Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 258 • Two SecTioNS
Trump needed Florida, Susie Wiles delivered it
Veteran strategist pulled in late to help secure state
www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Voters approve addition of slots
Issue still faces hurdle in Supreme Court case By Marilyn Young, Editor
Right, Susie Wiles, a veteran Jacksonville-based political consultant, with Team Trump after a recent rally in Sarasota. Since September, Wiles served as Republican Donald Trump’s campaign manager for the battleground state of Florida. He’d worked with Wiles before in 2010 when she led Gov. Rick Scott’s entrance into politics. “This is what she really does well,” said Parker. He joined Wiles in September at that critical juncture and said with so many moving pieces, it was difficult for the team to assess the strengths and weaknesses and get everyone on the same page. Parker said Wiles will be one to admit she’s not a “data nerd” when it comes to
Special to the Daily Record
By David Chapman Staff Writer Just over two months ago, Susie Wiles was at Trump Tower in New York working on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s communications strategy in battleground states throughout the United States. It wasn’t long before she was asked to come home. And Florida at that time was in a bit of disarray for Team Trump. Florida, as many media pundits espoused throughout Tuesday evening’s historic election, was the most battleground of battleground states. A common narrative was that without Florida, there was no clear path to victory for Trump. As the Tampa Bay Times reported INSIDE in September, the More election results Trump campaign and photographs had one field office from the night on — its Sarasota headPages A-3, A-6 quarters — com& A-7. pared to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 51 offices. Trump's ground game was overmatched. The campaign needed someone with Wiles’ skills and background to secure the must-win state and pave a path to victory. As Wiles describes it, when she returned in September, she added a couple of people to the campaign team that already “was blessed with great talent.” She moved the campaign’s headquarters to Orlando, a more central location along the all-important Interstate 4 corridor. Wiles arrived, she said, at a time when she had to focus on opening 26 offices immediately and ramping up the ground game just as quickly, while “making friends or renewing friendships” among state and national Republicans and voters. The Republican Party at the state and national levels along with the Trump campaign coalesced and worked for the ticket. Matt Parker, a field director for the campaign, was in Florida working for the Carlos Beruff in his bid for a U.S. senate seat.
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statistics. But she is truly an effective manager who takes a campaign “to the top.” The resulting ground game ended up being a “huge factor” for the statewide campaign, he said. Wiles said from August until this past Friday, 186,000 Floridians attended Trump rallies. More than 1 million phone calls were made. There were 193,000 volunteers and 2.5 million doors were knocked on. WILES CONTINUED ON PAGE A-6
With less than two hours of voting to go Tuesday afternoon, Brian Hughes was a little concerned. The normally confident consultant was facing something that was unexpected: a Republican edge in the number of voters who were turning out in Duval County, many of whom hadn’t been to the polls in a while. That could have been trouble for Duval County Referendum No. 1, which would allow slot machines in pari-mutuel facilities. The referendum Hughes and his frequent campaign partner, Tim Baker, were hired to get approved. Hughes, of Meteoric Media Strategies, and Baker, of Data Targeting, were focusing their efforts on that small wedge of people between the hard no votes and the absolute yeses. Typically, Hughes said, young people, minorities, Democrats and no party affiliation voters are more likely to support gaming initiatives. Not Republicans. So the influx of GOP voters was a bit concerning. Less than three hours later, Hughes saw his concern was for naught. The referendum passed overwhelmingly by nearly 34,500 votes, swept in through strong margins in both early voting and on Election Day. Hughes’ well-known confidence returned. “That’s a substantial victory,” he said of the “decisive message” from voters. The turnout was different than expected, Hughes said, but the result was what he and Baker had worked toward. They didn’t face organized opposition, nor did they expect to, despite the fact that an expansion of gambling in a conservative area can be controversial. But, Hughes said statewide anti-gaming groups generally do their work in courtrooms and through lobbying in the legislative world. Hughes said the language for the referendum was “constructed very specifically.” He said it reinforces the regulatory burden on the company and makes it clear the SLOT
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Apartments planned in Point at Town Center
Any vacant property near St. Johns Town Center seems to be on the market or under development. A 12.9-acre site at southeast Gate Parkway and Burnt Mill Road is one of the next targeted for construction, with plans by Block One Ventures to build a 246-unit apartment community. The site is south of Butler Boulevard, with the Town Center to the north. The Point at Town Center will be a luxury apartment complex developed with eight three-story multifamily buildings and a club-
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house. Site plans filed last week with the city also show four garages and a pool. England, Thims & Miller Inc. is the civil engineer. Block One Ventures, formed a year ago, is led by former Regency Centers Corp. executives Christian Oldenburg and Chris Ruen. Oldenburg is senior vice president of real estate operations and Ruen is vice president of development and construction. According to Oldenburg, site clearing will start next week and
legal NoTiceS begiN oN Page
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Wawa up to almost seven stores
the first units will be delivered at the end of 2017. The project will be completed by summer 2018. There will be studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. Group 4 Design Inc. is the architect; Summit Contracting Group Inc. is the general contractor; and Miranda Contracting will perform site work.
A second area Wawa store soon will move from expectation to brick-and-mortar, a sixth site has been identified and a seventh is possible. Wawa applied to the city last week for permits to build a gas station and convenience store in West Jacksonville at 6787 Wilson Blvd., at the intersection with Lane Avenue. Applications show an almost $1.13 million construction cost for the 6,119-square-foot store,
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canopy and dumpster enclosure. That’s the same cost and size as listed on a permit application in October, Wawa’s first for construction in the area. That store is at 4866 Town Center Parkway in The Crossing at Town Center. Wawa, based in Pennsylvania, said previously it had six locations under contract and more in review. The other three previously identified sites, all in different stages of review, are in EastPark, East Arlington and Clay County. MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
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