Summit Tower at 1000 Riverside Ave. is gaining a new headquarters tenant, boosting occupancy of the rejuvenated structure.
GHG Insurance, a division of Sihle Insurance Group, will relocate from Park Place at Riverside to the fifth floor at Summit Tower.
The city issued a renovation permit Wednesday for GHG, including plans for executive and agent offices, conference and meeting rooms.
The permit allows a $355,000 renovation of 4,827 square feet of space.
Padgett Premiere Properties LLC, led by Marc and Nicole Padgett, bought the tower in 2014. The GHG permit shows the contractor as Summit Contracting Group Inc., also led by the Padgetts.
GHG now leases less than 4,000 square feet of space at 751 Oak St., Suite 100, where it has operated since 2004. That is a few blocks from the Summit Tower.
The move includes GHG’s wholly owned HPB Insurance division, known as Haynes, Peters & Bond Co.
GHG founder Tim Gaskin said the 21 employees should move into fifth-floor space at Summit Tower by February.
Gaskin said GHG operates on the first and part of the second floor at Park Place on Riverside and wanted to consolidate into larger space on one floor.
He said his company tried to buy a nearby building, but the deal didn’t work out. “There’s not a whole lot available in Riverside,” Gaskin said.
That puts the Summit Tower in a positive position for tenants looking for space in the redeveloping area near Downtown.
The Padgetts said more than $2 million has been invested in renovations at the 52-year-old structure, which they bought for $3 million.
Park Place at Riverside also is being positioned for rejuvenation. The JLL real estate company is marketing the building for sale. Its flier says the 42-year-old building is 74 percent leased.
GHG Insurance LLC is led by managing members Gaskin, Bill Hardaker and Roger Gibson, who formed the group in 2004 as a division of Sihle Insurance Group.
GHG is a full-service independent insurance agency providing personal and business insurance, as well as commercial property and casualty coverage.
It bought HPB Insurance in 2007. Gaskin said Haynes, Peters & Bond Inc. is the oldest insurance agency in Florida.
Padgett Premiere Properties LLC bought the nine-story, more than 81,000-square-foot Riverside Avenue structure in October 2014 from First Professionals Insurance Co. Inc.
It acquired the property along with two more parking lots. The building was developed in 1963.
The Padgetts moved Summit’s corporate headquarters into the building, along with the offices for the related companies they own.
The Padgett companies occupy the sixth through eighth floors. GHG Insurance is on the fifth floor and the third floor will be converted into executive office suites.
The ninth floor is a smaller space that formerly housed CEO offices. The Padgetts are deciding what to do with that. The first floor is open.
“It will truly be a Class A building,” said Rob Crowe said, division manager of Summit Commercial Group.
“There is an energy. Riverside is a cool place to be,” he said.
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