Downtown Jacksonville is once again confronting an uncomfortable reality: the city’s revitalization strategy increasingly depends on writing checks to keep major employers from walking out the door. This week, reports confirmed that EverBank — one of Downtown’s most visible corporate anchors — is exploring a possible move of more than 700 employees out of its headquarters at the EverBank Center on West Bay Street. The concerns are familiar: safety issues near the building, limited employee parking, and the broader challenge of operating in a downtown core that still struggles to compete with suburban office campuses. Just as familiar is the city’s response: Jacksonville is offering EverBank nearly $10 million in tax incentives over the next decade to stay put.

EverBank’s situation isn’t happening in isolation. Downtown has already seen a string of high-profile departures or planned relocations. Citizens Property Insurance is leaving the EverBank building after citing employee harassment and safety concerns. Duval County Public Schools is moving its central offices to Baymeadows. Regency Centers has announced plans to relocate its headquarters to Seven Pines. Meanwhile, office vacancy rates Downtown have climbed into alarming territory, hovering between 28% and 29%, well above national averages. Downtown Vision’s own “State of Downtown” report flagged the emptiness long before EverBank’s request became public. This is not a one-off crisis — it is part of a structural problem: Downtown Jacksonville still struggles to retain the workforce needed to sustain it.

The bank’s representatives framed the request bluntly: it costs more to operate Downtown than it would in a suburban office park. EverBank estimates an annual $1.4 million cost differential, driven largely by parking and security expenses. Executives reportedly employ seven security guards Downtown — a cost that could drop dramatically in a controlled-access suburban campus environment. The incentive package would offset those additional costs over ten years, drawn directly from Jacksonville’s general fund. City officials describe it as “cost avoidance.” Critics call it something else: corporate leverage.

Chief Administrative Officer Mike Weinstein acknowledged what many taxpayers are thinking: the Deegan administration doesn’t like the incentives, but the city feels boxed in. Jacksonville has already poured hundreds of millions into downtown projects — Riverfront Plaza, Friendship Fountain, the proposed Music Heritage Park, and the long-promised University of Florida graduate campus in LaVilla. Losing another major employer now, DIA CEO Colin Tarbert warned, would be “a step in the wrong direction.” Downtown, he argued, is at a “critical moment.” That phrase has become Jacksonville’s default justification for extraordinary public spending: downtown is always at a critical moment, always just one more project — or one more incentive — away from turning the corner.

The sharpest political pushback isn’t necessarily about EverBank itself. It’s about what comes next. Council Vice President Nick Howland called the proposal a bad precedent. Council member Raul Arias raised the obvious concern: if EverBank gets $10 million to stay, what stops every other downtown tenant from threatening to leave unless they get the same deal? “If I was in an office space Downtown,” Arias said, “I’d say, ‘Hey, I’m going to relocate too. What can you offer me?” Jacksonville now faces the risk that incentives shift from a growth strategy into a retention tax — no longer recruiting investment, but subsidizing stability.

Jacksonville has long used incentives to shape downtown outcomes. The city approved $4.25 million in late 2024 to bring Haskell to the Southbank. The Jaguars stadium deal includes $775 million in public funding, a far larger example of the same principle: public dollars used to prevent relocation and maintain downtown presence. Supporters argue that’s simply the cost of doing business in modern urban redevelopment. Opponents argue it reveals the deeper weakness: downtown Jacksonville still cannot compete on its own fundamentals — safety, cleanliness, housing, mobility, and daily activity.

EverBank, for its part, is walking a careful line. In a statement, the company emphasized its commitment to Jacksonville, its long history Downtown, and its belief in the city’s future — while also noting that it has “many options” about where to build its business. The message is clear: we want to stay, but we need help to justify it. EverBank even pointed to other cities — like Charlotte — flourishing while Jacksonville’s core continues to hollow out. It is both a civic appeal and a negotiation tactic.

The most telling part of this debate isn’t the $10 million figure. It’s the fact that Jacksonville is still having this conversation in 2026. Downtown is supposed to be the region’s center of gravity. Instead, it remains a place where major employers must be financially convinced to remain, where parking and security costs outweigh the prestige of a headquarters address. Until Jacksonville solves the underlying street-level realities — not just the ribbon cuttings — these incentive debates will repeat endlessly. EverBank won’t be the last company to run the numbers, and the city won’t always be able to keep paying.