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June 6-12, 2019
City is reaping millions from Cecil Commerce Center deal PAGE 3
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JACKSONVILLE
Record & Observer Jacksonville tech firm led by Craig Mandeville sets sights on $75 million in revenue.
JACKSONVILLE
Cra-Z-Art parking indicates 319 jobs
Record & Observer ‘WE SHOT OFF LIKE A ROCKET’ Manufacturing and distribution center updating its plans.
JACKSONVILLE
Record & Observer BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
JACKSONVILLE
Jobs, space, build-out and the name are being nailed down for the Cra-Z-Art manufacturing and distribution center under development in North Jacksonville. The Imeson Park center needs 319 parking spaces for permanent and seasonal employees, and almost two-thirds of the 300,000-squarefoot building will be used for warehousing, while a third is for manufacturing and assembly and 2.5% for offices. Those details are included in landowner VanTrust Real Estate LLC’s application for a parking deviation to increase the maximum number of off-street parking spaces from 165 to 319. A hearing is scheduled at 10 a.m. Friday with the city zoning administrator at City Hall. Cra-Z-Art has not announced how many jobs it will create, although 21 are tied to City Council legislation approving incentives for the project and will pay an average $53,298. The building is at 10501 Cold Storage Road. No opening date has been announced. The city issued a permit in April to build the structure at a cost of $11.74 million. On May 29, the city issued a permit to build-out the interior at a cost of $2.56 million. Cra-Z-Art, a division of LaRose Industries LLC, sells activity, art and school supplies, toys and stationery products.
Record & Observer Photo by Dede Smith
Craig Mandeville is the president and founder of Forcura LLC, a company that manages the flow of information for health care patients.
BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
S
o, who wants to start a tech company and shoot to $7.1 million in revenue in six years, and probably $12 million in seven? Craig Mandeville did, and he isn’t stopping there. His goal as president and founder of Jacksonville-based Forcura LLC is to reach $75 million in revenue in another 2½ years. The mission for Forcura – perhaps one hears it as “for a cure” – is to improve
patient outcomes and its vision is to become the standard communication platform for all post-acute health care. In brief, the company manages document workflow and secure communication for post-acute care providers. Say, for example, mom is discharged from the hospital after heart surgery and home health care professionals immediately need to tend to her recovery and well-being. The flow of health care information from the hospital to the home and back could be cumbersome, incomplete, slow or confusing.
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That’s the connection Forcura makes. “We automated that whole round-trip flow of information,” Mandeville said. Forcura began in February 2012, when Mandeville was 31. He already had developed and sold a tech-based company since his move to Jacksonville in 1999 from Austin, Texas. The Forcura idea was sparked by his wife, a home health agency employee who managed patient discharge. “She would come home at night and talk about how inefficient that whole SEE FORCURA, PAGE 8
KMATHIS@JAXDAILYRECORD.COM @MATHISKB (904) 356-2466
THE SAILER REPORT
Expert: Home prices up, but there’s no bubble Median price is $225,000 in April. PAGE 10 VOLUME 1, NO. 53 • ONE SECTION