Citizens Property Insurance to Relocate Jacksonville Office to Suburbs

Citizens Property Insurance to Relocate Jacksonville Office to Suburbs

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is set to relocate its Jacksonville office from downtown to the Southside in 2026, a move that will affect roughly 1,000 employees. The decision comes despite appeals from city leaders to keep the company situated downtown.

The new office will be located at 8787 Baypine Road, in a building formerly occupied by the Florida Coastal School of Law.

Citizens announced on Friday that it has selected the Baypine Road office building as the future location for its Jacksonville operations. The five-story building previously housed the Florida Coastal School of Law until the college closed down.

Citizens moved over 1,000 employees into the EverBank Center in 2015, a move that city officials lauded at the time as a significant win for the downtown area. The prospect of the company leaving spurred appeals from Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan, the JAX Chamber, and various business leaders, urging Citizens to reconsider.

Mayor Deegan stated on Friday that she will continue to advocate for Citizens to remain downtown, requesting that its Board of Governors review the decision when the board votes on the proposed lease agreement.

“There is a window still open for Citizens Insurance to remain downtown,” she said. She added that the city “remains committed to making every reasonable effort to retain this anchor tenant” and mentioned she has spoken with Sheriff T.K. Waters about establishing a stop station in EverBank Center “for extra security.”

Jacksonville currently faces a high vacancy rate for office space throughout the city, intensifying competition among landlords for tenants. The departure of a substantial employer like Citizens will likely set back efforts to revitalize downtown, which depend on boosting foot traffic to support street-level stores and restaurants.

When Citizens initially sought proposals for office space in July, the solicitation focused on a portion of the Southside and did not include downtown locations. However, Citizens subsequently decided to broaden the search, giving building owners downtown an opportunity to submit proposals.

Citizens posted a notice on Friday indicating its intention to award the contract to the owner of the Baypine Road office building. The company must still finalize and sign the lease agreement, which also requires approval by the Citizens Property Insurance Board of Governors at its upcoming meeting and by the state Department of Management Services.

Should Citizens be unable to secure a final lease agreement for that office building – owned by Boyd Watterson Asset Management – the company might enter a lease with the second-ranked proposal for office space at 14000 Citicards Way, according to the notice of decision.

Citizens has stated it is seeking a location that will provide greater accessibility during adverse local weather conditions, improve its emergency response capabilities by consolidating assets at a single site, and situate the office in a more central area relative to where its Jacksonville employees reside.

Jamie Shelton, a member of the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation Board of Governors, has indicated a top priority for Citizens is being located in an area of Jacksonville that presents a safe environment for employees when they come to work.

“The safety and security of Citizens’ employees should be priority one and the current environment does not provide such,” Shelton said last month.

Mayor Deegan mentioned this week that the city’s Providing Assistance to the Homeless program, known as PATH, spearheaded by the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, has made strides in improving the homeless situation downtown.

She expressed her hope on Friday that Citizens’ board of governors will reassess the decision to move out of downtown “given the progress that’s been made” in safety and “the many exciting projects that are coming out of the ground.”

The state established Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in 2004 as a non-profit government entity acting as an insurer of last resort for property owners unable to obtain insurance in the private market. Jacksonville has the largest employee base for the company.