{"id":146691,"date":"2026-02-06T23:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146691\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T23:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T23:36:07","slug":"city-offering-everbank-nearly-10m-to-stay-downtown-amid-safety-concerns-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146691\/","title":{"rendered":"City offering EverBank nearly $10M to stay downtown amid safety concerns \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Action News Jax\u2019s Ben Becker has confirmed another major downtown employer may be considering leaving the area, citing ongoing safety concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">EverBank is exploring potentially moving its offices from the EverBank Center on 301 West Bay Street &#8211; and more than 700 employees &#8211; to a location outside downtown.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/live-breaking\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/live-breaking\/\" target=\"_blank\">&gt;&gt;&gt; STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE &lt;&lt;&lt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">Those familiar with the situation say the bank has raised concerns about security issues near its downtown offices, along with a lack of available employee parking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">At the same time, sources tell Becker the City of Jacksonville is offering EverBank $9.8 million over the next ten years in an effort to keep the company downtown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">[DOWNLOAD: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/mobile-apps\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/committee-recommends-citizens-property-insurance-leave-its-downtown-jacksonville-headquarters\/XAYIE5XBKZHBNGEFNEGRAZBP2E\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/committee-recommends-citizens-property-insurance-leave-its-downtown-jacksonville-headquarters\/XAYIE5XBKZHBNGEFNEGRAZBP2E\/\">Action News Jax first reported last year<\/a> that Citizens Insurance announced it was also leaving the EverBank Center, citing incidents in which employees were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/citizens-insurance-worker-security-guard-attacked-by-downtown-homeless-expanding-moving-search\/C2XQ5UCCSFAYHEYZFCL7KXW75E\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/citizens-insurance-worker-security-guard-attacked-by-downtown-homeless-expanding-moving-search\/C2XQ5UCCSFAYHEYZFCL7KXW75E\/\">harassed by homeless individuals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">Action News Jax reached out to the Mayor\u2019s Office, which did not acknowledge the specific proposal, only saying, \u201cWe absolutely want one of our largest employers to remain downtown, and city leaders have been discussing how to best achieve that goal. The proposal will be reviewed and finalized by the <a href=\"https:\/\/dia.jacksonville.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/dia.jacksonville.gov\/\">Downtown Investment Authority<\/a> Board in the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">[SIGN UP: <a href=\"https:\/\/membercenter.actionnewsjax.com\/newsletters\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">Downtown Vision\u2019s annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/state-downtown-report-reveals-successes-work-be-done-economic-boom-jacksonville\/DKOISJX24FDT3KSDTPYK5AD2MM\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/state-downtown-report-reveals-successes-work-be-done-economic-boom-jacksonville\/DKOISJX24FDT3KSDTPYK5AD2MM\/\">\u201cState of Downtown\u201d report<\/a> in 2025 already highlighted the need to fill empty office space. According to the report, Jacksonville\u2019s office vacancies sat at 25.7 percent, which comes in more than six percent higher than both the national average as well as the next highest mark by a major Florida metro.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\">The potential EverBank move is expected to be discussed Monday morning during a meeting of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/duval-county\/special-jacksonville-city-council-committee-examine-downtown-investment-authoritys-effectiveness\/CHKH2JAD3FEE5D5OFLDSEO5O64\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/duval-county\/special-jacksonville-city-council-committee-examine-downtown-investment-authoritys-effectiveness\/CHKH2JAD3FEE5D5OFLDSEO5O64\/\">Special Committee on the Future of Downtown<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 jsuuLb body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/mobile-apps\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/mobile-apps\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/video\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n<p>Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Action News Jax\u2019s Ben Becker has confirmed another major downtown employer may be considering leaving&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,347,71003,33223,38223,43552,71002,71001,28,348,116,351,118,117,349,350,71004,346,345],"class_list":{"0":"post-146691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action-news-jax","9":"tag-cbs47","10":"tag-city-of-jacksonville-fl","11":"tag-downtown-investment-authority","12":"tag-downtown-vision","13":"tag-everbank","14":"tag-everbank-center","15":"tag-everbank-jacksonville-fl","16":"tag-florida","17":"tag-fox30","18":"tag-jacksonville","19":"tag-jacksonville-fl","20":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","21":"tag-jacksonville-news","22":"tag-northeast-florida","23":"tag-southeast-georgia","24":"tag-special-committee-on-the-future-of-downtown","25":"tag-wfox","26":"tag-wjax"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}