Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Vol. 104, No. 033 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Bank of America Tower wants CSX
Railroad company considering space on Northbank Ownership of the city’s tallest office tower hopes CSX chooses it for relocation of 550 employees from Southpoint to Downtown — becoming the building’s largest single tenant. And it hopes to hear so soon. “We were hoping to have heard something positive from CSX before the holidays,” said James Ingram, executive vice president and chief investment officer of Hertz Investment Group. Hertz owns the 42-story Bank of America Tower at 50 N. Laura St.
Ingram said Wednesday that Hertz is planning for 100,000 to 140,000 square feet for CSX. A lease of that size would help fill the approximately 660,000-squarefoot tower, where 200,000 square feet is available for tenants. The lease would boost the
tower from 70 percent leased to 85-88 percent, “having a meaningful impact on our occupancy and would create the largest single tenant at Bank of America Tower,” Ingram said. Ingram said he anticipates CSX’s site decision by mid-January. Asked whether that could lead to signage on the building for CSX, Ingram said Bank of America has exclusive signage and naming rights at the tower. CSX is looking at the suburbs, where it has been leasing space
for the jobs, as well as Downtown, said CBRE Senior Vice President Michael Harrell, who is working with the company. Harrell said CBRE is working with CSX Real Property Inc., the real estate arm of CSX, to find alternative locations for the suburban operations. He said they have looked at locations Downtown and in the suburbs, including staying where they are in a different configuration. Mathis continued on Page 4
Bank of America Tower
New business brewing at Landing
Book is ‘portable support group’
By Maggie FitzRoy Contributing Writer Karen Beaudin was 15 when her 13-yearold sister was beaten, raped, strangled and left naked in the woods three miles from their home. Jennifer Case was 14 when her mother was stabbed and killed. Margie Brooks will never forget the moment she learned her 19-year-old son had been shot to death in Jacksonville, changing life as she’d known it forever. Beaudin, Case, and Brooks have much in common as they’ve all lost a loved one to murder. Adding to their horror, the Killers have never been found. They also are contributors to a recently released book co-authored by Ryan Backmann of Atlantic Beach, titled “Grief Diaries: Project Cold Case.” Backmann, whose father Clifford Backmann was shot to death in 2009, coauthored the book with Seattle-based author Lynda Cheldelin Fell, creator of the “Grief Diaries” book series featuring stories about ordinary people surviving extraordinary journeys. The book, released Nov. 21, features accounts written by 22 people whose lives have been impacted by the unsolved homicide of a family member. Backmann’s family is one of them. “The goal was to heal both the writer and the reader and to market it to people Book continued on Page 2
Public
Photos by Max Marbut
Clifford Backmann, left, was murdered in 2009 on a Jacksonville construction site. His son, Ryan, continues to hope for an arrest.
Dana Atkins’ career path to opening Public House Coffee at the Jacksonville Landing includes going to law school and flying B-52s in the Air Force.
Public Coffee House also will serve as an art gallery By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Atkins with an exhibit of art by Tampa-based painter Mike Mollar.
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After nearly two years of test marketing, fine-tuning and searching for the best location, Public House Coffee is about to open at the Jacksonville Landing. President and CEO Dana Atkins is having a noon-6 p.m. open house and barista job fair this week and next while the finishing touches are applied to the former Starbucks space of the riverfront mall. His path to the coffee shop isn’t what you might expect. A Boston native and political science and economics major, Atkins went to law school, but had an epiphany before he considered the Bar exam.
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After three years of study, “I knew it wasn’t for me,” he said. Atkins then joined the Air Force and flew B-52s. He later became an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, where his love for coffee shops was born. When he left the service after several years of working with the military space program in Washington, D.C., Atkins started businesses in fields from graphic arts to nightclub consulting to a nonprofit that mentored startup environmental organizations. Along the way, he met a former Starbucks executive who’s now a partner in Public House and they opened a coffee shop in Brunswick, Ga. Public house continued on Page 3
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