PSS World Medical Inc. executives said Thursday they were “reasonably close” to a decision deadline about if and where to develop a new headquarters operation for the Jacksonville-based company.
President and CEO Gary Corless and Chief Financial Officer David Bronson said executives were expecting site-team evaluations about the options, which included looking outside Jacksonville.
“The team will come back and suggest the best alternatives,” Corless said, declining to elaborate about specific sites.
He and Bronson said the company was talking with City and state officials about the site decision, which indicates that economic incentives might be part of the evaluation.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Alvin Brown acknowledged the PSS conversation.
“Our discussions with PSS World Medical have been preliminary,” said Deputy Director of Communications Aleizha Batson.
“We encourage any business considering relocation to look Downtown to help us revitalize this important part of the community. This helps to ensure that Mayor Brown’s vision of a productive and vibrant Downtown is realized,” she said in a statement.
The Daily Record reported in June that the company was evaluating its site options because its leases are coming due, with one expiring in about two years.
We reported on those options, which include development of an estimated 200,000-square-foot project to accommodate its operations.
Bronson said Thursday that is the amount of space the business uses.
In June, Corless said the company, which distributes medical supplies, occupied about 175,000 square feet of space among two Southpoint buildings.
The buildings accommodate 200,000 square feet for PSS, but he said the company doesn’t use all of it.
We reported that because of the lease expirations, PSS is evaluating its options to renew the leases, move to another location or develop a building.
Bronson said Thursday that if the company decided to build a structure, the time to start was drawing near.
Based on industry estimates of $150 a square foot, a development of 200,000 square feet could represent a $30 million investment.
Corless said in June he expected the decision to be made within a few months. On Thursday, he said the company was “still in the process.”
The company leases space in the PSS Building at 4345 Southpoint Blvd. and the Enterprise Park Building at 4190 Belfort Road.
The company’s annual meeting for shareholders took place Thursday in the Enterprise Park Building.
In June, Corless said the company was happy with its headquarters space.
“We said we may consider other options. That is part of the evaluation,” he said at the time.
He said Bronson led the evaluation team and that PSS is working with CNL Commercial Real Estate in Jacksonville to evaluate the options.
Corless also said he was aware of how distracting a move might be. The company has about 900 employees in Jacksonville and 3,900 across the country.
The evaluation includes looking at the expense of moving versus adapting the current space.
If the decision is made to move, the company would decide to occupy an existing building or work with a developer on a build-to-suit structure to meet the company’s specific needs.
Corless did not say in June nor did he say Thursday whether the company would prefer a Southside location near its existing headquarters or whether it might consider other sites, such as Downtown.
“We would take into consideration the commute times for all of our people,” he said.
Asked Thursday about Downtown, Bronson said like other locations, it would be evaluated.
Corless talked at the annual meeting about the company’s distribution realignment into four markets: physician, laboratory, in-office dispensing and home care and hospice. It previously announced it would divest its skilled nursing and specialty dental businesses.
Bronson said the company is taking that realignment into account when considering its space needs.
He said selling a piece of the business frees up some of the space, but at the same time, the remaining business is growing.
WorkSource moving from Southpoint to St. Johns Square
The WorkSource employment office intends to move its Southpoint office to St. Johns Square. A permit was issued for tenant build-out at a cost of $50,000 by Target Contractors Inc.
WorkSource reports that it should take three to four months for build-out. The move increases its space from 4,072 square feet at 6800 Southpoint Parkway to 8,500 square feet at the 11240 Beach Blvd. address.
A sign for Wolfson
The City approved a permit for The PLAYERS Center for Child Health at Wolfson Children’s Hospital created in Metro Square at 3563 Philips Highway, No. 502. The center was established with a $1 million leading gift from The Players.
Wolfson Children’s Hospital announced in October that the center will focus on health care, child safety and injury prevention. Key areas include community education, prevention, access to care and wellness.
Roses growing
The Roses chain issued fliers that the “grand opening continues” at its two Jacksonville stores in Arlington and Northwest Jacksonville. The Arlington store at 966 Arlington Road N. once housed a Food Lion and the 9459 Lem Turner Road location formerly was a Kmart.
Roses is part of Henderson, N.C.,-based Variety Wholesalers Inc., a discount retailer. The stores offer “value-priced” merchandise that includes clothing and shoes, home furnishings, housewares, toys, food and candy, health and beauty products, gifts and seasonal products.
According to Variety Wholesalers, the Lem Turner Road store opened in October and the Arlington location opened in May. The company said each would create 40 to 50 jobs.
Variety Wholesalers bought chains that include Eagle Stores, Value Mart, McCrory/United, Super Dollar, Allied Stores, Bargain Town, Maxway, and others.
The company’s retail stores operate within three main divisions grouped by size.
The company said the smallest compete with Family Dollar and Dollar General, the midsize stores compete with Goody’s and T.J. Maxx and the the largest, including Roses, range from 30,000 to 70,000 square feet and compete with Kmart, Wal-Mart and other discount retailers.
Variety Wholesalers is a family owned business that has been operating since 1922 and has more than 380 stores in 17 states. For more information, visit www.vwstores.com.
Construction to start on St. Vincent’s Riverside Community Hospice unit
Construction was approved for a 10-bed hospice inpatient unit on the fourth floor at St. Vincent’s Medical Center Riverside.
According to St. Vincent’s, the facility is scheduled to open early next year and it will be staffed and operated by Community Hospice of Northeast Florida.
St. Vincent’s reports that the nearly 6,500-square-foot hospice unit will include 10 private patient rooms and staff offices, as well as a family lounge and a kitchen for use by family and visitors.
It said the goal is to meet patients’ end-of-life care needs in an acute-care setting.
St. Vincent’s said Community Hospice will recruit and train an interdisciplinary team to provide around-the-clock patient care at the hospice inpatient unit, including medical staff, nurses, certified nursing assistants, social service specialists and spiritual counselors.
David Meyer, chief strategy and marketing officer for St. Vincent’s HealthCare, said it was the first hospice facility within the St. Vincent’s system.
“We learned that in the intensive care units, oftentimes there are patients who are in ICU who would be better served in a hospice-type environment,” he said.
Meyer said Community Hospice will fund and manage the unit. The permit listed the construction cost at $1.4 million.
Meyer referred questions about the total investment to Community Hospice, but estimates it could be near $2 million.
Asked if St. Vincent’s would add hospice units to any of its other facilities, Meyer said it was being considered.
“We are certainly considering that but right now we only have this one planned,” he said.
St. Vincent’s HealthCare includes St. Vincent’s Riverside, St. Vincent’s Southside, St. Catherine Labouré Manor, St. Vincent’s Primary Care, Consolidated Laboratories, St. Vincent’s Ambulance Service, Seton Pharmacies and Consolidated Pharmacies.
St. Vincent’s HealthCare is a member of Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic and nonprofit health system with more than 100,000 associates serving in 70 general acute care hospitals.
Susan Ponder-Stansel, president and CEO of Community Hospice, was not available Thursday afternoon but her office shared the statement she issued when the project was initially announced.
“Community Hospice is honored to be selected by St. Vincent’s to partner with them in developing these new services and to collaborate with their physicians and staff to help in their mission to bring comfort to patients and their families who are dealing with advanced illness,” she said.
“Both our organizations share a long history of providing compassionate care to our community,” she said.
Why restaurants fail
RestaurantNews.com, quoting Tom Wilscam and W&W Restaurant Group, reports the 10 most common mistakes made by a startup restaurant:
• Failing to plan is planning to fail. Author Steven Covey further stated in his best-selling book, “The 7 Secrets of Highly Successful People,” that if you don’t know where you are going, you are unlikely to get anywhere.
• Undercapitalization. This can be the result of poor planning or unexpected cost. A good rule is to be capitalized with at least 20 percent more than your projected startup cost or a cash reserve equal to one year’s rent.
• Owner/manager experience. Many times a new independent restaurant startup owner will assume that because he or she has been successful in corporate management or other types of business ownership that the same management principles will apply. The restaurant business is different. An inexperienced restaurant entrepreneur will likely not be aware of what they don’t know. Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge can lead to irreversible mistakes.
• Hiring a general manager whose experience doesn’t match your restaurant concept. For example, management experience in a fast-food or fast-casual restaurant does not necessarily qualify that person to effectively manage a fine dining restaurant. A potential general manager who has experience with franchise-style operating systems will normally be a good prospect.
• Hiring management and staff without checking references. Obviously, an applicant can put whatever he or she wants on an application. The valid work history of an applicant is vitally important to making a good hire. As with any business, the success or failure of the business will be directly related to the company’s employees.
• Know your demographics. A restaurant concept that is successful in one set of demographics may not work in a different set of demographics.
• Lack of effective marketing. A restaurant might successfully open with a big splash of advertising. After a few successful months, management might drastically cut the advertising budget in the belief it has established a solid client base. A restaurant’s consumer market is ever-changing. People move and competition opens. A good rule is to allocate 2 to 4 percent of annual gross sales to advertising.
• Focusing on doing it right and knowing the right work to do. An owner-manager who is a great cook and spends all of his or her time cooking will fail if he or she does not focus on other important aspects of the restaurant.
• Lack of commitment by ownership. A restaurant will not automatically run itself. It takes enlightened leadership and commitment to excellence by ownership to succeed.
• Delegation but not abdication. Owner-management that delegates but does not follow up is abdicating its responsibility for success.
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