JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – JWB Real Estate Company purchased and will renovate the Greenleaf and Crosby building in downtown Jacksonville.
Downtown Jacksonville is being redeveloped one building at a time. The city has been focused on revitalizing downtown for decades, but the recent shift in revitalization is promising after overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic.
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According to the State of Downtown Report 2024, downtown occupancy was at 26%.
At the corner of Laura and Adams Street stands the Greenleaf and Crosby building. Its anchor store on the first floor was Jacob’s Jewelers for decades.
The building recently sold and is under construction. JWB purchased and is renovating the building and has already accomplished 100% occupancy by next year when it moves in.
JWB said it plans to move its staff to the building by next year once the renovations are complete.
“We are going to have this amazing steak house Oak, we are going to have a fitness user here next door, and then the whole third floor is going to have an amenity floor, a gym, some common space,” Alex Sifakis, President of JWB Real Estate Capital, said. ”All the tenants get to use all of those amenities and it’s in the heart of downtown. A couple of blocks from the river, a couple of blocks from city hall.”
It’s one of the most popular and busiest intersections within the downtown area.
JWB will renovate the building while maintaining its historic 1920 Chicago-style design and architecture.
If you look at the building from the outside, something is very unique from the 1920s.
“The building was originally designed to have the building in the center right here and the company ran out of the money so they only built half of the building. If you look, this actually is not here,” Sifakis said.
Instead, there is a roof deck.
“You’ve got this outdoor deck here, this would’ve been where that other side of the building would have been, but they didn’t build it,” he said.
The total renovation will cost $17 million with a $5 million grant from the city.
The original steel columns will remain, and unique things from the past are found during construction like the horsehair plaster used to bind.
The original mailbox remains and it still works.
The fourth floor is used for office space rental.
The original elevator shafts work, but one will be removed and taken to the basement, where there will be a speakeasy bar.
It’s like stepping back into time with the electrical units for lights are still here and the vault. The elevator will still have its original cab. It will be restored and bring you to the basement.
It will be a bar lounge that’s similar to a speakeasy.
Parts of the building are under the sidewalk on Laura Street. They will create a new subway still stair to enter the speakeasy.
“I love them because you’re bringing back something that’s old and gives downtown a sense of place. It’s not like everywhere else,” Sifakis said.
In 2026, downtown Jacksonville will be one step closer to a new vibrancy.
