RFB
Ballard Rises Up
PHOTOS: Mark Wallheiser
Lobbyist Brian Ballard’s new six-story office building in downtown Tallahassee is getting closer to reality. But at an added cost: Once projected at $15 million, the new office tower now has a price tag of just over $20 million, Ballard told INFLUENCE. As of mid-February, the interior structure was finished, the exterior panels were in place and workers were putting in the glass. Project superintendent Mark Houck said the building, on the southeast corner of Monroe Street and Park Avenue, remains on track to be completed by fall 2017. The site is the location of the old Florida Homebuilders headquarters, which was razed. Ballard previously told INFLUENCE his Ballard Partners firm will occupy 17,000 feet on the top two floors; the other space will be rented, including the planned ground-floor showcase – an upscale fine-dining restaurant with 7,500 square feet of space and a dining patio. In February, Ballard said he couldn’t yet discuss any tenant negotiations. The new tower and refurbished parking deck in the back will wrap around an existing historical building, the David S. Walker Library, which was built in 1903 and now houses the offices of Springtime Tallahassee. Ballard also bought a neighboring three-story building, once the location of the now-defunct Guaranty National Bank, which he donated to Florida State University to become the new home of the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship and the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship. Ballard’s building was designed by the Lewis+Whitlock architectural firm and is being built by Culpepper Construction Co.
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