The groundbreaking was held last Friday morning for the former downtown Sebring Wachovia Bank building’s renovation into a business office center.
The Blackmon family acquired the building at 228 N. Ridgewood Drive in January 2024 from the Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency.
Robert Blackmon and his mother and father, Carolee and Jim, and sister, Heather, were present for the event along with many Sebring City officials and a few from the public.
Robert Blackmon thanked Sebring Mayor John Shoop whose “can do attitude and tireless support of Sebring are infectious,” he said.
The First National Bank of Sebring broke ground in 1972, he said. It’s brutalist semi-circular shape was cutting edge and it turned heads. It stood in stark contrast to boomtime of the 1920s buildings downtown Sebring is known for then.
Blackmon explained that by the early 2000s the world was changing. The industries that buoyed deposits had started to contract. Bank branches decreased in size leaving these voluminous shells left to find a new life.
The First National Bank building, by then a Wachovia branch, closed for good in 2010, Blackmon said.
The historic downtown business district has declined for years unable to compete with the traffic counts and big billboards on Highway 27, Blackmon said. The commercial core was circumvented.
The Community Redevelopment Agency Board worked to reverse that trend, he said. “The CRA has achieved unheard of results in the face of adversity.”
Company offices and office workers help fill the gaps of breakfast, lunch and happy hour that are often slow times, Blackmon said.
“We secured a partner in IWG the international leader in Class A office space,” he said. “This site will soon be transformed into a HQ (headquarters) branded location.”
Blackmon said their investment in the property will not be recouped in some time and that the financials don’t make sense today and the typical investment metrics would not justify the $3.5 investment in this site.
His family is willing to take risks and are investing not in what is around them today, but what this community can become in the future, he said.
“This center will bring hundreds of people and jobs back to downtown for the first time in decades supporting the Circle businesses in the process,” Blackmon said.
Blackmon introduced construction manager/contractor Drew Locher who will be overseeing this project as a second duty to his work at Harder Hall.
Locher said he laughs when Robert Blackmon talks about brutalist architecture, the only thing brutal about this building is there is nothing straight, it is a radius, it is impossible to build the new stuff.
He said the Sebring building department is fantastic to work with. They understand what it takes to do this so the permitting process was easy.
The building here is amazing, tons and tons of concrete, which is great, Locher said. It will be Class A office space with a lot of glass. The vaults will be repurposed as little conference rooms.
“This project will not take a long time,” he said. They will finish the demolition and get right into framing in two weeks.
Shoop said it is a pleasure to see somebody come in and take a true interest in the community, not just for the dollars and cents, but to have their presence and continuity and love for what they are doing.
Community Redevelopment Agency Board Chair David Leidel said this is truly a milestone moment for downtown Sebring.
It was the first property the CRA purchased, officially closing on it in February 2019, he said.
“To put that into perspective, this building last sold in 1973, just two months before I was born, for $902,400,” Leidel said. “Yet when the CRA purchased this building, the price was $325,000, nearly $600,000 less that its value 45 years earlier.”
That number tells a bigger story, he said. It reflects what downtown Sebring experienced over decades and it reminds everyone why the City created the CRA in the early 1980s – to reverse decline and reinvest in the heat of this community.
Buildings that the CRA acquired are now home to: The 301 Sebring, Gavaghan’s Irish Pub, The Roanoke Hotel, Sophie’s Cafe, Macarito’s and now this exciting new project – the HQ by IWG Office Center.
Lediel thanked the Blackmon family and especially Robert Blackmon for their persistence, commitment and belief in this project.
According to IGA (International Workplace Group), HQ creates professional environments where real work gets done – practical places with all the essentials businesses need, set up and ready-to-go.
HQ was recently relaunched as part of IWG’s multi-brand portfolio, providing efficient, functional space. Its currently only available in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Thailand but will likely expand into more locations.
IWG has announced, “We are happy to bring more flexible workspaces to Florida through a new strategic partnership agreement. We will open our first flexible workspace center in Sebring, FL, under the HQ brand.
“It will provide 18,500 sq. ft. of meeting rooms, coworking areas, private and shared offices to our customers a few blocks away from Lake Jackson, with a community of historic and modern waterfront homes, with thriving retail shops. Another great addition to IWG’s network in Florida.”
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