The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officially opened its new headquarters Tuesday, marking a major transition for the agency after nearly 50 years at its longtime home on Bay Street.
Sheriff T.K. Waters, city leaders, JSO employees and community members gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new campus on Riverside Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
“What a great day for the City of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office,” Jacksonville City Council President Nick Howland said before the ceremony.
The sheriff’s office had been headquartered in the Police Memorial Building since 1977. JSO leaders previously said the agency had outgrown the nearly 50-year-old Police Memorial Building, and that it had HVAC, storage and security issues.
Sheriff Waters said the move to a new building carries personal significance for him after so long with the agency.
“I basically grew up there, spent most of my life there, actually more time there than I did at home, and it’s been a great place and there’s gonna be some great fond memories from that place,” Waters said while addressing the crowd.
The new headquarters includes traditional office and meeting spaces, along with a media briefing room and podcast studio. Waters said he and his fellow officers have already felt the benefits of the move.
“The morale for the agency is tremendous since we moved to this place,” Waters said. “And I’m super excited about a cafeteria where we can all go sit down and have lunch and I can see all the members of the agency sitting there together having a meal together laughing, smiling, being happy because we get a chance to actually fellowship and do some things in this building that we never had the opportunity to do before.”
The expanded space will also allow the agency to consolidate its offices and evidence and equipment warehouses into a central location.
On Oct. 13, the Jacksonville City Council approved the appropriation of $31 million in reserves and contingency funding for the project. According to the ordinance, $14 million will be used for headquarters improvements and $15 million will fund warehouse consolidations.
Located behind the headquarters is the agency’s new Public Services Building, which houses police recruiting operations, fingerprint services and public records.
Mayor Donna Deegan said the new campus will improve efficiency while providing better resources for both employees and the public.
“This new state-of-the-art facility beside us delivers centralized and efficient operations, updated technology, and many more improvements that will benefit our entire city,” said Mayor Deegan. “It gives the men and women in blue a place where they can do their best work. Because the people who dedicate their lives to our city deserve the resources and support to succeed in that job.”