MONDAY April 6, 2020 jaxdailyrecord.com • 35 cents
INSIDE: NAIOP 2020 annual awards section
BEAT the virus
support your lo
ht
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: YOUR INSIGHT
to
yo u
by Dai ly
Record a
cal er
g ou Br
businesses!
LV1 88 34
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
d& cor nd Re
r se Ob
v
Providing free meals for health care workers
TruckingDaily firm Record acted early to Daily Record keep rolling JACKSONVILLE
JACKSONVILLE
Hakimian Holdings working with restaurant tenants to deliver food every week until there’s no longer a need. BY KATIE GARWOOD STAFF WRITER
Hakimian Holdings is working with its restaurant tenants to provide free meals to thank health care workers. The first will be delivered to Baptist Health’s labor and delivery unit Downtown. Paige Hakimian, vice president of real estate, said she reached out to The Loop P i z za Grill and Nothing Bundt Cakes in Hakimian’s Merchants Walk in San Jose to help. She intended Hakimian for Hakimian Holdings to buy the food, but those two tenants insisted on doing it for free. “Everybody, regardless of their circumstances, recognizes what this health care community is doing for us,” she said. “We’re all tightening our belts but we’re going to give where we can. It seems like everybody’s on board with this.” The company plans a delivery next week to UF Family Medicine and Pediatrics on Baymeadows Road. Hakimian Holdings selected the food providers by taking suggestions from staff. Hakimian Holdings plans to work with Empanada Llama and Le Petite Paris Cafe in Merchants Walk to provide that meal. The staff will choose another provider and restaurant tenant each week until there’s no longer
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
Global Freight & Commerce CEO Jesus Garay, a U.S. Army veteran, prepared staff to work at home in early March. BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
Global Freight & Commerce LLC CEO Jesus Garay spent 20 years in the U.S. Army with five deployments to Iraq. As COVID-19 began to impact countries in Asia and moved to the northwestern U.S., the logistics and trucking operator understood the need for contingencies. “The week before this thing hit America, I began beta-testing our systems and started getting prepared,” Garay said. “I started having individuals work from home one day at a time.” A Jacksonville native, Garay created Global Freight in 2014 after retiring from the Army. He joined JAX Chamber 1½ years ago and is a trustee. Garay decided his office employees would start working remotely March 3, two weeks before Mayor Lenny Curry’s state of emergency that led to mandatory social distancing, building capacity restrictions and a work-from-home order. He employs 15 people with 10 trucks on the road, delivering mostly dry and refrigerated goods like corn, grain and produce to 48 states. Garay held Zoom videoconferencing drills while his staff was still in the office at 5405 Green Forest Drive in West Jacksonville. He trained employees on web-based file-sharing programs so the transition to remote working wouldn’t affect efficiency. “We’ve had no loss in coverage. We haven’t
Photo by Mike Mendenhall
Global Freight & Commerce CEO Jesus Garay said revenue dropped 10% when stay-at-home orders began, but he is adding trucks and hiring an additional driver.
dropped any balls. We’re 100%,” he said. “In fact, we’re adding trucks as we speak.” But Global Freight couldn’t avoid some financial strain from the spread of COVID-19. Garay said commodity shippers and receivers — his customers — were impacted early. When the first U.S. states and cities, like California and New York City, began issuing stay-at-home orders March 19, it steered trucks away from the areas’ pickup and drop sites. About 15% to 20% of Global Freight’s scheduled loads were canceled and revenue dropped 10%. “You can be creative all you want, but if supply and demand changes, if shippers and receivers
KEEPING CLOSE – FROM A DISTANCE Since March 13, city event venues, stores, restaurants, malls, entertainment centers, churches and businesses shut down and laid off workers or sent them home to telecommute to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Daily Record will report how local small business owners are dealing with the imposed social isolation.
SEE GARAY, PAGE 2
SEE HAKIMIAN, PAGE 2
Reinhold Corp. buys ABC property Fleming Island-based The Reinhold Corp., through Reinhold Jacksonville ABC Properties LLC, paid $7.96 million on March 24 for the ABC Fine Wine & Spirits property at 4838 Gate Parkway N. and Town Center Parkway. The property, in The Crossings at Town Center, comprises the 18,016-square-foot store built in 2019 on 1.46 acres across from St. Johns Town Center. The store opened in November. Preferred Growth Properties, the real estate subsidiary of Birmingham, Alabama-based Books-AMillion, sold the property through PGP Jacksonville TC LLC.
VOLUME 107, NO. 99 • TWO SECTIONS