VyStar Tower (originally American Heritage Life Building ) is a skyscraper in the downtown area of Jacksonville , Florida , at the northwest corner of Independent Drive and Laura Street . Standing 357 feet (109 meters) tall, it is the city's sixth tallest building. It was formerly known as the SunTrust Tower , Jacksonville Center and the Humana Building , among other names. Completed in 1989, the building was designed in the postmodern style by the Jacksonville firm KBJ Architects .
13-503: In 2018, it was announced that VyStar Credit Union , the second largest credit union in Florida , and sixteenth largest in the country, was purchasing the building for its new headquarters. The deal was finalized in late 2019, after the lease of the former tenant, Suntrust , had expired. VyStar completed construction of its sign atop the building in August 2019. On July 1, 2020, VyStar finished
26-571: A 23-story high-rise on the Northbank of the St. Johns River which had been oft-renamed since its opening in 1989. At the time, the move was the largest corporate relocation to downtown Jacksonville since 2011. In 2022, VyStar Credit Union celebrated its 70th anniversary. In February 2016, VyStar transitioned to a new Online banking platform. This change required every user of online banking to re-enroll. This caused extremely high traffic volume, which shut down
39-770: A safe place to save and borrow money. One year later, 1,100 members had joined, and by the end of the decade, membership had grown to 9,178. By September 1995, assets had reached $ 1 billion as membership and branch locations continued to be added. In 2002, Jax Navy celebrated its 50th anniversary with a rebranding effort that included a name change to VyStar Credit Union and approval from the states of Florida and Georgia to expand its field of membership to all who lived or worked in Duval, Clay, Nassau, St. Johns or Baker counties in Florida, and Camden, Charlton, Glynn and Ware in Georgia. Its membership base
52-565: Is a member-owned financial cooperative that is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida . It offers a comprehensive selection of products, including deposit and loan services for consumers and businesses, as well as investments, insurance, retirement planning and financial counseling. Founded in 1952 as Jax Navy Federal Credit Union, VyStar is the largest mortgage lender and the fourth-largest financial institution in Northeast Florida. It
65-701: Is a public senior high school located in Fleming Island, Florida and is part of the Clay County School District . The school opened in 2003 and has an enrollment of approximately 2,000 students. The team name is the Golden Eagles and the school colors are green and gold. In 2013 FIHS made U.S. News & World Report ' s list of Best High Schools. 30°05′14″N 81°42′46″W / 30.0871°N 81.7127°W / 30.0871; -81.7127 This Florida school-related article
78-634: Is extended to anyone who lives or works in the 49 contiguous counties of Central to North Florida, in addition to the Southeast Georgia counties of Camden, Charlton, Glynn and Ware. In August 2019, VyStar announced its purchase of Citizens State Bank, a Florida state-chartered bank headquartered in Perry, Florida, with $ 280 million in assets. At the time, CSB had four locations—two in Gainesville and one each in Perry and Steinhatchee. In 2007, VyStar worked with
91-720: Is regulated by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation and federally insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance (NCUSIF) offered by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Originally named Jax Navy Federal Credit Union, VyStar was chartered in April 1952 by 12 founding members with $ 60 at Naval Air Station Jacksonville . The mission of the founding members was to provide civil service and military personnel and their families
104-608: The 100 W. Bay building include the addition of food and retail space. In March 2020, The Bread & Board, a local food concept that offers sandwiches, charcuterie and more, announced it planned to open its third location on the first floor of the VyStar Credit Union's downtown campus at 100 W. Bay St. Including the VyStar Tower and the 100 W. Bay building, VyStar planned to move more than 1,000 employees to downtown Jacksonville. VyStar Credit Union VyStar Credit Union
117-486: The 16th-largest credit union by asset size among the more than 5,500 credit unions in the U.S. and the second-largest credit union headquartered in Florida. VyStar also has more than 230 ATMs located in Northeast and Central Florida and access to more than 20,000 surcharge-free ATMs in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. VyStar has more than 1,900 employees, making it one of Northeast Florida's largest employers. VyStar membership
130-1171: The Business and Finance Academy at Bartram Trail High School to form the VyStar Academy of Business and Finance and open the first VyStar high school credit union branch. At VyStar's high-school branches, students are taught skills related to the financial services and business management industries. The programs are student-run, which provides experience with the inner workings of key financial services, such as loans, credit cards, budgets and investment accounts. Since 2007, VyStar has opened 15 additional high school branches at Fleming Island High School , Pedro Menendez High School , Samuel W. Wolfson High School , Jean Ribault High School , Orange Park High School , Yulee High School , West Nassau High School , Middleburg High School , First Coast High School , Palatka High School, Matanzas High School, Fletcher High School, Mandarin High School , Fernandina Beach High School and Clay High School. Fleming Island High School Fleming Island High School ( FIHS )
143-450: The installation of electric blue LED edge lighting on the top tiers of the tower to accompany the VyStar sign. The project was completed by local businesses Dana B. Kenyon Company, Miller Electric Company and RS&H and was part of a multi-phase initiative by the credit union to bolster its VyStar Campus, which includes the 100 W. Bay building next to the VyStar Tower. The improvements made to
SECTION 10
#1732855378948156-645: The system and caused members to lose access to their online banking for approximately one week. A system change in May 2022 resulted in a longer outage which, again, left members without online access to their accounts and overwhelmed VyStar's call center with calls related to the online banking matter. VyStar is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by its members and governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. As of February 2020, VyStar has 59 full-service branches, 16 high-school branches and serves more than 700,000 members with approximately $ 9 billion in assets, making it
169-482: Was later expanded to much of northern Florida and southeast Georgia. The name came from a combination of "vying" (meaning contending with other local financial institutions) and "star" (to highlight the outstanding work of its employees). In 2015, VyStar surpassed 500,000 members. In 2018, VyStar relocated its headquarters from the Cascone Building on Jacksonville's Westside to the newly-christened VyStar Tower ,
#947052