Ryan Companies makes offer to City for future JEA HQ land

Jacksonville, FL — The company behind the proposal for a new JEA headquarters in Downtown Jacksonville is now moving forward with trying to buy the land for the project.

JEA's Board of Directors recently agreed to move forward with Ryan Companies' plans for a nine-story office tower and parking garage on West Adams Street, near the County Courthouse. Ryan Companies does not currently own that land, the City of Jacksonville does, so now that the deal is agreed to, they're looking to change that.

GALLERY: JEA headquarters proposal from Ryan Companies

A Letter of Intent has been put forward to the City offering $2.6 million for the property, which is a little more than 1 ½ acres. The Duval County Property Appraiser’s website shows the market value for the property to be just under $2 million.

While JEA has agreed to the plan from Ryan Companies, the proposal to buy the land is actually considered an unsolicited bid, because the City had not been actively seeking any buyers for the site. Since it’s unsolicited, City and State code require a chance for other parties who may be interested in the property to have the opportunity to come forward. The Downtown Investment Authority is set to vote Friday on opening a 30-day window for such solicitations, which would then set them up to potentially agree to the plan from Ryan Companies next month.

The City Council still has to approve the land sale as well. The property is currently being used as a parking lot, and a letter sent to the DIA on behalf of Ran Companies says their plan presents an opportunity to transform that “unattractive” feature in to something new.

Ryan Companies headquarters proposal includes a customer service center and nine-story tower that's built to suite JEA, with outdoor seating, an auditorium, many different styles of work space, and more. The new parking garage also being built as part of this project would be dedicated to JEA, with around 850 spaces. The existing headquarters has some major systems issues related to age, and is also bigger than they need for the roughly 760 employees that work there.

Once Ryan Companies obtains the land- assuming this sale moves forward- they will go back to JEA to finalize the lease. That is currently proposed as a 15-year deal, with the estimated rental and operating costs to JEA expected to be about $9.3 million annually.