Top Newsmaker: Aundra Wallace an assured but low-key leader in region’s growth

Business

Aundra Wallace an assured but low-key leader in region’s growth

Heading into 2023, the JAX Chamber and JAXUSA Partnership set a goal of bringing in $350 million in business investment to Jacksonville by year’s end. By mid-April, they were $1 million shy of reaching that level. By the end of May, they’d blown past it by $269 million.

And on it went. The chamber and JAXUSA Partnership, its regional economic development arm, landed project after project on their way to ending the year with $1.87 billion in promised investment.

JAXUSA President Aundra Wallace had a lot to brag about, as the chief orchestrator of the big-ticket deals. Yet as the numbers skyrocketed, Wallace maintained the leadership style that had come to define his public persona at the chamber and before that as the CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority – that of a stoic, plain-spoken professional who didn’t seek the limelight but was comfortable in it when it shined on him.

“Aundra and his team absolutely crushed it this year,” JAX Chamber President and CEO Daniel Davis said. “More than $2 billion in capital investment, projects all across the region and an incredible economic development mission to London that will pay huge dividends for our community. We’re looking forward to another big year in 2024.”

JAXUSA’s successes included landing the $750 million Plant-AS hydroponics plant in Baker County, the $270 million Cosentino plant that will be the Spanish countertop manufacturer’s first U.S. manufacturing facility, and the $235 million expansion of wallboard manufacturer CertainTeed in Baker County.

Wallace also helped launch JAXUSA’s new five-year strategic plan, which includes a focus on recruiting and expanding advanced manufacturing and logistics companies along with a continued push to attract fintech firms.

Talent development and support for infrastructure and transportation improvements also are part of the plan.

In addition, Wallace played a major role in promoting Jacksonville to more than 75 English businesses during a trip led by Mayor Donna Deegan to London surrounding the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Oct. 1 game. That trip prompted a delegation from the Association of British HealthTech Industries to visit Jacksonville in early December to discuss bringing businesses in that sector to the city.