Trevato Development Group land-use and governmental affairs attorney Steve Diebenow said Oct. 22 that the developer made five significant changes to The Pondry site redevelopment plans after three meetings with neighbors and their leadership.
Ownership of the Allstate office campus, which has been rebranded The Pondry, wants to rezone the 29.77-acre South Jacksonville office property to provide for more uses, including retail and multifamily development.
The site is south of Butler Boulevard and west of San Pablo Road South, near Mayo Clinic in Florida.
Ordinance 2024-0828 is scheduled to be introduced Oct. 22 to Jacksonville City Council.
According to Diebenow, the changes are:
• No hotel.
• No drive-thru coffee shop/restaurant.
• A decrease of 10,000 square feet of retail space to 20,019 square feet.
• No apartments, so all of the units now comprise for-sale row houses, town homes and condominiums.
• The proposed redevelopment was moved north toward Butler Boulevard to increase southern and southwestern buffers.
Diebenow said the development group also completed a full traffic study at the neighbors’ request.
He said that subject to final approval by the city, traffic study results are:
• Less traffic projected than would be permitted by right under current zoning.
• The existing roads can easily serve the proposed development without significant reduction in service or increased delay.
• Two turn lanes, one at each of the southernmost entrances into the development, would be required.
• No traffic signals are warranted.
“Finally, at planning staff’s request we significantly reduced the signage plan,” Diebenow said.
The opposition
Attorney Paul Harden, who also is a land-use and governmental affairs lawyer, said Oct. 22 that he will be representing the opposition to the project.
He said he has been called by homeowners associations and single-family homeowners in the area.
“There is substantial opposition to the project,” Harden said.
He said people have invested a lot of their money in that area, relying on the project as it now is built-out, especially the south end of the property used for parking.
Harden said the proposed changes have “a detrimental impact on the homes that are near there.”
“The best I know is there is universal opposition to it on that south end,” he said.
Harden said the south end of the site used as parking is a buffer to the area to the south, which now includes the gated Pablo Creek Reserve community with “$4 million to $5 million homes” in that area.
Developed by The PARC Group on land owned by the Davis family, the community comprises 270 home sites on more than 400 acres.
The ParcGroup.net site says that “The Pablo Creek Reserve is an exclusive, gated residential community, comprising an enclave of inspired homes in a sanctuary-like woodland environment located in Jacksonville, Florida.”
It says that homes “feature oversized lots and offer generous square footage.”
Harden has been representing the Davis family in land use but did not speak directly to opposition by the Davis family to The Pondry rezoning.
He said he has spoken with homeowners associations that include Pablo Creek Reserve and the Marina San Pablo condominiums; the Pablo Creek Club golf club; and has been called by homeowners along Dixie Landing Drive.
“The opposition is to changing a fully developed commercial project that was there and in place when they built their homes and built the golf course,” he said.
Harden said he attended all three meetings. He said there were 250 people at one of them, “and to a person they were opposed to the project.”
The rezoning
Jacksonville Beach-based Trevato Development Group bought the Allstate Campus at 4920 San Pablo Road in May.
Trevato, through SP 1776 LLC, wants to rezone the property from Commercial Office to Planned Unit Development under the project name of San Pablo Mixed-Use PUD.
Diebenow is a partner with Jacksonville law firm Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow PLLC, which is the project agent. The architect is Valerio Dewalt Train of Chicago.
The property features an office campus that was designed to serve as the headquarters for American Heritage Life Insurance Co.
The rezoning application shows that initial hearing dates are scheduled Nov. 21 at the Jacksonville Planning Commission, Nov. 26 at Jacksonville City Council and Dec. 3 at the Council Land Use and Zoning Committee.
Filed with the legislation, an exhibit dated Oct. 3, 2024, shows a total office area of 192,836 square feet, a reduction from 232,487 square feet; 250 residential units among 24 row houses, 36 town homes and 190 condos; 20,019 square feet of retail space; and surface parking along with parking on the ground floors of the residential and retail space.
While the rezoning application refers to a hotel, the exhibit dated Oct. 11, 2023, listed a 150-room hotel and a Nov. 6, 2023, written description did as well, the latest site plans do not.
In more detail, the recent Oct. 3, 2024, exhibit shows multifamily buildings over ground-floor parking or retail space; two existing connected office buildings; new structured and surface parking; and a new retail building.
There are existing water features.
City Council member Will Lahnen, whose District 3 includes the property, said Oct. 22 he could not comment because the matter is quasi-judicial.
Florida law and court rulings have declared zoning changes to be quasi-judicial, meaning they are partly judicial. As such, Council members act as judges and cannot express their personal opinions before hearing all of the evidence or else they could be disqualified from voting on the matter because they had shown a bias toward one side before hearing the evidence.
The Pondry vision
As of August, more plans were unfolding for Trevato Development Group’s vision for The Pondry with retail and residential space.
The current eight-story and five-story connected office buildings, totaling 192,836 square feet, will remain while the two-story building across the parking lot is being removed.
Trevato proposed adding about 20,000 square feet of retail space, 36 residential town homes. 24 row houses and 190 residential condominium units, according to the JEA application for the service availability determination letter that was issued July 29, 2024.
The site plan showed 10 buildings for condos and town homes, three sets of row houses, a parking structure, first-floor retail, another retail structure and surface parking.
The site data totals 250 total residential units and 20,019 square feet of retail space.
The site plan shows the south end of the site with row houses.
The property
CBRE is marketing the property as The Pondry “coming in 2024.”
“The Pondry reflects how the modern workplace has evolved and adapted to our ever-changing world and way of life. The Pondry combines workspace, residential living, and commerce in a one-of-a-kind mixed-use ecosystem,” says the marketing brochure.
It says The Pondry’s office hub features co-work hoteling, meeting spaces, commercial office space and “first-class amenities.”
It says the location, at 1776 American Heritage Life Drive, is “surrounded by nature and only minutes from the Beaches and Downtown.”
The address also is known as 4920 San Pablo Road S.
Trevato Development Group announced May 31 it bought the Allstate Campus office park near Mayo Clinic in Florida for $20 million and signed Jacksonville-based Stellar Energy as the anchor tenant.
Through SP 1776 LLC, Trevato Development Group bought the property from American Heritage Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Northbrook, Illinois-based Allstate.
Trevato said in the release the property comprises three buildings totaling 235,484 square feet of commercial space.
Duval County property records show two of the buildings – eight floors and two floors – were developed in 1994 and the third – five floors – in 2001. The two-story building is the one to be removed.
Trevato said it was rebranding the property. The release said the design and architecture team includes CD+urban studio architects/placemakers, headquartered in Jacksonville, as well as Valerio Dewalt Train, serving as the lead architect and designer on the project.
The CBRE real estate company will manage leasing for the development. First Vice President of Office Leasing and Sales Billy Kuntz and Senior Vice President Oliver Barakat will lead the efforts.
Jacksonville-based American Heritage Life Insurance Co. developed the property when it relocated its headquarters from Downtown.
Allstate Corp. completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of American Heritage Life Investment Corp., a holding company for the insurance company, in October 1999.
Allstate said in a statement June 6 it did not need as much space, but would use some of it for employees who choose to come into the office.
It did not detail how much space it uses.
Tenant improvements
Several tenants have been announced for the existing office buildings.
Stellar Energy anchors the eight-story building by leasing the top two floors.
Hueman People Solutions, a talent recruitment firm launched in Jacksonville Beach, leases space among three floors in the eight-story building, on part of the second and on the full third and fourth floors.
Allstate is remodeling space on the third, fourth and fifth floors in the five-story building for Allstate Benefits, part of Allstate Insurance Co.
Trevato Director of Operations and Portfolio Katelyn Taylor said in the May 31 news release that Trevato has pre-leased more than 120,000 square feet of total space based on its plans “to reimagine the campus to lifestyle office.”
It did not announce who has pre-leased space.