Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017
Vol. 104, No. 82 • Two SecTioNS
Another Amazon center for city?
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
What are Harrison's CSX plans?
Meeting topic was permitting for site
Hunter Harrison
Leaders want to meet with CEO about future
Boyer
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Amazon.com might not be finished developing new centers in Jacksonville. An Amazon executive sought a meeting with city building officials to talk about permitting an existing building for the company. However, the executive, Steve Bear, canceled it and will reschedule later, according to city e-mails in late February. The location and type of center was not included. Bear wanted to phase the work. The facility was described to be mostly automated and would need electrical, HVAC, conveyor, automation and racking systems. With two large fulfillment centers under development and a 63,000-square-foot delivery station approved for build-out in Jacksonville, it appears an additional facility could be a sortation center. The e-commerce retailer has not responded to emails for comment. Seattle-based Amazon opens sortation centers, typically 200,000 to 300,000 square feet in size, to handle last-mile delivery service within the area. They employ 100300 people. One structure that seems to fit the size of a sortation center is a 237,000-square-foot industrial building available at 4948 Bulls Bay Highway in Westside Industrial Park. Completed last year, the building offers 60 dock-high doors, a 32-foot clear ceiling height, a drive-in ramp and a 180-foot truck court, among other functions. Landlord Peter Anderson declined comment when asked whether Amazon was a prospective tenant at the park. Amazon is setting up a 1 million-squarefoot fulfillment center for large consumer goods in West Jacksonville at Cecil Commerce Center and a multilevel, 2.4 millionsquare-foot center in Northwest Jacksonville for small items. AMAZON CONTINUED ON PAGE A-3
Special to the Daily Record
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor
It is premature to be fearful. We don’t have reason to be yet. Lori Boyer
City Council president about CSX's plans
Top Jacksonville leaders hope to meet Hunter Harrison and hear the new CEO’s plans for Jacksonville-based CSX Corp. The emphasis is on “Jacksonville-based.” “CSX has had a major presence in Jacksonville for a very long time and we would certainly hate to lose that,” said City Council President Lori Boyer, who looks forward to a conversation with Harrison. Late Monday, railroad costcutter Harrison was named CEO of the railroad transportation company and leader of its 27,000 systemwide employees, including an estimated 3,600 in Northeast Florida. However, cuts soon were announced a month after he left his previous job Jan. 18 with an eye on CSX, which is Jacksonville’s largest Fortune 500 company with 2015 revenue of $11.8
billion. On Feb. 21, CSX said 1,000 management jobs, with most from Jacksonville, would be eliminated this month. That seriously trims the 2,500 management jobs it has in the city. What’s next is what’s concerning. “At this point there is anxiety,” Boyer said. Still, without word from Harrison or other CSX leaders, Boyer only can wait and hope to hear positive plans. “It is premature to be fearful,” she said. “We don’t have reason to be yet. We need to have the conversation and understand
what his plans are for the future.” Jacksonville Civic Council Chair Ed Burr agreed. “I have no knowledge of a reason to be concerned. They are headquartered here,” Burr said. He said he hopes CSX will be successful, keep its headquarters in town and remain a part of the community’s civic, business and philanthropic fabric. Burr, a past JAX Chamber chair, hasn’t met Harrison either. “I certainly look forward to meeting him. I am encouraged the CSX headquarters will remain in Jacksonville for now and we hope they will get involved in the community,” he said, including the Civic Council of 72 business and civic leaders that target civic and community issues and advocates for solutions. He wants the city’s expanding economic base to be able to MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
Overdoses getting out of control in Jacksonville From January 2015 to December 2016 overdose calls and treatment
Source: Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department
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Group forming to develop community solutions
By Max Marbut Staff Writer If you pay attention at even the most casual level, you know homicide is a major issue in Jacksonville, with 120 people killed in 2016. As disturbing as that is, it pales in comparison to last year’s death by drug overdose figures. The latest statistics from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the District 4 Medical Examiner’s Office show 345 people died from drug overdose from January-October 2016. It gets worse.
The number of deaths from drug overdose has steadily increased annually for the past several years and predictions are 2017 may be another recordbreaking year. Gulliford “It’s bad and it’s getting worse. It’s obvious to me this is a crisis that’s not getting much attention,” said City Council member Bill Gulliford. He’s scheduled a meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at City Hall
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to give the community the opportunity to start to understand and hopefully come up with a plan to stop the trend. Gulliford said even at the beginning of his looking at the issue, it’s clear that drug overdose — and its precursor, addiction — exact a “horrible cost” to the community. There’s crime related to addiction, including robbery and theft; employment issues such as lost productivity and workplace mishaps; and there are family issues, like separation and divorce. While it would be difficult to OVERDOSES CONTINUED ON PAGE A-4
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