Daily Record Financial News &
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 257 • oNe SectioN
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Bill calls for ticket surcharge hike
Groups may absorb cost or pass on to customers By Max Marbut Staff Writer If an ordinance that will be introduced Wednesday to City Council is enacted, the price of a ticket for an event for sports or live entertainment could go up. Or the profit margins for providers could go down. The legislation would increase the user fee for most events at the city’s Downtown sports and
entertainment venues, with the exception of the Florida Theatre and Ritz Theatre and LaVilla Museum. Council member Bill Gulliford’s ordinance proposes increasing the current fees to $2.50 per ticket for events at The Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, Veterans Memorial Arena and the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The ordinance also proposes a
$3.25 user fee per ticket sold for each Jacksonville Jaguars game at EverBank Field and a $2.50 fee for other commercial events in the stadium and at the new amphitheater and flex field facility. Currently, the city levies a $1 per ticket fee at the arena and the Times-Union Center, 50 cents for baseball games and $1 for other events at the ballpark. The Jaguars would continue to
pay the city $3.25 per ticket, the fee established in the team’s 1993 stadium lease agreement. Use of the fee revenue would be limited to maintenance, repairs and improvements at the facilities. According to the city, ticket fees haven’t increased since 1994 for the arena and Times-Union Center. They were increased in 2003 for the baseball park. TICKETS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-3
‘I just think the time is right. I’ve embraced it.’
Partners ready to take on fish camp
New family business is next up for Klempf after Dixie Egg sale
Council to decide on deal for long-vacant restaurant
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor
Public
By David Chapman Staff Writer
File photo
Jacques Klempf prepared for dinner with the CEO of Cal-Maine Foods Inc. at which they were to discuss an acquisition of Jacksonville-based Dixie Egg Co. He was staying in an older hotel in Jackson, Miss., where Cal-Maine is based, and one that the nation’s largest egg company used for guests. He went into the bathroom, the door locked behind him. With his cellphone handy, he called the hotel and texted the Cal-Maine Foods CEO, a good friend, joking that the company wanted to make sure he did the deal. “You guys have got me locked in the bathroom,” Klempf texted. After jiggling the door handle, Klempf was able to get out. The dinner, the next morning’s full-on meeting with the chief financial officer and general counsel and the conversations that ensued all led to the conclusion. The letter of intent was announced Aug. 2 and the deal was completed Wednesday. Klempf, 59, said Monday he and CalMaine Foods began talking about a deal in April or May for an acquisition of the 68-year-old Dixie Egg Co.’s parent company, Foodonics International Inc. With the egg industry a small fraternity, Klempf said he had known the Cal-Maine Foods team a long time. The company had made it known it wanted to be involved if Klempf ever wanted to sell Dixie Egg. Klempf’s grandfather worked in the business when he immigrated to the U.S. in 1920. His father ended up in Jacksonville and started Dixie Egg in 1948. Klempf became president in 1993 and CEO in 1998. That time had come, Klempf said, because he did not have a succession plan; he married his wife, Tracy, in early 2015; and his first grandchild was born in July. Plus, he realized he had built the company to a point that would require financing or outside investors to take it to another level. He wanted to make sure he could take care of his family with the deal. MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
Gulliford
Jacques Klempf at the Dixie Egg warehouse in West Jacksonville.
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At last there’s hope for the long-vacant Palms Fish Camp. The North Jacksonville facility has a boat and pedestrian dock and ramp along with plenty of parking. Yet, the distinct draw for the city-owned park has been the waterfront restaurant possibility. As it stands now, there’s a shell where a former fish camp once stood. The city bought the land in 2002, demolished the former restaurant, then contracted with a partnership group that sought to rebuild a family-friendly fish camp that would maintain the atmosphere of its predecessor. Construction delays led to the issue being mired in a lawsuit starting in 2012, which derailed progress on the site. City Council this summer approved a $125,000 settlement with that group, getting the issue out of the courtroom and opening it up to new possibilities. The next opportunity could be with a group of neighborhood guys. Legislation that will be introduced to council on Wednesday calls for an agreement with Palms Fish Camp Restaurant LLC for at least a 20-year lease. The group’s registered agent is Donald “Marshall” Adkison, CEO of Adkison Towing and a member of the city’s Planning Commission. Marc Hardesty, an attorney and partner with the group, said his, Adkison’s and Jay MacKenzie’s interest in the project comes locally — it’s their neighborhood, as each are within walking distance of the site. “We are, quite frankly, trying to come back bigger and better than ever,” said Hardesty. “It will be a first-class restaurant, No. 1.” The name will remain the Palms Fish Camp, but it it won’t be anything upscale — no linen table cloths or fine china, said Hardesty. It was a fish camp and it will be a fish camp that will be a fun, comfortable place, he said.
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