Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2017
VOL. 104, NO. 094 • ONE SECTION
35¢
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Site work to start at Mayo
WHO CHANGED THE COURSE OF CSX The company’s board chose to ride with a disrupter
Lung restoration center to be built
Special to the Daily Record
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor
Above: Former CSX CEO Michael Ward. New CEO: Hunter Harrison. When then-CSX Chief Executive Officer Michael Ward decided to retire in February from Jacksonville’s iconic public company, it was as if he thrust the CSX board of directors into the engineer’s chair of a fast-moving train nearing a fork in the track. Which way to go? While Ward led the 30,000-employee company for 14 years as its commander-in-chief and public champion, the ultimate responsibility for the direction of the company — and which track to pursue — fell to the CSX board.
By late February, faced with the prospect of a highly public contentious fight resisting the demands of a private-equity investor known for disrupting railroad companies — Paul Hilal and his newly started Mantle Ridge Capital –– a majority of the 13-member board made its choice. They opted to go along with Hilal and replace Ward with a railroad industry disrupter, 72-yearold Hunter Harrison. Who were the board members who made this choice? See Page 3 for a snapshot of the people who this month changed the course of CSX.
Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and United Therapeutics Corp. are another step closer to opening their proposed lung-restoration center at Mayo’s Southside campus. The city is reviewing a permit application for Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. to handle a $6.2 million project for soil improvements, foundations and structural concrete work at 14221 Kendall Hinch Circle for a three-story, 75,000-square-foot building on three acres. That is next to the Birdsall Medical Research and Griffin Cancer Research buildings on the Mayo campus at 4500 San Pablo Road, just off Butler Boulevard. Mayo Public Affairs Manager Kevin Punsky said Thursday site work is scheduled to start May 1, and the completion of construction is estimated for the first quarter of 2019. He said it could create about 70 jobs. He said previously that about 25 United Therapeutics staff will run the center, and Mayo Clinic will dedicate about 50 employees to it. The project owner is listed as Lung Biotechnology PBC of Silver Spring, Md. Lung PBC is a division of United Therapeutics, and Lung PBC is Lung Biotechnology Public Benefit Corporation. Mayo Clinic and United Therapeutics are partnering to develop and operate the center, but have not confirmed financial details about the scope of the project. United Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that focuses on the development and commercialization of products for the medical needs of patients in life-threatening conditions. It and Mayo Clinic said in June 2015 that the goal of the lung-restoration center was to significantly increase the volume of lungs for transplantation by preserving and restoring selected marginal donor lungs, making them viable for transplantation. They said the restored lungs will be made available to patients at Mayo Clinic and other transplant centers throughout the United States. The building also will be used for Mayo MAYO CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
DIA grants giving boost to Downtown By Max Marbut Staff Writer The first cycle of the Downtown Investment Authority’s Retail Enhancement Grant program has brought eight new businesses to the urban core and helped five established businesses expand. Beginning in 2014 with a $750,000 grant fund, nearly $668,000 has been awarded to date, creating about 150 jobs and more than $3 million in capital investment for improvements to Downtown retail space. Twelve of the grants were
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to restaurants and nightclubs, including the largest grant — $102,000 — to the Bellwether restaurant under construction on Forsyth Street, the new-urban concept from the owners of Black Sheep and Orsay. The other grant recipient was for the expansion of Daniel James Salon. Aundra Wallace, CEO of the DIA, said the program has worked as it was designed, bringing more food and beverage options to the neighborhood. “Downtown is transforming, but you’ve got to have the right
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kind of retail,” he said. The grants are intended to decrease renovation costs incurred by modernizing space in older buildings and as an incentive to improve the interior and appearance of street-level storefronts. Improvements must comply with Downtown design requirements and must be approved by the authority. The maximum grant award is $20 per square foot leased or occupied by the recipient. The renovation budget must be at DIA CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
Photo by Max Marbut
Food and beverages leading the way
Stacey Goldberg opened a second Urban Grind Coffee on West Bay Street with a Retail Enhancement Grant from the Downtown Investment Authority to help finance the build-out.
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