Jacksonville, Florida, USA 11 May 2016 -- (From the Jacksonville Business Journal) -- Rayonier Inc. officially announced that the company will be moving its corporate headquarters to a new development in Nassau County, Rayonier subsidiary Raydient Places + Properties announced Tuesday.

The 55,000-square-foot building is already under construction in the Wildlight development. It joins a new school also under construction where Rayonier had donated the land for the school to Nassau County.

Rayonier currently has offices at three different locations in Downtown Jacksonville and also in Fernandina Beach. The move will allow the company to consolidate its 145 employees into a single location.

"Following the spinoff of our manufacturing business in 2014, we became a more focused company and realized our current office space footprint was simply not very efficient," said David L. Nunes, president and CEO of Rayonier Inc. "So we undertook a process to explore alternatives and determined the best one was to consolidate at Wildlight."

The move should be a catalyst to that area of Nassau and drew applause from several economic development professionals in the area.

"Rayonier choosing to locate its headquarters at Wildlight in Nassau County is a major regional development for Northeast Florida," said Jerry Mallot, president of the JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development organization serving seven Northeast Florida counties. "This location will anchor an outstanding new Nassau County development where Rayonier is making a major strategic investment."

Laura DeBilla, executive director of Nassau County Economic Development Board called the move exciting and that she believes it will help spur residential development in the Wildlight community.

"Rayonier's headquarters move to the Wildlight development not only shows their commitment to the development itself but also the county as a whole," she said. "In addition to the elementary school, it serves as yet another catalyst to the area as we continue our successful efforts to recruit all sorts of end users to Nassau County."

The building was designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects and the general contractor is Danis Construction.