by David Chapman
Staff Writer
Like a thick fog dissipating, the fresh and clear air of an ideal change seems to slowly be creeping into the minds of business executives around the country – and Jacksonville stands to benefit.
Cornerstone Executive Director Jerry Mallot gave members of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Downtown Council that potential good news as well as other news and notes during the organization’s bimonthly meeting Friday at the Aetna Building.
As leader of Cornerstone – the Chamber’s economic development arm – and at the forefront of luring business to Jacksonville, Mallot’s discussions have both shifted in tone and direction over the course of a year.
“The last two to three months, there’s been a directional change I’m finding,” said Mallot, referring to discussions with business clients regarding the economy. “It’s gone from ‘Oh my God, where are we going to be next?’ to planning for the future .... there’s been great fear and uncertainty, but we’ve reached a new point.”
While he said he does expect unemployment numbers to dip a bit further due to staggering, business officials are “feeling better” about the future and have better, less-bleak attitudes about the economic future.
“It (the attitude) is one where the recovery begins,” added Mallot.
Mallot noted that Cornerstone officials are currently in talks with 45 different clients – with around 71 percent being new to the region, 20 percent as expansion and 9 percent as retention projects – but that along with the shift in attitude of business executives comes an approach shift in the way Mallot and his team go about pursuing business.
“It’s time to get aggressive,” said Mallot, with enthusiasm.
While the future is looking brighter according to Mallot, he also stressed the importance of the projects that have affected Jacksonville within the past five years – even during a recession.
“We’ve had a lot of very good things happen in Jacksonville,” he said. “When we’re in a recession, we kind of forget all the good things.”
Such new achievements, he said, included an influx of headquarters relocating like Fidelity National and Rail America; the lack of wide-scale job loss in the city’s financial sector (“We’re within 100 jobs of what we were a year ago,” he said.); and the burgeoning logistics and distribution industries, are all positive developments that help lessen the negativity of a recession.
In addition, Mallot alluded to another potential company coming to Jacksonville when discussing automobile parts distribution plants like Volvo and Volkswagen.
“There might be another one in our future,” he hinted.
For members of Downtown Council, a visit from Mallot is informational and always welcome.
“He hears about a lot of things in the pipeline,” said Downtown Council President Jepp Walter. “He tries to visit us once or twice a year and it’s always good to catch glimpses of what’s to come.”
Walter also said business owners appreciate Mallot’s honesty in both good and bad situations.
“He’s always upfront with any problems he sees out there,” said Walter. “This time, though, it was nice to hear some positive changes on the way.”
For Mallot, visiting any of the Chamber’s regional councils is a way to get back to Chamber members who help make up the local business communities.
“I really enjoy coming to speak with them (regional councils),” said Mallot. “It’s always hard to catch them up on everything that’s going on out there and paint a complete picture in such a brief time, but it’s important to keep them up as much possible.”
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