Florida Coastal School of Law officials want the school to move Downtown to allow their students to be close to the courthouse and the legal community there.
The problem is, the school still has 16 years on a lease at its facility off Baymeadows Road.
Until then, President Dennis Stone said, “It dawned on us … that we should bring Downtown to us.”
The school is seeking what it calls “partners” to rent space in the 220,000-square-foot facility it occupies on Baypine Road.
The ideal tenants would have ties to the school’s curriculum. It could be a law firm or a business that is linked to one of the school’s clinics, such as the Business and Entrepreneurial Law Clinic.
Professor Kathy Hartland, who heads that clinic, said students help emerging businesses with tasks such as deciding what type of entity is best for them.
She sees Downtown as a place that is becoming the center for startups, including its most well-known venture — One Spark.
Dean Scott DeVito said the school has 30,000-44,000 square feet available in the Baypine Road building for tenants.
The building offers a law library, high-tech throughout the facility, courtrooms, office space and its own parking garage, he said.
Ideally, Stone said, the school’s broker, Traci Jenks of Cushman & Wakefield, will eventually be able to find a large replacement tenant for the building, freeing the law school into moving.
He said over the years, he has shared the desire to move Downtown with the JAX Chamber, the Downtown Investment Authority and other officials. All support the concept, he said, though he hasn’t spoken to them recently.
Stone said the school originally had its offices Downtown back in the mid-1990s, but moved to Beach Boulevard because the cost was more attractive.
About 10 years ago, school officials tried to move Downtown again. He said they looked at the old federal courthouse but the renovation costs were too high due to the asbestos in the building.
“We came very close,” he said, “but the timing wasn’t right.”
Stone said if some of the new partners move with the law school, it would need about 150,000 square feet of space. Jenks is working on that, as well.
Stone said the law school is “doing very well,” including having about 250 in the new class that started this month.
Many of the school’s programs, such as one for foreign lawyers wanting to get background in the U.S. law, continue to grow.
Florida Coastal ranked third in the state in February when 74.5 percent of students taking the exam for the first time passed. Results from the July test aren’t available yet.
Graduates from the school include Jacksonville Bar Association President Giselle Carson; Susanne Weisman, president of the Jacksonville Chapter of the Federal Bar Association; and former Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Kyle Brady.
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