MARCH 17 TO MARCH 23, 2022 | JAXDAILYRECORD.COM
BUSINESS & LEGAL NEWS IN BAKER, CLAY, DUVAL, NASSAU AND ST. JOHNS COUNTIES
FIRST COAST SUCCESS
JOHN HIRABAYASHI
PROUD OF HELPING THE COMMUNITY GROW
INSIDE
STRATEGY
Hospitality in the ‘air’ at Atlantic Beach motel PAGE 14
MARBUT REPORT
Tjoflat honored with U.S. Courtroom PAGE 5 GOVERNMENT
Mayo Clinic looks Downtown The city is negotating a deal for the health system to lease office space and patient parking at the Ed Ball Building and Garage. PAGE 3 Photo by Dede Smith
Community First Credit Union of Florida President and CEO John Hirabayashi leads an organization with, as of March, assets of $2.5 billion, 19 branch offices, 160,000 members and 355 employees. It loaned a record $608 million to consumers, homeowners and businesses in 2021.
The president and CEO of Community First Credit Union of Florida reflects on his organization’s growth and what lured him to Jacksonville more than 25 years ago.
BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
J
ohn Hirabayashi is president and CEO of Community First Credit Union of Florida, taking the position in 1996. He has spent his career in the credit union industry after graduating from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a finance degree and an MBA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Hirabayashi built the Jacksonville-based credit union to assets, as of March, of a record $2.5 billion, 19 branch offices and expanded headquarters presence Downtown at 701 W. Adams St. It is the naming rights sponsor of the Jacksonville Ice & Sportsplex, now the Community
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First Igloo. Community First has 160,000 members and 355 employees. Hirabayashi was interviewed for the January edition of First Coast Success on First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross on WJCT 89.9, a Jacksonville Daily Record news partner. These are edited excerpts. You have been leading Community First Credit Union, which formerly was the Educational Community Credit Union, for 26 years. What has been your strategy? Our strategy has always been to take care of the members and take care of employees. We’ve SEE CEO PAGE 8
REAL ESTATE
It’s still a seller’s market Single-family houses are selling in about 17 days at full asking price with 33.3% higher than that. PAGE 10
BASCH REPORT
Ukraine could impact Cadre
The Ukraine invasion might affect the maker of safety and survivability products. PAGE 12
HOUSE FOR SALE
Indicted former CEO lists home for sale Fired JEA chief executive Aaron Zahn has listed his two-story, sixbedroom, seven-bath, 7,371-squarefoot Jacksonville Beach home for sale at $2.65 million. PAGE 10 VOLUME 109, NO. 43 | TWO SECTIONS | PUBLISHED SINCE 1912