The JEA board has taken a step toward selling its former Downtown headquarters campus.
On Aug. 27, the board voted on a resolution declaring the old headquarters as surplus property and authorizing interim managing director and CEO Vickie Cavey to execute a purchase and sale agreement for all or parts of it.
The 2.47-acre campus is at 21 W. Church St., 421 Laura St. and 21 E. Church St. A 2019 Daily Record story reported that at a March 26 board meeting that year, a JEA executive estimated the properties’ sales price at $20 million to $35.1 million.
Documents attached to the new resolution, 2024-45, identify the surplused properties as the office tower, customer center and parking garage.
The resolution includes a provision that a future sale or transaction associated with the campus will come back to the board for approval, JEA spokesperson Karen McAllister said in an email.
She said a sales price had not been set and that JEA would soon determine the method of disposition in compliance with the city-owned utility’s board-approved real estate procedures.
JEA moved out of the old headquarters in 2023 and into its seven-story structure at 225 N. Pearl St. JEA broke ground on the new headquarters in 2020 after three years of planning. Its cost was estimated at $100 million.
A 2023 story in the Daily Record reported that JEA bought the old headquarters tower and adjacent customer service center in December 1988 for $8 million. The structures were built in 1962. The tower, originally the Universal Marion building, was topped by a revolving restaurant.
The buildings are considered contributing properties in the Downtown Jacksonville Historic District as listed on the National Register of Historic Places.