not long for this world knowing Jax tears down everything older than 25 years, sometimes less.  I also expect its replacement to be ugly and unimaginative like One Riverside.  And, the property has a mature tree canopy that is sure to be leveled.

To add insult to injury, the City will give the developer tens of millions in incentives... for prized premium riverfront, no less.

[JaGoaT]

I used to work in there and always felt the building had a museum vibe, I also think it would be good as food hall.
I'd like to hope it doesn't get demolished and if someone wants to build more condos there's an open lot right next door.

[acme54321]

I used to work in there and always felt the building had a museum vibe, I also think it would be good as food hall.
I'd like to hope it doesn't get demolished and if someone wants to build more condos there's an open lot right next door.

I believe the drill rig was working on that lot too.

[Jankelope]

I feel like there's no way the building isn't eventually turned into more housing of some kind. It would be cool to see if become a museum of some kind...

Wait a minute...don't we need a new building for our Science Museum? 

[Jankelope]

Weirdly, I was kidding, but the Haskell old HQ is 120,000 square feet (basically perfect for MOSH, and more square feet than the current new building proposal). And has parking garage etc.

I mean it's probably not perfect, but what could you build if you put the current $90 million raised purely into exhibits and adapting the building? hmm

[thelakelander]

^I wonder if a good chunk of the money raised is tied to the new museum and site itself? Like, if they attempted to do a cheaper project at the existing museum or a different site, some donors would want their money back.

[Jax_Developer]

I don't see how this property doesn't meet the wrecking ball unfortunently. ~7 acres. The retail around here is prime. I'd also argue that this piece being developed into Mixed-Use has a lot more potential synergy with the area than anything else. One of the few sites that would strongly support it.

[jaxlongtimer]

The Haskell building is sure to be doomed if the American Transtech building goes down.  This was a world class A+ building that many considered as either the first, or close to the first, modern call center in the entire world. It was here that AT&T built, in an amazing single year, a facility that handled the entire breakup of the century-plus old AT&T/Bell System monopoly into multiple companies, the biggest corporate breakup in U.S. history. 

The call center infrastructure eventually became Convergys which provided call center services to its clients.  AT&T leveraged this operation to serve as a demonstration of its emerging call center technologies to sell to the world.

So, aside from its architecture, it should be deemed an historic building in the annals of American business and Jacksonville.  Shame to see it disappear.  It will be looked back upon as a modern day tech version of Henry Ford's Model T factory we recently demolished.

Original AT&T American Transtech campus headed for warehouse redevelopment
The city is reviewing permits for two speculative industrial centers at almost $17 million to replace the 43-year-old Baymeadows property.

A futuristic Baymeadows building developed in 1983 for AT&T American Transtech is in permitting review for redevelopment that includes demolition and new construction.

AT&T American Transtech developed the campus to handle shareholder services for the court-ordered breakup of AT&T, a monopoly that operated the entire U.S. phone system.

Transtech built a three-story, 102,145-square-foot office building and a two-story, 106,275-square-foot computer/telecom data center on 28.29 acres at 8000 Baymeadows Way. It hired 1,300 employees to handle the task of divvying up shares of the seven new companies to AT&T stockholders.

After several ownership transformations through sales, the 43-year-old structure is now in line for demolition to be developed into a warehouse park....

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2026/feb/06/original-att-american-transtech-campus-headed-for-warehouse-redevelopment/

[thelakelander]

^I was surprised to this one being proposed for demolition and warehouses being the replacement. I wasn't aware that it was vacant but I haven't been back there in a while.