Duval Schools will sell its Southbank headquarters and move its offices to a building on the Southside, following a pair of 4-3 votes Tuesday night.

The district will sell its Prudential Drive building to Chase Properties for $17.2 million, and it will purchase a building in the Prominence office park off Baymeadows Road for $13.65 million.

Board members Cindy Pearson, Tony Ricardo and Darryl Willie voted against both the sale and the purchase. Members Reggie Blount, Melody Bolduc, April Carney and Charlotte Joyce voted for them.

Last month, the School Board unanimously rejected a similar plan, with a $20 million offer from retirement community Fleet Landing. The structure of that deal would have split the payment into two parts across three years. 

Chase plans to tear down the existing Duval Schools HQ and build luxury condos and apartments on the riverfront site, as well as space for shops and restaurants. 

In a statement Chase CEO Michael Balanky sent to Jacksonville Today following the vote, he called the decision an “incredible honor.” 

“This site represents the true gateway to Downtown Jacksonville, and we are committed to creating a world-class development that enhances the skyline, strengthens our economy, and reflects the pride of this city,” Balanky wrote. “I first began pursuing this site nearly two decades ago, envisioning it as a catalyst for connecting the Southbank’s major assets — the Riverwalk, Baptist Health, the JEA campus, and the Kings Avenue Station.” 

Critics of moving the HQ to the Southside say the building is too far removed from Jacksonville’s urban core.

“This move sets a dangerous precedent. It threatens to alienate the very communities the School Board is meant to serve,” Jacksonville NAACP President Isaiah Rumlin wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “We cannot allow decisions that prioritize convenience for the few over accessibility for the many.”

Exploring the options

Before the vote Tuesday, Superintendent Chris Bernier told board members that, following the October vote not to sell the property to Fleet Landing, the district’s real estate consultant “reengaged with all the prospective buyers” and continued to process new offers.

“This includes additional offers as late as yesterday,” Bernier said. “Even though offers got turned in very late yesterday, we were still making sure we vetted them prior to sticking with the recommendations that are on the agenda this evening.” 

Bernier recommended the board accept Chase’s offer of $17.2 million cash, one of the numerous offers the district received for its Prudential Drive building over the past six months. 

Duval Schools previously attempted to sell in 2022. In that case, it used a structured Invitation to Negotiate process that involved receiving bids by a set deadline and unsealing them in a public meeting. 

This time, the district hired a real estate consulting firm, Trinity Commercial Group, to manage the sale. TCG collected the first round of offers over the summer; 10 companies submitted proposals ranging from $4 million to $30 million. TCG then narrowed the pool twice and negotiated better terms. They later said three companies submitted final offers: Fleet Landing, Chase and Bainbridge. Documents show the district also received a fourth offer during that third round of negotiations, from local developer Ashco. Only Fleet Landing’s offer was presented to the board before October’s vote that was unanimous against the sale. 

During the board’s discussion in October, it became apparent that Chase had sent an updated offer in the days leading up to the vote. The offers kept coming in after that. 

Documents the district provided under a public records request by Jacksonville Today show, after October’s vote, the district received updated offers from Fleet Landing ($17.5 million), Chase ($17.2 million) and Ashco ($15 million). Fleet Landing withdrew its offer on Oct. 21.

“After the School Board declined our proposal, we were approached by several parties who shared our enthusiasm for the concept we presented. After those discussions, we decided to focus our efforts on these new opportunities,” CEO Josh Ashby wrote in a text message to Jacksonville Today. 

The real estate consultant told the board in October there was one offer remaining: Chase’s.

Higher offer rejected

During the public comment portion of this week’s meeting, a rep from Ashco stepped to the lectern and used her allotted 60 seconds to submit another offer — for $17.5 million — distributed to board members in 35-page hard-copy packets down the dais.

“Over the past several weeks, we have been trying to find the proper and respectful way to submit our offer for the purchase of the Duval County School Board Building. Despite our efforts, we have not been able to present our offer through the established process or directly to the appropriate decision-making body. Out of an abundance of caution, we are therefore submitting our full proposal in this packet to ensure that it is formally received and considered,” Ashco president Ed Ashurian wrote in a letter to the board provided with the offer packet. 

It’s unclear why Ashco’s offer was not shared with the board in October.

During Tuesday’s meeting, some board members acknowledged receiving versions of it on Oct. 31 and on Nov. 3, though they did not extensively discuss it.

“We just got plopped another deal on our lap just now,” Willie said. “We have to figure out, what is the process going to be? Because this could happen six other times — it could happen again tonight. Somebody could run up here and throw us another deal. I think that’s a dangerous place to be in.”

District spokesperson Arwen FitzGerald says, “An additional updated offer was received from Ashco Centers on Nov. 3, after the established deadline. While this offer was shared with and reviewed by Board members and staff, it was not included in the items submitted for Board approval.”

During the discussion, Bernier said to the board, “This is now your decision…We’ve done everything we can to provide you all the facts related to this.”

“What I can’t prevent is a last-minute offer coming in just before the board meeting. You want us to additionally vet that? Table this item and we’ll come back again. Sooner or later we’re going to have to make a decision,” Bernier said. “Whatever happens, even if this property doesn’t move forward for sale, then it needs to come off the market for a while. We need to let this settle down and, and then come back to it another time, potentially…I’d love to be able to help more.”

Local real estate lawyer Barry Ansbacher, who’s not involved in the district’s search, said Ashco’s $17.5 million offer showed “real commitment” in the way inspection periods and closing dates were structured, but a requirement that the property be “environmentally clean” could have posed a challenge, as the property sits between two brownfield sites.

Reaction to the move

Tuesday’s meeting included a show of support from Jacksonville City Council member Joe Carlucci, whose district includes the Southbank site of the current HQ building. He called the sale a “generational opportunity.”

“This is going to be a great success for our community, and it’s going to generate a tremendous amount of tax revenue — and therefore more funding for our schools as well,” Carlucci said during public comment. “But the more exciting part is that this will continue to amplify the progress we’ve already made Downtown, and it coincides with the plans that we have for the future.”

The purchase of Prominence, though, was a more difficult decision. Its location — 10 miles south of the current HQ — puts the district effectively out of reach for those without reliable transportation. 

“I’m one who I can look at one deal and say, this is actually not bad, the Chase piece. But once I put it with the Prominence piece, it all goes out the window for me. I’ve already said before that we should be in the city center. I am representing the Northside and some of the urban core of this community,” Willie said. “We’re supposed to be accessible to the people and it does not allow us to do that.”

But Jacksonville is “the largest city in the country by land mass,” Carney said — in other words, no matter where the district offices are, someone will have a long drive. She said she’d rather travel to her constituents if they can’t travel to her.

“To me, where our office space is is not necessarily that important. I’m more concerned about us collaborating with all of our employees in the same building and creating that culture that’s collaborative for DCPS,” Carney said. “And I think that that building will provide that for everyone.” 

Months ago, Bernier asked the board to consider the sale and the purchase — technically two separate transactions — as if they were dependent upon each other. This was one reason the move failed in October. Concern about the terms of the proposed deal with Fleet Landing led some board members to also vote against the purchase of the Baymeadows building.

“Prominence is a beautiful building, don’t get me wrong, I just wish it was a little closer,” Ricardo said Tuesday. 

“The community wants us off the river. We want to be off the river. We want to be good stewards of this,” Joyce said. 

Pearson, whose school district includes the current HQ location, said she’d consulted previous board members for “historical perspective.” 

“All of the board members that I talked to said, ‘Don’t do this,’” Pearson said. “They said ‘We’ve been trying to do this for a long time, but this is not a good deal. Don’t do this.”

Pearson compared the decision to a previous board’s vote to outsource transportation — something many now see as an expensive mistake that’s difficult to reverse. 

“I am very concerned that purchasing this property at Prominence Parkway will put another board down the road — 5, 10, 15 years, I don’t know how long — in a situation where they’re sitting around a boardroom at Prominence Parkway and they ask, ‘What were they thinking?’” Pearson said.

---

Updated: This story was updated on 11/5/25 to include more details of the competing offers and more of Tuesday’s school board discussion.