An Early Look at the New JEA Headquarters Building

Ryan Companies US, Inc. submitted its design plans for the new JEA headquarters building to the city’s Downtown Development Review Board earlier this week.

Those plans show a nine-story office building that will feature 190,000 square feet of leasable office space, accompanied by a nine-level, 850-space parking garage. Its design emphasizes openness and natural light, and it features multiple outdoor work spaces that will overlook downtown Jax.

It’ll feature, among other new amenities, a customer-relations center where JEA customers will be able to resolve issues and find information.

The new building, proposed for a vacant lot on the 300 block of West Adams Street, will be built and owned by Ryan Companies; JEA will then lease the majority of the available space from Ryan Companies. CBRE will act as Ryan Companies’ real estate representation. Other partners include Acuity Design Group, Chestnut Hill Investments, Degrove Surveyors, GAI Consultants, GeoView, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Legacy Engineering, and Terracon.

It’ll be the first major Jacksonville project for the Minneapolis, MN-based Ryan Companies. The national development company was selected in April as the winning bidder for the JEA headquarters project, beating out proposals from local developer Mike Balanky and Jaguars owner Shad Khan.

“Presenting this application to the DDRB this week signifies a very important step in the process towards building the new JEA headquarters,” said Doug Dieck, president of Ryan Companies’ Southeast Region. “It means a great deal to JEA, but also to the city of Jacksonville. Redeveloping this vacant parcel will serve to revitalize and enhance the existing skyline of Downtown Jacksonville and become an attractive backdrop to the adjacent existing courthouse lawn.” 

The company’s application will likely be reviewed at the DDRB’s next meeting in September.

Assuming everything goes as planned, construction on the building would start in the first quarter of 2020 and wrap up around late 2021.

More information about the new JEA headquarters project can be found at newjeahq.com.