The city took a first step Jan. 22 toward helping fund Jacksonville University College of Law’s move into a renovated space in the historic 121 Atlantic Place building Downtown.
The Mayor’s Budget Review Committee approved a request from the Office of Economic Development to transfer $3.5 million from the general fund toward the law school’s $12.5 million relocation.
If approved by the Jacksonville City Council, the money would be the first installment in a two-year funding agreement totaling $6.5 million.
According to documentation from the MBRC agenda, the money would provide for general operations of the law school, including lease payments and design services.
Terms of the agreement call for JU to obtain a lease of not less than 15 years, including extensions, and to pay back the $3.5 million on a sliding scale if the university leaves the Downtown campus or closes the school within 30 months after the money is disbursed.
The terms also allow the city to claw back the funding if JU doesn’t receive a certificate of occupancy for its new space by Dec. 31, 2024.
JU said the expansion would accommodate as many as 450 law students, plus faculty and staff, within five years. City officials have described the funding as an investment in redeveloping and reinvigorating Downtown.
“This is exactly the type of transformational project that Jacksonville needs in its Downtown revitalization goals – the economic vitality of hundreds of college students living and learning in the downtown core and the preservation of one of Jacksonville’s iconic historic buildings,” said Karen Bowling, chief administrative officer for the city, in a November JU news release.
The College of Law launched in 2022 in a 15,000-square-foot space on the 18th floor of the VyStar Tower at 76 S. Laura St., with plans to expand into a more permanent space.
JU announced in November 2023 that it had reached a 10-year lease agreement that includes extension options with 121 Atlantic Place’s owner, International Management Co., for 50,000 square feet of space spread across four contiguous floors of the building at 121 W. Forsyth St., at Forsyth and Hogan streets.
Renovation work is underway to transform the space into classrooms, study and common areas, meeting spaces, faculty and staff offices and library spaces.
A permit application for the property shows plans on the first floor for a reception area, student lounge, administrative offices, catering area and stairs to the second floor. Those features will be in a space previously occupied by Workscapes, which has moved to Dennis + Ives in the Rail Yard District.
The first floor is also the site of the Jacksonville Daily Record’s offices, which will remain there.
The second floor will include classrooms, flex space, counseling rooms, administrative offices, a faculty conference room, a reception room and other features, while the third floor will be used for instructional spaces, library offices, faculty and administrative offices and a lounge.
The fourth floor will contain offices for the dean and administrators, the law library, instructional spaces and flex space.
Plans show that the name “College of Law” will replace “121 Atlantic Place” from the Forsyth Street-facing front of the building above the door.
JU has said the space would be ready for move-in by summer 2024. The university will leave VyStar Tower when the 121 Atlantic Place space is ready.
The 10-story building, completed in 1909, was the headquarters of the Atlantic National Bank. A portion of the space being leased by JU was occupied by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s administrative offices until the JTA moved to the Regional Transportation Center in LaVilla in 2020.
JU’s law school was the first to open in Florida in more than 20 years, according to The Florida Bar.