Seven “imminent” economic development projects are focused on Jacksonville and at least one sounds as if it’s big.
At least that was the indication Wednesday in statements from JAX Chamber Chair Tom Van Berkel and JAXUSA Partnership Chair Robert Hill.
JAXUSA Partnership is the economic development division of the JAX Chamber.
Hill, president and CEO of Jacksonville-based Acosta, told the 1,600 people attending the JAX Chamber Kickoff Luncheon at the Osborn Center that seven projects are near a decision.
After the luncheon, Van Berkel, who is chairman and CEO of The Main Street America Group, acknowledged a pending announcement is “something major.”
Main Street America also is based in Jacksonville.
Hill declined to elaborate after the event, saying only that there were some deals that were “close.”
“Imminent” means the deal is “ours to lose,” according to the definition given recently by retiring JAX Chamber Senior Vice President of Business Development John Haley.
During an interview with Haley last week, he said there were five “imminent” deals, including the widely reported Deutsche Bank project to add 260 jobs on the Southside and the Embraer deal to build aircraft at Jacksonville International Airport.
While the Embraer deal is under review at the federal level, the Deutsche Bank economic development agreement was approved Tuesday by City Council. Hill said Wednesday that the state has approved its share of the incentives as well.
There’s no indication whether the deals in question are relocations from another area, new companies or local expansions. The JAXUSA Partnership targeted industries are advanced manufacturing, aviation, financial services, health and life sciences, information technology and logistics.
Among significant area projects in play are Advanced Disposal and PSS World Medical.
The Daily Record reported Aug. 17 that PSS World Medical Inc. executives said they were “reasonably close” to a deadline decision 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 include looking at Downtown locations as well as areas outside Jacksonville.
“The team will come back and suggest the best alternatives,” Corless said in that report, declining to elaborate about specific sites.
He and Bronson said after the company’s annual meeting Aug. 16 that 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 in mid-August.
“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, moving to another existing building or 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.
The company, which distributes medical supplies, occupies space among two Southpoint buildings — the PSS Building at 4345 Southpoint Blvd. and the Enterprise Park Building at 4190 Belfort Road.
The buildings accommodate 200,000 square feet for PSS, but Corless said the company doesn’t use all of it.
We reported that because of the lease expirations, PSS was evaluating its options.
Bronson said Aug. 16 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 Aug. 16, he said the company was “still in the process.”
He said Bronson led the evaluation team and that PSS is working with CNL Commercial Real Estate in Jacksonville to evaluate the options.
The company has about 900 employees in Jacksonville and 3,900 across the country.
Corless did not say 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 Aug. 16 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.
Meanwhile, Advanced Disposal also is requesting incentives for its consolidated headquarters.
Advanced Disposal is an environmental services and waste management company.
Chief Marketing Officer Mary O’Brien said Monday in a statement that Advanced Disposal has filed a request for incentives with the City and state, as well as with other governments, to determine where it will establish its consolidated headquarters.
“Advanced Disposal has submitted its incentive package to the City and state of Florida as well as to other cities and states and the applications are under review,” she said.
“We are under certain confidentiality requirements and cannot discuss any of the incentive packages in detail,” she said.
Paul Crawford, acting director of the City Office of Economic Development, told the Daily Record he had not seen details of the request but understood that Advanced Disposal is asking for incentives under the Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund program.
That program refunds taxes to a company after it pays the taxes and meets job creation requirements.
Enterprise Florida, the state’s economic-development agency, has no comment about Advanced Disposal incentives.
Enterprise Florida spokesman Stuart Doyle said this week he could not comment about the state incentives requested by Jacksonville-based Advanced Disposal, citing confidentiality.
“The company requested confidentiality, which by statute we have to honor, and in fact we cannot give any details about any specifics regarding the project,” Doyle said.
Economic development deals are exempt from Florida’s public records requirements until they are disclosed by the economic development agency or the prospect or else after a period of time.
Crawford also said Tuesday that the request is protected by confidentiality.
In an interview published Aug. 13 in the Daily Record, Advanced Disposal Chairman and CEO Charlie Appleby said the company employs 370 people in Northeast Florida, including 35 at its corporate headquarters, based in Baymeadows.
Advanced Disposal currently uses 13,275 square feet of office space at 7915 Baymeadows Way for its corporate offices.
“We are proud to have a lean operating headquarters. If we were to move everything here, that corporate headquarters would probably increase from about 35 people to probably 115-125,” he said.
“Those would be nice-paying jobs also, the kind of jobs at the JEDC we always wanted to have,” said Appleby, a former member of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.
The JEDC no longer exists. Mayor Alvin Brown has created the Office of Economic Development to handle deals in the county while his new Downtown Investment Authority will work with economic development projects Downtown.
Upon the official closing of two recent acquisition and consolidation agreements, Advanced Disposal will have operations in 20 states and annual revenues of about $1.4 billion, along with a fleet of more than 3,000 trucks, 47 landfills, 92 transfer stations and almost 5,500 employees.
The company said it will be the largest privately held environmental services company in the United States.
Advanced Disposal has said it was considering up to four different locations for the headquarters — Jacksonville, Milwaukee, Atlanta and Charlotte.
“It is nothing we can acknowledge or give formal comment on because of confidentiality restrictions according to statute,” Doyle said.
Some other proposed projects circulating within reviewing agencies are the Vistakon distribution expansion, the Sam’s East distribution center and the Plastic2Oil plant, among others.
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