When the Jacksonville Armada FC soccer team completes its stadium at the end of 2025, it will be a year-round facility.
Team owner Robert Palmer plans to operate two business ventures in the stadium.
In addition to housing the professional soccer team, the facility will be the headquarters for LPT Realty.
The brokerage is one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in the U.S., said Palmer, its owner and CEO.
It has 15,000 agents working in 46 states, he said in a Dec. 18 interview.
It began in 2016 as Listing Power Tools, a marketing company that sold sales materials to real estate agents. In 2022, the company evolved into LPT Realty. The brokerage now supplies its exclusive contract-employees with the sales materials as part of joining the firm.
It is expected that 100 employees will work at the new headquarters.
Palmer has several companies including RP Funding, HomeValue.com and RP Title and Escrow, that will remain headquartered in Lake Mary.
Palmer is building the LPT leadership team. Jeff Whiteside has recently been hired as the company’s CFO. He is charged with spearheading an IPO offering in later 2025 or early 2026.
Whiteside has had leadership roles with General Electric, Pitney Bowes and eXp World Holdings.
“Jeff’s a big part of that process and getting us IPO ready,” Palmer said.
“Our VP of Finance is based in Jacksonville. My chief of staff is in Jacksonville. We just hired a senior HR executive in Jacksonville. So a lot of this is us building out the leadership team to get ready for that initial public offering.”
The stadium will be at 1041 Albert St. It is northeast of A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, north of the Arlington Expressway and northwest of EverBank Stadium.
The stadium project has been delayed for about a year because of a Florida DOT project in that area, Palmer said.
Before construction can begin, parking logistics to work around NFL and college games in the Sports and Entertainment District also needed to be solved.
The Armada purchased 34 properties totaling 6.56 acres from the city of Jacksonville for $1 on Dec. 20.
Palmer bought the land through Jax DowntownPro Real Estate LLC of Lake Mary, Florida.
The properties are labeled “Vacant Governmental” and are on Spratt, Van Buren, Albert, Grant, Georgia streets and A. Philip Randolph Boulevard in the Sports and Entertainment District.
On Dec. 20 Palmer sold two of the properties on Grant and Spratt streets totaling 0.60 acre to JEA for $10.
Construction costs are an estimated $30 million. Gilbane Building Co. is the contractor. Waitz & Moye Inc. is the civil engineer. Kasper architects + associates is the architect. All are based in Jacksonville.
Palmer bought the Armada in 2017. It has played home games at the University of North Florida and Jacksonville University as well as other locations.
Sporting Club of Jacksonville announced Dec. 3 that it has struck a deal with UNF to bring its professional women’s team, Sporting JAX, to Hodges Field to play home games. It is an expansion team in the USL Super League, based in Tampa.
The Armada competes in the National Premier Soccer League as an under-23 team. The league’s under-23 schedule for 2025 has not been set, Palmer said. Several alternative home sites are under consideration.
Plans were in the works for the Armada to advance to the MLS NEXT Pro league in 2025. Though that still may happen, Palmer said, it is doubtful it will occur without a permanent new stadium.
The first phase will be a 14,000-square-foot stadium that will seat more than 2,500 to get the building open. A second phase of construction could expand seating to more than 20,000, he said.
When the women debut in September 2025, Jacksonville will have two professional soccer teams, with a third being developed by Sporting Club of Jacksonville that includes backing by Tim Tebow and Fred Taylor. Add the JU and UNF teams, high school and club teams, one has to wonder how soccer fan dollars will be split among all the interests.
“I think at the end of the day, the fans are going to be drawn to the product that they find the most compelling. We’re excited about our alignment with MLS,” Palmer said.
“I’m very bullish on the Armada prospects. I think all in all we’ll see how much the city can actually support outside of the Armada."