The background

An early 20th century view of the Laura Street Trio. | State Archives of Florida

The three buildings making up the Laura Street Trio date to the years of Jacksonville’s rebirth after the Great Fire of 1901. The oldest is the Florida National Bank building (the Marble Bank), located at the corner of Laura Street and Forsyth Street, which opened in 1902. It is flanked by two Prairie School highrises designed by legendary Jacksonville architect Henry John Klutho, the Bisbee Building (1909) and the Florida Life Building (1912), two of the earliest “skyscrapers” in Florida’s history.

The Trio’s significance as a unit is greater than the sum of its parts. The buildings’ unique configuration and location at one of the busiest and most walkable corners in Downtown Jacksonville makes them a lynchpin to the revival of the city center Jaxsons have hoped for for decades. Unfortunately, since being shuttered in the 1980s and 90s, the buildings have sat vacant and deteriorating.

Across many years, city government leaders, the historic preservation community and the business sector have seen the great potential of the Laura Street Trio and have worked to craft plans that would bring new life to them. In 2002, the city purchased the buildings with the intention of transferring them to a developer who could restore them. After they were back in private hands, the city continued to work toward redevelopment by authorizing a series of generous and forward-thinking incentives packages.

In 2010, developer Steve Atkins and Southeastern Group announced the first of many proposals that – with substantial investment from the City of Jacksonville – would not only save and restore the Trio, but the nearby Barnett building, and construct new buildings and a parking garage across Forsyth Street serving the whole project. Urban core advocates, The Jaxson included, were optimistic.

Early issues: The Barnett and mixed-use garage

The Forsyth Street parking garage was developed by VyStar Credit Union.

Atkins finalized purchase of the properties in 2013, but most of the promised redevelopment has never materialized. The Barnett was the first phase to start, helped along by a $3 million loan from Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s Stache Investments. That partnership ended in foreclosure in 2015 after two years of failed starts. The Barnett project finally got off the ground when the City of Jacksonville pumped $9.8 million in incentives into it, and it opened at last in September 2019. Five years later, it remains the only part of the wider project that SouthEast Development Group has completed.

Similar issues plagued the mixed-use parking garage on Forsyth Street that was planned to serve the Barnett, Laura Street Trio and the new buildings. SouthEast’s development agreement said the garage must reach substantial completion within three months of the Barnett, but no work had begun by the time the Barnett opened. The Downtown Development Authority board partially terminated the agreement and VyStar Credit Union stepped in to build the garage, which opened in 2023, with some spaces reserved for potential future use by the other buildings. In the meantime, SouthEast turned its efforts to the Laura Street Trio.