Managing Editor
Two job-generating projects are on the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission agenda Thursday.
Adecco Group North America, which bought Jacksonville-based MPS Group in January, will ask the JEDC to recommend approval for up to $300,000 from the Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund program to bring 100 jobs to Southside.
Also, the JEDC will be asked to expand the boundaries of the Jacksonville International Airport Community Redevelopment Area by more than 755 acres to enable the area to add more jobs and development.
Adecco is based in Zurich and its North American operations are headquartered in Melville, N.Y. Adecco offers temporary staffing, permanent placement, outsourcing, consulting and outplacement services. It employs 29,000 full-time employees around the world, including 236 in Jacksonville.
Adecco wants to add 100 new full-time jobs to support internal company operations in Jacksonville, Melville or Rochester, N.Y., according to a JEDC project summary. It wants to consolidate the professional staffing services business unit operations into one service center. It reports that the average wage would be $45,600, plus benefits of $15,960, to generate an annual payroll of $4.6 million.
It requests a $3,000 tax refund for each job, totaling $300,000, of which the City would pay $60,000 and the state would pay $240,000. Under the program, the refund would not be paid until the jobs were generated and taxes paid.
The jobs would be created by the end of 2012, with 90 created by the end of 2011, the summary reports.
The JEDC is scheduled to review the request, dubbed “Project Tower” in the JEDC agenda, at its meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday at City Hall.
“Adecco remains fully committed to the Jacksonville community. The potential to add 100 new jobs in Jacksonville reaffirms that commitment,” said Tyra Tutor, senior vice president of corporate development for Adecco Group North America.
Adecco said in July that it will leave the Modis Building Downtown in spring 2011 for Building 200 in the Deerwood South office park at Southside and Butler boulevards. The new jobs would be added there.
The project summary reports that the average wage exceeds 115 percent of the state average annual wage and the jobs will require skills in marketing, law, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, procurement and other administrative functions.
Adecco reports it plans to invest private capital of $300,000 for furniture, fixtures and computer equipment.
Tutor said the company continues to support “many local community organizations, including recent sponsorship commitments with The Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens, the Jacksonville Symphony (Orchestra) and St. Vincent’s Hospital.”
Adecco leases about 115,000 square feet in the Modis Building on the Downtown Northbank. Modis was a subsidiary of MPS Group and the building was named for Modis/MPS, its anchor tenant. Adecco will move into 78,292 square feet in Southside.
The JEDC also is scheduled to review a request to expand the JIA CRA by 755.21 acres to a total of 15,000.21 acres.
“Current conditions in the JIA CRA have improved at a steady pace. With the expansion of JaxPort and the Jacksonville International Airport, interest in the area continues to rise with potential growth,” says a memo from JEDC Executive Director Ron Barton to the JEDC chair.
“Long-term, coordinating planning is the key to the successful redevelopment of the North quadrant of Jacksonville,” he wrote.
The North Jacksonville Action Plan to be presented to the JEDC this week reports that the 1993 City Council ordinance approving the JIA area redevelopment plan “recognizes the area is blighted presenting a serious and growing menace to the public health, safety, morals and welfare of its residents” and the plan determined zoning, infrastructure and other actions to redevelop the area. The legislation authorized a tax-increment financing fund for redevelopment.
According to the plan to be presented this week, growth proceeded at a steady pace and the taxable value of development rose.
Barton wrote in his memo that the JEDC proposes using tax-increment financing to finance redevelopment projects within the area. He asks the JEDC to approve a resolution seeking review and approval by the City Council.
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