by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Florida Times-Union Senior Business Writer Karen Mathis says the Northeast Florida area is withstanding the tough times.
Speaking at last month’s Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Sales and Marketing Council meeting at the Marriott Southpoint, she shared her thoughts on the economy, the corporate outlook and real estate markets in this area.
“What we are seeing is that the economy in Jacksonville and in Northeast Florida is doing much better on average than parts of the economy around the country,” she said. “We are in a very good position.”
Even with real estate sales booming the last few years, Mathis said there was a national recession that started in May 2001 and ended in November 2001.
“The effects of the recession did hit Jacksonville,” said Mathis.
Those effects are evident in the drop of jobs being added to the Jacksonville market. Mathis said the state reported that right now we are adding about 7,500 a year.
“We are growing at about 1 or 2 percent now,” she said. “We had been adding 14,000 or 15,000 jobs a year and even more in the 1990’s. So you can tell that we have slowed down. In 2002, some studies show that we have actually lost jobs in Jacksonville. Just 700, which is a drop in the proverbial bucket since we have a workforce well over 500,000 people in this area. In 1991, we lost 4,000 jobs. So, you can see that the recession did not hit us as much as it has hit other parts of the country.”
Mathis said the projections are that we will add 10,000 jobs in the metro area this year. The unemployment rate is a little under 2 percent and it had been in the 3 percent for years, she added.
“They are signs that we are improving now, so we do seem to be coming out of it if you look at the sheer numbers,” she said. “There really is a lot going on all over town.”
When Mathis moved to Jacksonville in 1978, she said it was not that difficult to keep up with what is going on around town then as it is now.
“There is a lot to try to keep up with now,” she said.
She discussed the three Fortune 500 companies in Jacksonville: Fidelity National, CSX Corporation and Winn-Dixie.
She said that whenever you have a Fortune 500 company coming into town, it brings all the executives and decision makers to town as well which is good for the city.
Mathis discussed several company expansions and growth evident all over the city.
The city will see a lot of activity on the North Jacksonville related to the port, she said.
“The cruise ship terminal is taking shape,” she said. “We will have cruises setting out from Jacksonville starting in October and we will have a more permanent ship next year. We finally do have our cruise ship here and I think that will be an exciting thing for Jacksonville because we don’t have to get in a car and drive South. Not only will it help us, but it will bring tourists to Jacksonville.”
She said the Regency area and east Arlington are getting a lot of activity and planned housing in downtown is another hot topic.
“There are 2,000 housing units either planned, completed or on the drawing boards for downtown,” said Mathis. “The city’s ultimate goal is 10,000 housing units. The big question: What is the market for all of this? There is a lot taking place downtown and into Riverside. Again, the question is going to be how and when will all of this will be absorbed.”
When discussing Southside, Mathis said the main thing she can say is that it is big and there is more and more development coming to the area.
She discussed the changing face of State Road 9A which will be renamed I-295 upon completion.
“As you look down SR 9A, all of that land is being master-planned, developed or you will see something there,” she said. “In the next 5-10 years, SR 9A will look vastly different on the perimeters than it does today. Growth will be at a lot of the major intersections, especially at SR 9A and Baymeadows Road. There is a lot planned there with hotels and houses. This goes north of the river as well where you will see a lot of houses along SR 9A.
“A lot of apartments and condominiums are also going up on the Southside. I think the cost of land has gotten to the point where developing single family might be a little more difficult. But, of course you can charge the prices that you need to do to that and a lot of people want to buy in Southside.”
Mathis discussed the St. Johns Town Center, located on Butler and 9A at St. Johns Bluff Road, which was the center of rumors concerning bringing upscale retail coming to Jacksonville.
Mathis said the 1 million square foot retail space is being developed with several large tenants, but no upscale retail is included at this time.
“The retailers were looking and they did find that Jacksonville has the adequate household income, but what happened is that little recession and Sept. 11,” said Mathis. “After Sept. 11, a lot of the retailers basically said we are stopping right now and we are not going to go on the market right now.”
But, the developers have set aside land, so that when the upscale retailers are ready to come to Jacksonville land and retail square footage will be available to them for develop.
The Avenues Mall also has another building pad available to build high-end retail should they want to come to Jacksonville.
“There is a lot brewing on Southside,” she said.
Mathis was born in Missouri and attended the University of Missouri. She moved to Jacksonville to work for The Florida Times-Union in 1978 as a business writer. She is married to Judge E. McRae “Mac” Mathis and they have two teenage sons.