JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A major move is about to get underway downtown that will fill one historic building and leave another riverfront building vacant.
The State Attorney's Office is moving into new offices at the old Federal Courthouse at the cost of about $30 million.
The move completes the work at the new courthouse site, a renovation that was supposed to be finished two years ago when the new courthouse opened. But concerns over cost and delays in with the original contractors held it up, and the building sat empty until now.
But it's ready to go and the moving trucks are on the way. The move is set to begin Friday and is expected to take about a week.
"We stayed on budget with the total project with the new courthouse," said Tom Goldsbury, who was hired by Public Works to oversee the courthouse project. "Anytime you renovate an old building, especially one this old where you have historic requirements that you have to meet and just things you did not know where there, there are always challenges."
So the State Attorney's Office is now packing up from the current 15-story old City Hall on the river and will begin moving into its new offices over the next week.
News4Jax asked to speak to State Attorney Angela Corey about the move, but her office issued this statement instead:
A plan is in place to continue business as usual during this transition. The SAO staff will be working from office space within the Ed Ball building as well as the Duval County Courthouse. In addition to being able to contact us at the Ed Ball building or the Courthouse, the public can continue to call our main number at 904.630.2400. Phone calls will be forwarded to our transition office space. We are extremely excited about relocating closer to the Courthouse, which in turn will help us and our law enforcement partners operate more efficiently. We hope to be up and running at the new State Attorney's Office in early March.
The moves leaves another big hole on the Northbank, as the old City Hall building will sit vacant. Right now there are no plans to sell it or use it for office space. It's right next to the old courthouse, which has been sitting empty for two years.
The change is part of the city's plan to get government offices off the river and businesses to move into their old buildings, but that has stalled.
Businesses like Olio restaurant have relied on the state attorney employees to help keep business brisk, and they're likely to notice a difference starting tomorrow.
"Well, we are sad to see them go," Olio owner Greg Sasanto said. "We definitely would be more appreciative of something happening with those spaces quickly."
One sign of hope for the nearby business owners is that the vacant buildings sit close to the Shipyards property. A recently announced proposal by Jaguars owner Shad Khan to renovate that site could spill over to the old government buildings as well.