JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — There could soon be more empty office space downtown, with thousands of private sector and government employees potentially relocating.
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The General Services Administration has listed the Charles E. Bennett federal building as a non-core property, putting it at risk of being sold.
The 11-story building houses federal employees from several agencies including the IRS and HUD.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said it’s too early to know what a sale of the building could mean for downtown, as the list of non-core federal properties was removed from the GSA’s website Wednesday.
“I think in terms of those potential closures, you know, we’ve seen situations where some of those things have been drawn back. They’re put out, they’re drawn back,” said Deegan. “I think until the dust settles, we’re really not going to know where it is, but obviously we want to encourage as many people to be downtown as possible. So, we’ll try to find other spaces downtown for those folks to be if that happens.”
But the Bennett building’s employees aren’t the only potential loss for downtown.
Citizens Insurance is set to make a recommendation Friday on whether to relocate its more than 1,000 employees from the Everbank building.
At the direction of DOGE, the GSA also moved to cancel the Army Corps of Engineers lease in the Prudential building in recent days.
800 Army Corps employees currently work in the office space.
But Mayor Deegan said she’s cautiously optimistic Citizens will decide to stay and she believes there are some complexities that could prevent the Army Corps lease from being terminated at the end of August.
“From my understanding there’s a lease there that says that it cannot be broken till 2027. So, I think we’re gonna have to wait and see how that resolves, but in the meantime we’re trying to come up with other downtown properties where we might be able to help those folks out,” said Deegan.
The mayor’s office added while there’s a chance some employees may leave downtown, there are also opportunities for growth.
“We are constantly working with our business community partners to attract more companies to Jacksonville, including downtown,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a statement. ”There are several significant projects in the pipeline for consideration that could bring capital investment and employees to downtown Jacksonville. We will keep the public posted as those projects progress.”
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