by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Hundreds attended Tuesday’s Quarterly Cornerstone luncheon and the crowd even surprised Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce Chair Mike Hightower.
“This is an extraordinary turnout for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving,” said Hightower, joking that most everyone in the room would be on an interstate heading out of town by mid-afternoon.
The big crowd may have been there to send off Hightower, whose year as Chamber chair is winding down.
Perhaps they attended to send of Cornerstone Chair Greg Smith of Bank of America.
Maybe it was to see who won Cornerstone’s three big annual international business awards.
Or, it could have been the fact that Smith was able to lure State Rep. Dean Cannon — who will preside as speaker of the House in 2011 — to Jacksonville to serve as keynote speaker and talk about the state of the state’s economy.
“We are starting to see some signs of recovery,” said Smith, who added unemployment across the state is still hovering at around 11 percent.
Smith pointed out two major deals that made 2009 a good year for Cornerstone — the economic development arm of the Chamber. Smith singled out the SAFT project at Cecil Commerce Center and the FDIC offices at Deerwood Center.
Based in France, SAFT is a high-tech battery company that will spend $200 million in capital improvements and hire over 300 people. The FDIC will eventually employ over 500 people in high-wage jobs.
Cannon said it’s projects like these that make Jacksonville and the Northeast Florida area an integral part of the state’s economic recovery.
“We in the Florida House are optimistic,” said Cannon, who was elected to the House in 2004 and represents the Orlando area. “We had a difficult time this past session. It was tough times.
“Right now in Florida, the nation, the world — we are in an economy that is in transit. It will never be like it was in 2006 again.”
Cannon said the leadership in the area — from the business owners large and small to the elected officials — has the ability to assure the economy rebounds quicker than in many other parts of the country. He said Florida would be wise to follow the lead of Texas, which still has a strong agricultural base and available jobs. He also said it may be time to look into drilling for oil off the Gulf Coast.
“If we can drill it and be environmentally responsible, we would be foolish not to look into that,” said Cannon. “In this economy, we can no longer afford to take the safe route. I believe we need a new energy policy.”
In other news from the luncheon:
• Former Jaguar Tony Boselli talked about the “Revive the Pride” initiative designed to generate ticket sales for the Dec. 17 games against the Indianapolis Colts and push season ticket sales in the business community for next year and beyond.
“I don’t know if there is a more important economic engine than the Jaguars,” said Boselli. “I would argue that there’s not a better investment for a small, medium or large business.”
Smith agreed. He was in Baltimore in 1984 when the Colts packed up and moved in the middle of the night to Indianapolis.
“It was devastating,” he said. “It took us until 1996 to get a team (the Ravens) back.”
• This year’s international award winners were: (small company) The Grimes Company, (large company) Rayonier and (individual) Roy Schleicher, chief of commercial services for the Jacksonville Port Authority.
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