JAX Chamber President and CEO Daniel Davis said the past year was “incredible” for Jacksonville in terms of developing the city and attracting jobs, but there’s still work to be done.
He highlighted several deals in a speech and Q&A session with the JAX Chamber Downtown Council on Dec. 6, including the $145 million Fidelity National Information Services Inc. headquarters, the FIS acquisition of Worldpay and the push by Gov. Ron DeSantis to increase the fintech workforce development statewide.
Davis said convincing FIS to keep its headquarters in Jacksonville wasn’t easy.
The city was competing with Ohio for the company.
“They were enticing Gary Norcross,” Davis said of the company’s chairman, president and CEO.
“Every day the governor was calling trying to get them to move to Cincinnati, and we had a fight on our hands to keep them here. Thank God Aundra Wallace and the team at JAXUSA worked so hard with the mayor’s office and the governor’s office to make sure FIS got what they needed to stay here in Jacksonville.”
Wallace is president of JAXUSA Partnership, the chamber’s economic development division.
Davis said that on the chamber’s trip to London in October, he and other chamber leaders met with several financial services companies, including Worldpay.
In terms of Downtown development, having a developed urban core is crucial to attracting top talent and more companies to the city, he said. That’s part of the chamber’s LiveDowntownJax campaign for 10,000 residents Downtown in two years, up from around 5,000 now.
Davis said the chamber, Downtown Vision Inc. and the Florida Theatre also are working on creating after-hours events to keep people Downtown after they leave work.
“We need to have vibrant retail to see vibrant growth, and fun and entertainment to have a neighborhood that actually sustains itself. And when you get to 10,000 people, you can do that,” Davis said.
Davis said he spoke with Peter Rummell, developer of the proposed $600 million mixed-use development on the Southbank called The District.
Rummell told him his group was looking at the first quarter of next year to begin construction.
While the chamber isn’t directly involved in marketing the 11.29-acre First Baptist Church property, Davis said “there are several companies very interested,” primarily for institutional uses.
When asked about the chamber’s position on the proposed half-cent sales tax referendum for Duval County Schools, Davis said “when it’s right, we will take a position.”
The sales tax would be used to improve or replace infrastructure throughout the school system.
Davis said money would be better spent on increasing teacher salaries, rather than improving infrastructure.
“I don’t want to give parents false hope that when they build a shiny new school that the classroom is going to be fixed,” Davis said.
“The problem is we’re not attracting the highest talent in teachers that we possibly could and paying our highest talent,” he said. “Wouldn’t you love to be the highest-paid county for teachers in the state of Florida? To me, that’s how you start turning the classroom around.”