Eight Forty One is a , 22-floor office building on the

south bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

St. Johns River The St. Johns River ( es, Río San Juan) is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders twelve counties. The drop in eleva ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

. Completed in 1955, it was the tallest building in the city for 13 years until surpassed by the

Riverplace Tower The Riverplace Tower is a 28-floor office building on the south bank of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest building in the state of Florida and was the defining landmark in Jacksonvi ...

. It was "The Tallest Office Building in the South" and the tallest in Florida until

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Vehicle Assembly Building The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V and th ...

was completed in 1965. The building's former names include the Aetna Building, Prudential Plaza I or One Prudential Plaza, and the Prudential Building.

History

Originally known as the Prudential Building, it was constructed in 1955 for

Prudential Insurance Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both Investor#Retail_investor, retail and i ...

, which had selected Jacksonville as its Southeastern headquarters."History of some major insurance companies"
(February 24, 2003). ''

The Florida Times-Union ''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...

''. Retrieved September 12, 2011.Mathis, Karen (February 15, 2006
"River Club's first woman president the end of an era"
''

''. Retrieved September 12, 2011. Construction materials included Alabama limestone, North Carolina pink granite and Georgia marble. The property is situated on the south/east bank of the

and includes of riverfrontage. A 2-ton piece of the

Rock of Gibraltar The Rock of Gibraltar (from the Arabic name Jabel-al-Tariq) is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British territory of Gibraltar, near the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and near the entrance to the Mediterr ...

, once in the lobby, is now found in the courtyard on the riverfront.Emporis Buildings: Jacksonville-One Prudential Plaza
/ref> The building was used as background in scenes from the film ''

Creature From the Black Lagoon ''Creature from the Black Lagoon'' is a 1954 American black-and-white 3D monster horror film produced by William Alland and directed by Jack Arnold, from a screenplay by Harry Essex and Arthur Ross and a story by Maurice Zimm. It stars ...

''. A sister building,

Two Prudential Plaza The Two Prudential Plaza is a 64-story skyscraper located in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. At tall, it is currently the sixth-tallest building in Chicago and the 28th-tallest in the U.S., being only five feet from 1,000 feet, making it t ...

, was constructed next door in 1985. The Prudential Building underwent a major renovation in 1988.About Com:Jacksonville-One Prudential Plaza
/ref>

Ocwen Financial Corp. Ocwen Financial Corporation is a provider of residential and commercial mortgage loan servicing, special servicing, and asset management services, which has been described as " debt collectors, collecting monthly principal and interest from homeo ...

completed the $36 million purchase of the Prudential Plaza One building in August, 1998. In 1999,

Aetna Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

acquired the Prudential HealthCare business for $1 billion, and the signage was changed to "Aetna". The building is officially known as ''Prudential Plaza I''. Another major renovation was completed in 2002 after was vacated by Aetna. The makeover also included construction of a 1,100-space parking garage by

Elkins Constructors Elkins Construction LLC is a privately held construction corporation headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It was created in 2015 by Wayne McCall and Barry Allred when Elkins Constructors, founded in 1955 by Martin Elkins, close ...

. On February 21, 2002 the Prudential Plaza I building was renamed ''841 Prudential Drive''. On January 23, 2004, Ocwen sold 841 Prudential Drive to South Shore Group for $39 million. The building's name reverted to Aetna Building. At the January 31, 2008 meeting of the Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB) of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC), plans were tentatively approved for a 128-slip dockage facility to be named The South Shore Marina & Riverwalk at the Aetna Building. The project will use a design similar to that used by

South Beach South Beach, also nicknamed colloquially as SoBe, is a neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. It is located east of Miami between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The area encompasses Miami Beach south of Dade Boulevard. This area was the fi ...

marinas. Landscape and lighting improvements will be made to the existing

Jacksonville Riverwalk The Jacksonville Riverwalks are a network of multi-use trails and open space developments along both the north and south banks of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. The roughly Downtown Northbank portion travels alongside the Hyatt R ...

. Permits from the

Florida Department of Environmental Protection The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is the Florida government agency responsible for environmental protection. History By the mid-1960s, when the federal government was becoming increasingly involved in initiatives design ...

and the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

had already been obtained.

Tenants

The building was the original home of what is now the River Club of Jacksonville, a private business club that relocated to building now known as the

Wells Fargo Center Wells Fargo Center may refer to: *Wells Fargo Center (Los Angeles), California *Wells Fargo Center (Sacramento), California * Wells Fargo Center (San Francisco), California * Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, Santa Rosa, California * Wells Fargo Cen ...

in 1976. The 12th floor is occupied by the

Regus IWG plc, formerly Regus, is a British holding company.IWG PLC
Bloomberg. Accessed June 2021. It provide ...

Aetna Center, which provides executive office suites to businesses needing temporary office space. NDG Serviced Office Directory, Regus - Aetna Building

Gallery

File:OnePrudentialPlazaJacksonville-2010-07b.JPG, File:OnePrudentialPlazaJacksonville-2009-07-a.JPG, File:OnePrudentialPlazaJacksonville-Feb2010.JPG, File:Yacht on St Johns River, Baptist Women's Pavilion Building (left), Aetna Baptist Health Building (right).JPG,

References

External links

Emporis Buildings: Jacksonville-One Prudential Plaza
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aetna Building (Jacksonville), The Skyscraper office buildings in Jacksonville, Florida KBJ Architects buildings Aetna Prudential Financial buildings Moderne architecture in Florida Modernist architecture in Florida International style architecture in Florida Downtown Jacksonville Southbank, Jacksonville Jacksonville Modern architecture Architecture in Jacksonville, Florida Office buildings completed in 1955 1955 establishments in Florida

History

Tenants

Gallery

See also

References

External links