Barnett: The rise and fall of Florida's largest bank

Once housing an institution that enhanced the lives of tens of thousands of citizens over a century, the abandoned Barnett Bank Building still stands two blocks from William Boyd Barnett’s 1877 bank, despite its namesake disappearing from the banking industry nearly 20 years ago.

Barnett’s growth paralleled the city’s development during World War II and the postwar era, which resulted in Florida becoming a retirement haven with seniors investing their savings and pensions into the state’s financial institutions. During the 1970s, Barnett established the state’s first credit card franchise and became the southeast’s first bank to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Armed with a child care center at its Jacksonville headquarters and a discounted child care program for employees at its six hundred branch offices, the bank was ranked among the one hundred best companies for employees who were parents by Working Mother magazine in 1992. Barnett would continue to increase in size, becoming Florida’s largest bank and a Fortune five hundred company in 1995 with revenues of $3.10 billion. The home-grown business would physically shape the bustling city in which it was founded during its 120 years of operation. At its height, it employed nearly nineteen thousand workers in Florida and Georgia and was the twentieth largest banking organization nationwide.

In 1997, Nations Bank announced plans to acquire Barnett, making this the largest banking merger in American history. At the time, employing sixty eight hundred locally, Barnett was the largest Florida-based bank with more than six hundred offices statewide, and Jacksonville’s leading corporate giver. Despite Nations Bank relocating banking operations from the building, it continued to be leased out to a declining number of smaller companies into the early 2000s.

By 2004, the abandoned building had become a shell of its former self and a hulking, lifeless figure helping to portray downtown Jacksonville as a declining center of regional commerce. However, renewed energy and pride associated with Jacksonville hosting the NFL Super Bowl XXXIX overtook downtown in 2005. Soon plans would be announced by LB Jax Development, LLC to convert the old building into an eighty room boutique hotel, seventy-five loft style apartments, a bank branch office and a five-star restaurant. LB Jax Development, LLC had renovated the old three-floor Greenleaf Annex building, across the street, into 12 loft apartments for $1.7 million in 2001. Mike Langton, LB Jax Development’s co-owner, would soon host a lavish announcement ceremony featuring a mix of fake and real dollar bills tossed from a window of the former Barnett Bank building.

Called the Lion and Gargoyle, the hotel would feature suites with limestone bathrooms and guest rooms with chrome and glass accessories. Other amenities would have included a garden terrace, a lap pool and a spa. However, this project failed to materialize partially based on the developer’s need for the city to provide at least $8.5 million in incentives to finance the redevelopment project.

Shortly after the failure of this proposal, a second restoration project involving the Barnett got underway in October 2005 when Orlando businessman Cameron Kuhn purchased the historic tower for $4.95 million. Kuhn had successfully purchased and renovated more than 20 properties in Orlando with retail shops, cinemas, and luxury condominiums, and was credited with jump starting the redevelopment of downtown Orlando in the late 1990s. Many felt that Kuhn would do the same for Jacksonville as he gobbled up downtown properties one after another in 2005.

His Barnett Bank project would be known as One 12. Kuhn commissioned architectural firm Rink Reynolds Diamond Fisher Wilson to create a design that would modernize the building, while preserving its historic ambiance. The new design redefined the structure into a mixed use tower comprising one hundred and five luxury condominium units on floors five through eighteen, and twelve thousand square feet of retail and office space on the lower levels. Reconstruction was expected to be completed by mid 2007. With interior demolition well underway, Kuhn’s real estate empire would fall victim to Florida’s real estate market crash. By the end of 2008, Kuhn’s empire crumbled into bankruptcy and the Barnett project stalled and became lost to foreclosure.

In May 2010, a major plan to revitalize this landmark and three adjacent historic structures was announced by Linea, LLC. This time, the Barnett would be repositioned into a bank-themed hotel, where guests would check in with a teller and stay in “vaults.” Floors one and two would be the lobby of the hotel, which would also feature a restaurant and bar. The third floor would become hotel offices, a fitness center, and several guest rooms. Floors four through ten would become hotel rooms, with floors eleven through fifteen being residential units. The remaining floors would feature hotel suites with a rooftop bar. In June 2011, developers of the project mentioned that they were approved for a construction loan and permanent financing through a private equity group, but that the project would not move forward without $5 million in tax credits.

In 2013, Stache Investments, a company owned by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, loaned the developer $3 million to purchase the building. At the time, plans were to convert the tower into a mix of residential and commercial uses. Despite the fanfare, the building’s redevelopment failed to materialize.

In 2014, Stache Investments sought foreclosure on the building, claiming no payments had been made on the loan. In July 2016, a circuit court judge set a final judgment of foreclosure owed Stache Investments at $4.6 million. If the judgement wasn’t paid, the building would be sold at a public auction in September. On September 14th, the structure reverted back to Stache Investments for the amount of $50,100. Now a city waits to see how the final chapter of this once proud financial institution will be written.

Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Photographs courtesy of Jerry McGovern. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com