by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Jacksonville has a very bright future ahead of it.
That was the overall message from the two speakers, John Haley of Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce and Ron Barton of Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, at the Commercial Real Estate Women of Jacksonville meeting last month at the Jacksonville Marriott.
“One of the industry sectors that is starting to grow rapidly in the Jacksonville First Coast area is logistics management and distribution,” said Haley. “Of course, that has been spurred on by the location of the Mitsui/OSK terminal.”
Haley said he gets calls at least weekly from developers wanting to come into the area and put their stake in the ground as to where they can build a park that can handle the next major distribution facilities.
“We are now seeing interest on the part of other carriers as well putting their own terminals in the Jacksonville area and that is going to spawn more interest on the part of logistics management and distribution,” said Haley.
Haley explained how the Chamber promotes Jacksonville from a logistics and distribution perspective.
He showed a presentation that the Chamber gives to businesses that are not familiar with Jacksonville.
“This is what businesses see when they first get here,” said Haley. “We would prefer to get them into our conference room before they get out so they get a context of what they are going to see.”
He explained that if they looked at Jacksonville from a satellite, they would see that it is located in the center of the Western Hemisphere.
“We have a great strategic area,” said Haley. “From a market standpoint, the southeast is the fastest growing location in the nation. Look at the population growth. We have steady growth of two percent annually. The labor force is another important factor, not only for logistics and distribution, but for every industry that comes to the area. The median age in the Northeast Florida area is 36.7. We have a younger and growing population. Our total labor force is 700,000.”
Of the 700,000 people in Jacksonville’s labor force, 47,000 are employed in a distribution/warehouse related occupation. Labor availability is another important thing businesses look at when moving to an area.
Other topics Haley discussed were how businesses like to protect themselves against risks - like hurricanes - that will put them out of business.
But, it’s not a problem in here because statistically Jacksonville is the least likely place on the East Coast or Gulf Coast for a hurricane.
“We’ve only had one hurricane in recorded history,” said Haley. “We are the hole in the donut.”
Jacksonville’s intermodal system is very important to logistics and distribution.
“We have a great intermodal transportation system that is highlighted by three interstates, two of which intersect in Jacksonville, I-10, I-75 and I-95,” he said.
Other things that business look for that Jacksonville has railroads, deepwater ports, marine terminals and a growing international airport.
Haley said that Jacksonville is home to several distribution centers including Bacardi, Publix, BJ’s Wholesale Club and Wal-Mart.
Ron Barton, executive director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, told the group about the downtown revitalization effort and its progress.
Since the residential market has slowed down, Barton said downtown development has run into a speed bump.
“You will see that as you look at the projects because some are probably going to take a bit longer to come to fruition,” said Barton. “For most of you who have been in the business long enough to know, that is what real estate is. It’s just series of cycles. But, downtown has the fundamentals to succeed and be a great downtown.”
The JEDC’s role in downtown development is multi-faceted. It is the community redevelopment agency, master developer of the downtown DRI and the downtown zoning overlay manager.
“Truly JEDC is a one-stop shop,” said Barton. “If you come to downtown, you can deal with one entity related to development in downtown.”
The area consists of 300 city blocks and 1,700 acres.
“It is a big downtown,” said Barton. “We are still a very viable economic downtown employment center with more than 50,000 employees. There are 1,700 companies, and1,700 residential units with 2,300 residents.”
Barton explained that in the late 1990’s the JEDC made a decision to give incentives to residential developers to create momentum for future residential development. Now that the market has been proved, they are shifting away from giving incentives to developers.
Barton discussed recent projects including the Shipyards, the Humana Building, 122 Ocean and others.
“We had $1.5 billion of capital projects that came through our regulatory process,” said Barton. “Those 28 projects are very important. Are all these projects going to be built next year? No. Are they going to be subject to cycles? Yes. Even though activity is down a little, it’s still very strong. I think the prospects for downtown are very strong.”
Barton said that redevelopment of the Brooklyn area on downtown’s west edge is also a very important part of downtown’s renaissance area.
“Basically, we want to just continue to build the momentum and put some action behind it,” said Barton. “We really are trying to focus on what are the drivers of a successful downtown.”
Barton said things that define the success of a downtown include public open spaces, the pedestrian experience, residential drivers, retail environment and core infrastructure.
“Those are the things we are going to keep our eye on,” said Barton. “It took our downtown 40 years to decline and you don’t bring it back overnight. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We are just going to keep at it and we are excited about it.”