Daily Record Financial News &
Friday, February 9, 2018
Vol. 105, No. 060 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Draft audit: Complexity an issue for JEA sale
Investor travels world to craft hummus recipe
It could drive down price if it is decided to privatize utility. By David Cawton Staff Writer A draft of the financial audit being prepared for JEA by its financial adviser provides insight into how the city would move forward if it decides to sell the public utility to a private company. One conclusion sums up the process. “A privatization of the JEA enterprise would likely represent the largest and most complex municipal privatization in the United States,” the report reads. JEA’s financial adviser, Public Financial Management, prepared the Feb. 2 draft, along with the ongoing audit, at the request of JEA
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Legislation could require supermajority to spend JEA sale proceeds. Page 2.
Civic Council will research sale of JEA By Karen Brune Mathis Editor
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
David Hicks Jr.’s Moongate Kitchen hummus is made from chickpeas blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. It will be made in several flavors and at first sold only in North Florida.
David Hicks Jr.’s factory is “rising from the ashes” of the failed Jerome Brown barbecue sauce plant in Northwest Jacksonville.
By Karen Brune Mathis Editor
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Jacksonville investor who spent years creating a premier hummus recipe wants to make it commercially and bought the former Jerome Brown barbecue sauce plant in Northwest Jacksonville for his factory. Moongate Kitchen could be operational by June. It’s a move that creates a blend of redevelopment, investment, entrepreneurship, manufacturing and nutrition. Jacksonville native and seasoned businessman David Hicks Jr. spent years
Jacksonville Civic Council Chair Tim Cost said the private group of 75 area CEOs will research the possible sale of JEA, the city-owned utility, and it will be assigned to a task force. “We’re going to do the work. We’re going to do the analysis,” Cost said Wednesday. Cost said the council is putting together a task force on public finance. That is where analysis of a JEA sale would best fit. He said the council will hold a meeting of its general membership this month, but didn’t know if the task force will meet this month as well. The task force was not formed
crafting the details of the business, such as where to source ingredients and how to market and distribute the products. Through 5638 Commonwealth LLC, he bought the building at auction in July. Hicks paid $1.3 million for the property and the sauce equipment. He took title to it as BizCapital BidCo I LLC foreclosed on Cowealth LLC and Basic Products LLC, the entities that operated Jerome Brown Products. Hicks expects to invest at least $300,000 more into the 33-year-old structure at 5638 Commonwealth Ave. and hopes to start construction in February. Hummus
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Cost
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