JEA approves sale of historic downtown campus for $1M, set for apartments, shops, and a downtown makeover.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Downtown Jacksonville’s old Jacksonville Electric Authority headquarters is about to get a major makeover.
The JEA Board has officially approved the sale of the 2.47-acre campus to Live Oak Contracting’s development group, the Jewel at 21 West LLC, for $1 million opening the door for a fresh chapter in the heart of the city.
The decision came Tuesday after weeks of careful review of proposals, numbers, and plans for the property’s future.
Live Oak Contracting, led by Paul Bertozzi, shared their vision for the space during the meeting: roughly 180 new apartments in the tower, new restaurants and cafés on the ground floor, and a revamped Customer Service Center turned into modern commercial space. Bertozzi and his team, which includes architects from Gensler and co-developer Lone Pine Development, said there’s still a lot of work ahead during the due diligence phase before anything officially starts.
“The tower and surrounding buildings have a lot of history,” Bertozzi said. “But to make them work for today, they need careful redevelopment. We’re excited to bring our vision to life while respecting the legacy of these buildings.”
The sale got unanimous approval from the JEA Board, a big step for a downtown property everyone in Jacksonville knows. Now, all eyes turn to how the Jewel at 21 West LLC will transform the site for a modern era.
The Downtown Investment Authority has already given the project a thumbs-up, signaling optimism that the redevelopment could breathe new life into the area. For JEA, the sale is a win too: it cuts down on millions in upkeep costs, shifts redevelopment risk to the private sector, and puts the property back on the tax rolls.
The campus itself has a rich history. Located just a block from City Hall, it served as JEA’s headquarters from the late 1980s until the move to a new facility in 2023. The site includes a 19-story tower, a six-story Customer Service Center, and the Adair Building, which features parking and ground-floor retail.
The tower, originally called the Universal Marion Building, opened in 1963 and was once the tallest building on Jacksonville’s North Bank, complete with a revolving restaurant at the top. The other buildings have their own stories, from department store beginnings to office space, making the campus a familiar part of downtown’s skyline for decades.
But keeping the old campus up to modern standards isn’t cheap. Renovating the tower alone could cost between $65 million and $78 million, while JEA spent over $3.7 million on operating and maintenance costs from 2023 through 2025. If the property stayed empty, that number could climb by roughly $1 million a year.
Back in 2025, JEA asked developers to submit proposals, looking not just at price but at experience, capacity, and plans for the site. The Jewel at 21 West LLC’s $1 million offer came out on top, beating a competing proposal that offered nothing for the property. An appraisal valued the campus at $15 million, with county assessments just under $30 million, but that didn’t factor in the massive costs to renovate and maintain such an old, complex site.
The sale is structured as an “as-is” deal to protect JEA from post-sale risks. It includes $100,000 in earnest money and a one-year inspection and due diligence window, with closing expected within six months of inspections. The final step is approval from both the Jacksonville City Council and JEA’s governing board before redevelopment can officially begin.