In a special meeting May 21, the JEA board unanimously approved plans for a six-story headquarters with 153,000 rentable square feet, and amended a lease agreement with Ryan to reduce the utility’s gross rent cost by $27 million over 15 years and lower construction costs by $10 million to $14 million.
The reduction in square footage was made possible, partially, because JEA plans to remove its emergency operations center from the corporate headquarters building and establish a 40,000-square-foot “hardened” facility at a Downtown site not yet determined, according to WJCT News partner the Jacksonville Daily Record.
DDRB members approved the redesigns June 12 with little discussion.
“Fortunately, I don’t think the changes that you have been required to make have taken away from the spectacular architecture that we’re going to see down there,” said Christian Harden, DDRB chair.
The design before the DDRB on June 12 drops the building from 150 feet to 128 feet.
Read the rest of this story and see additional images of the revised JEA headquarters plan at JaxDailyRecord.com.
