Commercial real estate executives met the site leader Thursday of one the city’s largest industrial deals in years.
Kent Baker, the site leader at the new GE Oil & Gas manufacturing plant in Westside, said the company chose Jacksonville for the 510,433-square-foot factory because of three primary factors: port access, the transportation hub and a “rich talent pool” because of area universities and the military.
Baker also reminded the NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association members that Unison Industries in Baymeadows is a GE company. GE Engine Services bought Jacksonville-based Unison in 2002. It employs more than 500 people and designs and manufactures electrical components, sensors, and systems for aircraft, industrial, marine, military, and space uses.
“The GE Oil & Gas family has joined the neighborhood,” Baker said.
About 95 members attended NAIOP’s November meeting at the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.
GE Oil & Gas told the city it would hire 500 people within three years. Baker said the “vast majority” will be local hires. The company is working with CareerSource Florida to help fill those jobs and invites job seekers to apply online at ge-energy.com/jacksonville.jsp.
The plant will make Mooney regulators and Becker control valves for use in the oil and gas industry. The company will ship those products nationally and globally, which is why JaxPort and the transportation network are critical.
Baker said projected double-digit growth in demand from emerging markets presents “lots of opportunities for us to grow.”
The AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center warehouse leased by GE Oil & Gas is designed to be expanded to 1 million square feet of space. Hiring has begun, and the warehouse is being built-out for the factory.
“Seeing 500,000 square feet completely open was daunting,” Baker said.
Baker said the manufacturing plant will be a “brilliant factory” to produce 3-D manufacturing and 3-D printing. The 3-D process uses software to virtually design components, then trying out new concepts and putting them into form.
Baker is a 13-year veteran of GE. His LinkedIn profile shows he was named site leader in Jacksonville in October.
Before that, he has been a site leader with GE Oil & Gas in Houston since January 2013. He joined GE Aviation in June 2001, moving up the engineering and management ranks before the Houston position.
He was a research and development engineer with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. from 1997-99.
Baker earned his engineering degree in 1996 from The Ohio State University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009.
Baker joined city Office of Economic Development CEO Ted Carter and Mike Breen, JAX Chamber senior director of the international department, for a panel discussion at the NAIOP meeting. Carter and Breen talked about the recent trip to London by area economic developers to recruit jobs and investment.
The trip was part of the annual Jacksonville Jaguars game in London.
Carter said that companies like GE Oil & Gas elevate Jacksonville’s profile overseas. “The GE deal really resonated” during introductions of the city, he said.
Carter and Breen said the delegates had 20 meetings with companies and economic-development prospects, and Jaguars owner Shad Khan and President Mark Lamping attended some of them. The Jaguars are playing one home-season game in London from 2013-2016.
Some takeaways from the trip:
• After the inaugural 2013 trip, this year the delegates wanted to take their message outside of London, such as to Liverpool, a port city that they said had synergy with Jacksonville. Liverpool leaders are planning a trip to Jacksonville.
• Some of the companies needed to be introduced to Jacksonville and some people didn’t know where it was.
• Several companies are expected to set up U.S. operations in Jacksonville, but were not identified. A carbon fiber business could be here in February.
• The group focused on aviation and aerospace prospects, such as suppliers to the Airbus jetliner assembly plant in Mobile, Ala. Breen said Jacksonville could host suppliers that not only could work with Airbus in Mobile but also with other aviation companies in Jacksonville and the Southeast.
• Auto manufacturing and financial services also were industries of interest. The delegates met with Deutsche Bank executives. Germany-based Deutsche Bank already has created at least 1,400 financial services jobs in Jacksonville.
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