El-Ad Florida LLC sold the EverBank Center and a parking garage in Downtown Jacksonville on Thursday for $47.4 million to Amkin West Bay LLC of Miami.
Pam Smith, El-Ad’s representative, said late Thursday the buyers have experience, noting their 1450 Brickell building in Miami, a 35-story class A office tower completed in early 2010.
“That is everything that I would like to see the EverBank Center becoming,” she said. “They are bringing seasoned experience in office leasing and management to the EverBank Center, which is a very good thing for us.”
Smith said she and other building employees will be staying on with the new owners.
State corporate records show Amkin’s manager is Ramon Llorens, a developer and investor. Amkin West Bay was filed with the state Aug. 15. Amkin is based in 1450 Brickell.
Llorens also is the manager of Park Place Holding At Brickell LLC, the holding company for 1450 Brickell. He also is listed with the state as the manager of several more investment and development companies.
The 30-story EverBank Center at 301 W. Bay St., anchored by EverBank Financial Corp., has 956,201 square feet of leasable space. Smith said it is 60 percent leased.
The seven-level parking garage is at 520 W. Forsyth St. Smith said the garage has 690 spaces.
Colliers International Northeast Florida was marketing the tower for the ownership group.
El-Ad bought the structures for $90.9 million in 2004 and invested at least $3 million into the center’s common areas.
Owners hired Smith as their representative in August 2010. Working with local real estate brokers and others, she signed EverBank Financial and the building was renamed for it.
EverBank Financial will employ more than 1,800 associates there after the latest move of 400 positions.
Property records show the tower, built in 1983, has a 2014 market value of $70.3 million. Its gross building area is 1.16 million square feet.
The garage was built in 1988 and has a 2014 value of $3.5 million.
Smith said Thursday owners intend to bid again for the Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s need for 226,400 square feet of office space. Those bids are due to the Tallahassee-based insurer next week.
The center has been for sale before. Smith said in September 2012 the ownership was talking with a prospective buyer, but the sale didn't take place.
The tower was built in 1983 and owned by what has become AT&T, which was the anchor tenant until EverBank.
BellSouth Telecommunications Inc. sold the building in 1999 to Capital Group of Jacksonville Ltd. for $67 million. Capital Growth sold the property to El-Ad.
BellSouth was formerly known as Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co. and the building was known as the BellSouth Tower at the time it was sold to Capital Growth.
AT&T bought BellSouth in 2006 and remained the anchor tenant in the building, which became AT&T Tower. AT&T has since moved.
Including EverBank Center, four of Downtown’s major towers have changed hands the past 10 months.
The Aetna Building sold in December; the Wells Fargo Center in June; and the Bank of America Tower in July.
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