JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County Public Schools is one step closer to relocating its headquarters with 16 bids coming in on its building on the Southbank.
It’s something that has been talked about for nearly two decades and while it’s not entirely clear when a sale will be finalized, the 16 bids indicate there’s a healthy amount of interest in the riverfront property.
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School board member Lori Hershey, who represents District 7, told us when the current DCPS headquarters went up in the 1980s, the riverfront location was less than desirable.
“If you look on the east side of the building there are no windows because when the building was built it was the JEA site and it was believed that no one would want to look out at the JEA site,” said Hershey.
But a lot has changed since then.
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New developments around the property have sent its value skyrocketing.
It was appraised by the Duval County Property Appraiser at over $11 million last year.
“Just since my time on the board, which has been six years, the value of the property has doubled,” Hershey said.
Now, 16 companies have entered bids to purchase the property.
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Among those interested include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, JTA, and CSX.
Hershey said selling the building will hopefully allow DCPS to relocate and centralize its operations.
“Things like our school choice office has just exploded. It has grown and expanded to the point it can’t be housed any longer in this building and so it would be great if we can be located some place that was accessible as well as bringing some things under one roof again,” Hershey said.
The next step will be for a scoring committee to select a list of finalists.
That list will need to be approved by the full school board before negotiations can begin.
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