JACKSONVILLE, FL– Flagler recently closed a five-year lease renewal with The Main Street America Group. The super regional property/casualty insurance company will remain in its 67,694-square-foot corporate headquarters within the Deerwood North business park at 4601 Touchton Road here.

Ross Carrier, Flagler’s senior director of Leasing, represented Flagler in the transaction. Lou Nutter, senior vice president at CB Richard Ellis, represented Main Street America Group, which relocated to Jacksonville from Keen, NH in 2003.

“Jacksonville is a strong business community and has provided our company with excellent opportunities for profitable growth,” says Tom Van Berkel, Main Street America’s Chairman, president and CEO. “Our move to Jacksonville has been the springboard for our geographic diversification, as we have entered nine new states in the past few years and significantly increased our market share.”

One of Flagler’s largest office parks in Jacksonville, Deerwood North is located in the city’s growing central business corridor and offers four Class-A office buildings totaling nearly 500,000 rentable square feet. Arizona Chemical Company, Fidelity Investments, Carolina Casualty Insurance and IBM Corporation call the business park home.

“Most of the leasing activity in the Jacksonville market right now is from renewal activity and tenants that are taking the opportunity to shop the market,” Karl Hanson, Flagler vice president market officer for North Florida, tells GlobeSt.com.

This is Flagler’s second win for the Deerwood project in as many months. In July, Zurich.-based Adecco Group decided to leave the Modis Building in downtown Jacksonville to take up residence at Deerwood South in the spring of 2011. The recruitment and workforce solutions company signed a 78,292-square foot lease at Deerwood South.

Nutter declined to comment on the Main Street America deal, but Jim Sebesta, vice president at Phoenix Realty Group in Jacksonville, tells GlobeSt.com that the office market is starting to rebound in Jacksonville. The total vacancy rate held steady at 23% in the second quarter, according to CB Richard Ellis. The second quarter closed with positive absorption of 31,274 square feet. Lease rates for Class A office space averaged $20.28 per square foot.

“A lot of our office market was tied directly to the residential mortgage business,” Sebesta says. “When that collapsed, we saw a lot of downsizing and a lot of space hit our market. We got hurt a little worse than some cities. Now, we’re bouncing back.”

Sebesta points to Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group’s decision to open a 60,000 square foot office on the Southside of Jacksonville, along with the Main Street America deal, as signs of life in Jacksonville’s financial services industry.

“With backroom operations for Chase, Washington Mutual and Citigroup here, we saw a lot of financial services professionals laid off,” Sebesta said. “Now, we have the space availability and the labor pool to attract companies looking for good deals.”

Instant Insights /

Main Street America Renews 67,694-SF Lease

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