Regency Centers Corp. is one of the largest operators of grocery-anchored shopping centers, with 476 retail properties across the country as of mid-2025.
But the Jacksonville-based company’s development of new centers is setting it apart from other shopping center operators, according to Bank of America Securities analyst Samir Khanal.
As Khanal hosted Regency officials at the BofA Securities 2025 Global Real Estate Conference Sept. 9, he said Regency is one of the few companies starting ground-up development projects.
“I like to say, you know, development’s in the soul of Regency’s business,” Regency Chief Financial Officer Mike Mas said in response.
“We’ve been doing it for 60 years of this company’s existence, not all of which has been as a public company. I think it’s the commitment to the business. If you’re in and out of the development business, we like to say, then you’re out,” he said.
Mas said a good example of Regency’s development focus is The Village at Seven Pines project at southeast Butler Boulevard and Interstate 295.
Regency announced in August it will move its headquarters from Downtown Jacksonville to the Southside center, which will be anchored by a Publix supermarket.
“Great project in a new community that’s being developed near the Town Center area, which is kind of the center point of the market, immediately across the street from our local university, University of North Florida,” Mas said.
“New community, new home builders being delivered. There’s no grocery store on the site. We will be that retail amenity,” he said.
“It’s a perfect example of this playbook that we’re operating throughout the country.”
Regency started $258 million in development projects last year, according to an investor presentation posted by the company, and is targeting at least $250 million every year.
Mas said Regency’s interest in ground-up projects appeals to developers of master-planned communities.
“We’re going to be committed to owning that shopping center for the next several decades. That formula is what they like to see in a partner as they execute on those projects,” he said.
Mas said Regency doesn’t do any spec development.
“You’re going to have the anchor lease in your pocket, and you’re probably going to have more than that committed from an LOI (letter of intent) and potentially even leased perspective,” he said.
“I don’t want to say it’s risk-free, but we do a wonderful job of de-risking these projects before we put a shovel in the ground.”
Fidelity National Information Services Inc., or FIS, is expanding with acquisitions that the company is not disclosing.
However, CEO Stephanie Ferris continues to bring them up in conference calls and investor presentations.
“I’m very excited to announce we just recently closed an acquisition in September called Amount that is providing digital account opening across the board for credit card, deposit taking and lending,” Ferris said Sept. 9 at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco.
“That is going to add into our suite of products,” she said.
Ferris also brought up FIS’ acquisition of a company called Dragonfly, “which gave us very clear commercial digital capabilities up market. That acquisition has been going very well.”
She also mentioned Everlink, “which is in payments and allowing us to do the payment capabilities in Canada that we didn’t previously have.”
The Jacksonville-based financial technology company has not disclosed any of those deals in its regulatory filings, other than a brief mention of Dragonfly in its annual report filed in April.
The Dragonfly sale was announced in November 2024 by private equity firm One Equity Partners, which sold the business to FIS. The firm did not announce terms of the sale.
Ferris announced the Everlink deal in the company’s quarterly conference call with analysts in August but FIS has not provided financial details.
Chicago-based Amount’s website does not say anything about the sale to FIS.
Ferris reiterated comments she’s made previously about FIS focusing on acquisition opportunities.
“The majority of these we know very well because either we’ve already been in partnership selling them together or they’re in the financial institutions that are our client sets. We’re very excited about that,” she said.
The one big deal in the works that has been disclosed is the sale of FIS’ remaining interest in merchant payments business Worldpay, which is expected to close in 2026.
“I thought that was pretty important in terms of focusing our time, attention and capital,” Ferris said.
Ever since Jacksonville-based title insurer Fidelity National Financial Inc. spun off 15% of its F&G Annuities & Life Inc. unit in 2022, investors have been anticipating Fidelity selling the rest of that business this year.
However, remarks by Chief Financial Officer Tony Park at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York Sept. 9 indicated it’s less likely to happen.
“I don’t know if we’ll end up doing that,” Park said. “We do feel like we’ve built up great value here.”
Fidelity acquired F&G in June 2020 and spun off 15% as a separate public company in December 2022.
After owning a majority of the company for five years, Fidelity has had the ability to spin off the rest of the stock tax-free as of June 2025.
Park said some shareholders have pushed for the full spinoff because they feel the value of F&G is not reflected in Fidelity’s share price.
However, Park said F&G is performing well and he thinks more value is reflected now in Fidelity’s stock price.
“I don’t know that it’s a permanent part of FNF. I just can’t answer that question,” he said.
“But I will say it’s been a nice complement, a very good investment.”
FIS was spun off from Fidelity National Financial in 2006.
Duos Technologies Group Inc. said Sept. 15 that Doug Recker was appointed president of the Jacksonville-based company.
Recker joined Duos in 2024 when the company, which had been focused on providing railroad technology, launched a new subsidiary to provide artificial intelligence data centers in rural markets.
Recker was brought in to run the subsidiary called Duos Edge AI. He founded Jacksonville-based edge data center company EdgePresence, which was sold in 2023 to digital infrastructure firm Ubiquity.
“Our company is entering an exciting new phase of growth, guided by a management transition that reflects the natural evolution of our business,” CEO Chuck Ferry said in a news release.
“Doug’s proven expertise in building and scaling data center businesses makes him uniquely qualified to help lead Duos into its next phase of expansion,” he said.
Jacksonville-based EverBank N.A. said Sept. 8 it completed the integration and rebranding of Sterling Bank and Trust into EverBank, significantly expanding its branch network in California.
EverBank acquired Michigan-based Sterling on April 1, which included 25 branches in California and one in Flushing, New York. The one Sterling branch in Michigan was closed.
EverBank, which had been mostly an online bank, had 11 Florida offices and one branch in both Missouri and New York before acquiring Sterling.
The bank opened two California branches in late 2024, before completing the acquisition, and now has 27 California offices in the Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento and San Francisco markets.
EverBank said it plans to open four additional branches in Southern California in the coming months.
“The integration of Sterling Bank opens an exciting new chapter for EverBank, significantly expanding our ability to deliver performance-driven consumer and commercial banking products to clients coast-to-coast,” EverBank CEO Greg Seibly said in a news release.
Advanced Industrial Devices announced Sept. 9 it acquired Jacksonville-based Economy Control Systems, which specializes in developing and integrating custom control panels for water, wastewater and industrial applications.
Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Advanced Industrial provides electric motor automation and control solutions across the United States.
The company said ECS has been in business for more than 30 years and has expanded its presence in the Southeast.
“By joining forces with ECS, AID continues to add to our network of capabilities on the East Coast,” said Gregg Leslie, senior vice president of Advanced Industrial, in a news release.
Terms of the deal were not announced.
Tapestry Inc.’s Coach brand of handbags and fashion accessories produced $5.6 billion in sales in the fiscal year ended June 28, but the company has ambitious growth targets for the brand.
At a Sept. 10 investor day presentation, Tapestry said it expects Coach to reach $10 billion in annual revenue, although it did not say in a news release when it expects to reach that goal.
The company expects Coach to have mid-single-digit percentage annual growth over the next three years.
New York-based Tapestry handles most of its North American distribution for Coach products from a 1.05 million-square-foot warehouse at Jacksonville International Tradeport near Jacksonville International Airport.
Tapestry also owns the smaller Kate Spade handbag brand. The company sold off its money-losing luxury footwear brand Stuart Weitzman in August.
“Tapestry is a consumer-obsessed, data-driven organization, driving meaningful durable growth,” CEO Joanne Crevoiserat told investors, according to the news release.
“We are confident that our strengths are structural, and that our innovation, creativity, and brand-building capabilities will deliver significant value for our customers, employees, and shareholders for years to come,” she said.