Daily Record Financial News &
Friday, November 6, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 255 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Project benefits Sports Complex Could make area more than a place for games, shows
By David Chapman Staff Writer
EverBank
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A view of Downtown looking west from above the Florida Life Building. The image was captured by a drone used to inspect the Laura Street Trio and the former Barnett Bank Building.
Above Downtown’ s rooftops
Drone used to check out Laura Street Trio, Barnett
If you were Downtown Thursday, looked up in the sky and saw something that didn’t fit into the norm, it wasn’t a bird, it wasn’t a plane and it wasn’t Superman. It was an unmanned aerial vehicle — often referred to as a drone — being used to inspect the exterior of the former Barnett Bank Building and Laura Street Trio. Rob Mauro, an engineer who works out of the Miamisburg, Ohio office of Danis Construction
Co., travels the country to record high-resolution still images and high-definition video of job sites and projects. Danis is the general contractor for the historic restoration and adaptive re-use project proposed for the four buildings along Laura Street at Adams Street. The company was the contractor for the restoration of the Haverty’s Building, now the Jake M. Godbold Annex; the Kress Building, now the Farah & Farah Building; and the former Haydon Burns Public Library, now the Drone continued on Page A-3
LLC is a subsidiary of SunGard Data Systems Inc. It also has Jacksonville offices at 1660 Prudential Drive, Suite 400, according to its website. That’s the duPont Center campus. The city issued incentives to SunGard AvantGard in 2013 to move to the Prudential Building from Southside. At the time, it had 80 employees and promised to create the additional 170 jobs over three years at an average wage of $54,719 plus benefits. SunGard sought a Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund of $6,000 per job, totaling $1.02 million. The city is responsible for $204,000, or 20 percent.
The deal was also code-named “Project Visor.” The project summary said SunGard would lease up to 65,000 square feet in two phases. It would hire the first 120 jobs by the end of this year and another 50 by the end of 2016. The city Office of Economic Development’s 2014 annual survey found the company was well on track. It had 172 jobs at the project site at yearend, of which 92 were new hires. The 2015 survey won’t be completed until year-end. SunGard AvantGard specified in that report it was nearing Mathis continued on Page A-2
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Special to the Daily Record
The Sports Complex area of Downtown doesn’t have much in the way of restaurants, retail or housing. It has venues like Veterans Memorial Arena, the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville and EverBank Field. It has potential for developments like the Shipyards. But for now, there’s not a lot to offer outside seeing a show or a game. Yet, the $90 million proposal to add an amphitheater and indoor multiuse practice facility to EverBank Field has people like Jake Gordon thinking of the potential coming to bear. “The stadium is right in the middle of everything,” said Gordon, the Downtown Vision Inc. CEO. “I think we have an opportunity to do some special things.” He sees places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Pittsburgh as major league cities that use their sports complexes for more than just watching sports. They’ve incorporated music venues, housing, retail, restaurants and more to bring — and keep — people in the area. City Council President Greg Anderson thinks the possible additions to the Sports Complex could spark more interest in “making a weekend out of Downtown.” He used the example of seeing a concert at one of the proposed venues on a Saturday, staying at a hotel and then Sunday heading to the stadium to see the Jaguars play. And he thinks facilities like an amphitheater and multiuse venue have the ability to potentially spur more development — the hotels, restaurants and other amenities the area sorely lacks. There’s a void. Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan is contributing half of $90 million for the latest EverBank Field improvements. The city would pay the other half through the
Deterioration along the roof of the Bisbee Building. The images will allow Danis Construction to determine the scope of work for the restoration project.
SunGard expanding on Downtown Southbank SunGard, which calls itself one of the world’s leading financial software companies, is expanding to another floor at the Prudential Building on the Downtown Southbank. SunGard occupies the 11th floor and is expanding onto the 10th floor of the 19-story structure at 701 San Marco Blvd. The expansion just about doubles its office space in the tower to more than 55,000 square feet. Building plans approved in October indicate the additional floor can accommodate about 250 jobs or more. It appears to be the second phase of an expansion it announced in
Public
2013, which the city supported by approving $204,000 in tax refunds for SunGard AvantGard LLC to create up to 170 jobs. The new building plans show offices, including some executive offices; an open office area; and rooms for training, video conferencing, IT and other functions. A spokesman for SunGard, based in Wayne, Pa., did not return several emails or telephone calls to comment about the expansion. Tenant Contractors Inc. is the contractor for the project at a job cost of $700,000. SunGard is hiring employees for its Jacksonville offices. A
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search on its website, SunGard. com, found at least 48 job listings for Jacksonville, with the latest posted Wednesday. Job titles include technology, programming, engineering, analysis software, sales and account management. The postings say SunGard AvantGard services more than 2,000 companies in more than 40 countries. SunGard AvantGard
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