The agency’s administrative departments are leaving the Police Memorial Building downtown and moving to Riverside Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is getting out of downtown, with a big move underway to the Brooklyn neighborhood.
This month, personnel currently located downtown will begin transitioning operations to the Florida Blue building on Riverside Avenue. The agency is leasing more than 300,000-square feet of space and the nearby parking garage.
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The plan to move the agency’s headquarters out of the Police Memorial Building on East Bay Street has been years in the making.
The police memorial building on East Bay Street opened in 1977, and the jail right next door in 1991. JSO leaders previously said the agency had outgrown the nearly 50-year-old Police Memorial Building, and that it had HVAC, storage and security issues.
The transition was approved unanimously by Jacksonville City Council in February of 2025, outlining an 18-month buildout. The sheriff’s office is there to stay, too, with the lease set to last more than 16 years with two five-year renewal terms.
The expanded space will also allow the agency to consolidate its offices and evidence and equipment warehouses into a central location.
Public access to JSO and its records department will be temporarily impacted as the move progresses.
“The public counter will remain open until September 11 at the 501 East Bay Street location and will temporarily close until September 28 when we reopen to the public at our new facility,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson said Sunday. A notice about potential delays in records request fulfillment is already posted on the records portal page.
The District 1 substation, located at 5258-13 Norwood Avenue, will close on Sept. 14 and move to the new headquarters.
“District 2 through 6 Substations will remain open for the entirety of the move, so there will be no lapse in JSO public services,” a spokesperson said. “JSO remains fully operational as we transition to our new headquarters.”
More information on the impact of the move is available on the sheriff’s office’s website.
While the agency may have begun the move-in process, there are improvements to the new headquarters that will take time — and money — to complete.
On Tuesday, an ordinance will be introduced to the full Jacksonville City Council to appropriate $26 million in reserves and contingency funding toward the project. According to the ordinance, $14 million will be used for headquarters improvements and $10 million will fund warehouse consolidations.
Because it would amend the Five-Year Capital Improvement Plan, it will require a two-thirds vote of approval from the council to pass.
A public hearing on the funding ordinance will be held on Sept. 22.