A decade after buying a Duval County home and less than two years after confirming plans for a Southside business center, Florida businessman Robert Palmer added to his portfolio by acquiring the Jacksonville Armada FC.
The North American Soccer League announced Tuesday that Palmer, 37, a Florida native and founder of RP Funding and Homevalue.com, bought the club.
NASL Interim Commissioner Rishi Sehgal said in a statement that Palmer “has tremendous entrepreneurial savvy as a businessman and a strong belief in the growth potential of both the sport of soccer and the City of Jacksonville.”
Palmer’s purchase of the club was announced at a news conference at the Jacksonville offices of RP Funding, a mortgage lending company he founded in 2007.
Sehgal and Palmer did not announce the purchase price.
Palmer said that sports ownership has been his dream and the business opportunity with Armada FC and the NASL “was simply too good to pass up.”
He said he cares deeply about the Jacksonville market and has both personal and professional interests in the area.
Palmer is a native of Lakeland. He and his wife, Jill, have maintained a residence in Neptune Beach. Property records show Palmer paid $546,000 for a home on First Street in June 2007.
Palmer is the founder and CEO of Robert Palmer Companies. It is based in Maitland in Central Florida and is involved in the financing, marketing, and escrow of more than $5 billion in residential real estate.
In November 2015, RP Funding said it was completing lease negotiations to open a Baymeadows servicing center envisioned to grow to 150-175 employees. A spokesman said currently there are 80 employees.
The company agreed to lease 26,500 square feet of office space at 8381 Dix Ellis Trail, which is Building 500 at the Prominence office park. That was the site of Tuesday’s news conference.
The Jacksonville office is involved with servicing, processing, underwriting and closing loans.
The release said that in addition to RP Funding, Palmer started companies that include Homevalue.com, which provides personalized reports on homeowners’ property values from a local real estate agent, and Listing Power Tools, a company that helps real estate agents craft listing presentations, among others.
It has a combined staff of nearly 400 people and annual revenue of $100 million.
In addition to RP Funding, the Robert Palmer Companies also features RP Title and Escrow; the “Saving Thousands” radio program; and ARMR Appraisal Management.
Jacksonville businessman Mark Frisch founded the Jacksonville club in 2013, but sold it to the NASL after the 2016 season.
Armada FC plays its games at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium. The team is in the midst of its third NASL season.
Armada FC will start its NASL fall season play at home July 30 against the San Francisco Deltas.