by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The City and Fidelity Investments announced Tuesday plans for an expansion, partially paid for with state and City funds, that would bring 1,200 jobs to Jacksonville. All that remains is the approval process.
Mayor John Peyton, City Council President Kevin Hyde and Ron Barton, the executive director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, are confident that the proposal will win approval from the JEDC’s board of commissioners and the Council. The $27.25 million expansion would receive more than $5 million from the state and $1.7 million from the City.
The money would pay to outfit Southside office space to accommodate a Customer Contact Center, Fidelity’s 10th such facility in Florida. The centers provide customer service for Fidelity’s retail brokerage division, Fidelity Personal Investments. The Jacksonville center would create 1,200 jobs over the next four years.
Most of those jobs will require a college degree. Fidelity will provide training to qualified hires, said Steven Akin, president of Fidelity Personal Investments. Barton said the jobs’ average annual wage would exceed 115 percent of the state average.
The City’s investment would break down to $1,700 per job.
“That’s well within range of what we’ve done on past packages,” said Barton.
That’s part of the reason why Barton, Peyton and Hyde expect little resistance from the Council and JEDC in getting the project approved. Hyde first said the Council would meet June 27 to “approve” the deal before changing the verb to “vote on.” Peyton told Akin after the press conference that “I think you’re going to be pleased with the way we get this thing done.”
The City has the deal on the fast track. Projects can take months to navigate the JEDC and City Council approval process. The Fidelity deal will take days.
The JEDC will review the deal at a special meeting Monday. That meeting will be followed by back-to-back Council committee meetings.
The full Council will review the deal the next day during its regular meeting. Along with Hyde, several Council members attended the press conference. Council member Suzanne Jenkins, whose Southside district is likely to snag the call center, said she supported the deal.
Barton said the deal is an obvious winner for the City. Asked what would happen if the deal isn’t approved, he said there was “no need for conjecture on the meltdown scenario.”
“The merits of this project will speak for itself,” he said.
In addition to expanding Fidelity’s presence in Jacksonville, the expansion will add $60 million in wages to Jacksonville’s economy, said Barton. That should create additional demand for small business services, he said.
The expedited hearing schedule is necessary to keep Fidelity’s expansion plans on schedule and to capitalize on an unprecedented offer of state help, said Hyde. In addition to providing 80 percent of the incentives granted through the state’s Qualified Targeted Industry tax refund program, Gov. Jeb Bush is allowing Jacksonville for the first time to dip into the state’s Quick Action Closing Fund.
Bush has approved $5 million from the fund. Hyde said that’s indicative of the value of the project and the governor’s optimism about Jacksonville’s economy.
If the deal is approved on schedule, Fidelity’s new facility will be taking calls by the end of the year, said Akin.