Jacksonville-based Fanatics Inc. seeks $1.4 million in city and state incentives to add 80 IT jobs and make a $10 million investment in two Southside locations.
The jobs would pay an average wage of $85,800, according a city summary for the deal, dubbed Project Turf. Fanatics, an online retailer of licensed sports merchandise, would renovate and expand at 8100 Nations Way and also at an existing center at 6800 Southpoint Parkway.
Legislation is expected to be filed today with City Council.
The city incentives would total $348,000 and would comprise a $300,000 Recapture Enhanced Value Grant and a $48,000 Qualified Target Industry tax refund.
The state incentives would total almost $1.07 million. That amount consists of the state’s QTI match of $192,000 over a six-year period, a $530,000 Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund dispersed in three lump sums, and up to $344,000 in a Quick Response Training Grant.
Fanatics, created 20 years ago, said as it continues to consolidate its three business units, it has to determine the best location to establish its corporate headquarters and fulfillment operations.
It said that even though Jacksonville is a “legacy location,” it believes it would be a challenge to recruit the needed IT and digital marketing talent from the local labor pool. It recently opened a mobile applications office in California.
The city’s summary said for Fanatics to continue to grow its headquarters in Jacksonville, it would “take a significant investment in recruitment, training and development.”
Fanatics now has three locations in Jacksonville – two in the city’s northwest and the Southpoint Parkway office, collectively employing 900 people.
The proposed expansion would add a fourth Fanatics location at Nations Way. The $10 million investment would be made in the Nations Way and Southpoint offices.
The city announced today that Jacksonville was ranked fifth on a list of the top southern cities for jobs, according to the ZipRecruiter Hiring Demand Index. The findings are based on strong hiring demand and economic expansion.
“This proposed $10 million capital investment and creation of 80 new jobs shows continued confidence in Jacksonville’s growing economy and IT labor force,” said Mayor Alvin Brown in a news release.
In 1995, founders Alan and Mitch Trager opened Fanatics as a brick and mortar storefront in Jacksonville. In 1997, the company went digital. Fanatics is now a Top 50 Internet Retailer Company, offering hundreds of thousands of officially licensed sports merchandise items. Fanatics currently employs more than 1,500 people in multiple states.
The Daily Record reported last month that Fanatics intends to consolidate employees from several offices around Jacksonville into one building at the Nations Way address in Cypress Point Business Park in the Southside near Baymeadows.
Thomas Baumlin, chief financial officer of the Jacksonville-based company, said in a March 11 letter included with building plans that Fanatics will lease the 57,000-square-foot building.
Auld & White Constructors LLC is the contractor for $1.34 million renovation project. The building formerly served as corporate offices for EverBank. Gresham, Smith and Partners is the architect.
HGL Properties LP Ltd. owns the property, which was developed in 1999.
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