Citizens Property Insurance Corp. intends to shift almost 150 IT jobs to Jacksonville from Tallahassee and Tampa.
Spokesman Michael Peltier said Thursday that Citizens will look for a 225,000-square-foot site to consolidate its Northeast Florida operations, now spread among four offices.
Citizens will consolidate its statewide IT staff in Jacksonville, where it already has almost 900 employees.
Peltier said Citizens has nine facilities among Jacksonville, Tallahassee and Tampa.
The company will consolidate the four Jacksonville offices into one larger location and do the same in Tallahassee. There is one facility in Tampa.
“The plan would be to have a presence in each of those three cities but to consolidate at one facility in each of those three,” he said.
He said Citizens leases about 211,000 square feet of space in Jacksonville in Corporate Center at 6676 Corporate Center Parkway; Cypress Point at 7215 Financial Way; Cypress Plaza at 8301 Cypress Plaza Drive; and at Cypress Point, 8120 Nations Way, Building 100.
An “invitation to negotiate” is expected to be issued by the end of the month for properties that want to offer 225,000 square feet in one building.
He said some of the leases are coming up by the end of 2015, so the plan is to move the bulk of the operations to the consolidated site in mid-2015.
The Jacksonville jobs focus on underwriting and claims operations. Peltier said it was efficient to consolidate IT with those functions, although each city will have IT staff as needed. Of the 148 jobs moving to Jacksonville, 130 are from Tallahassee and 18 are from Tampa.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported April 1 that employees of the insurance company were notified in a letter from Citizens president and CEO Barry Gilway that the plans were taking shape in light of leases ending next year on office space Citizens uses and the need to call for bids on new space.
The Democrat reported that another factor is Citizens’ interest in implementing the recommendations of international consultant KPMG on how the company could improve efficiency and streamline operations.
It said Citizens will assist with expenses for the employees who decide to move.
Citizens is based in Tallahassee. The Jacksonville and Tampa offices provide policy services and underwriting, claims, and customer support.
Citizens is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt government corporation organized to provide insurance protection to Florida property owners. It insures hundreds of thousands of homes, businesses and condominiums whose owners otherwise might not be able to find coverage.
The company operates according to statutory requirements created by the Florida Legislature and a Plan of Operation approved by the Florida Financial Services Commission.
It is governed by a nine-member Board of Governors appointed by the governor, Florida Senate president, Florida House speaker and the state CFO.
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