Daily Record Financial News &
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 142 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Leaving marketing for real estate
By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer When Stan Bishop decided to leave a successful marketing career to go into real estate, he first confided in his girlfriend, who supported the idea. If he’d talked to his father first, Bishop doubts he’d be a Realtor today. His father called several agents he knew to ask how to talk Bishop out of it. One agent said, “You know, I highly discourage people to do real estate. But Stan’s one of the few that I think could be very suc-
cessful at it.” Fifteen years later, Bishop is president of Exit Real Estate Gallery, co-owner of the company he shares with Ray Rivera, Sonny Downey and most recently, his father. It’s the second-largest realty firm in Northeast Florida by number of agents — it has 340 of them — and it fluctuates between fourth and fifth by transactions. First, second and third place go to companies that have been in the business since the 1970s. The company also has been named top producer out of 800 Exit Realty franchises interna-
tionally for three years running. Bishop credits the company’s success to its agent-centric culture and focus on technology. But his marketing background played no small role in creating a brokerage that, like Apple, simply thinks a little differently.
Developing work ethic and marketing career
Bishop came from entrepreneurial roots. His father was grounded in the corporate world as a biosciences worker for pharmaceutical giant Bishop... Continued on Page A-3
Photo by Carole Hawkins
Bishop builds firm to No. 2 locally
Before becoming a real estate broker and owner of Exit Real Estate Gallery, Stan Bishop led integrated marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies.
$8.1M for fire sprinklers at schools
Daredevil feat during live news broadcast
Work being done through next year
Photo by Bobby King
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Action News anchor John Bachman begins his descent down the 19-story Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront for the Over the Edge fundraiser for the Boy Scouts of America North Florida Council. Bachman rappelled down the building during a live news broadcast. The council’s website said $29,899 of the $50,000 goal had been raised. See more photos on Page A-4.
Aetna Inc. anchors the Aetna Building on the Downtown Southbank but with its lease expiring in two years, it is reviewing the market to determine if it will move to another site or renew where it is. Aetna leases about 170,000 square feet in the almost 495,000-square-foot, 20-story tower at 841 Prudential Drive. Its lease expires Aug. 31, 2017, which might sound like a long time but a relocation of that size takes time to find, negotiate and build-out a site. “Given the size of the property, we have begun the process of evaluating our options going forward,” said Aetna spokesman Walt Cherniak. “This is standard practice for Aetna real estate operations,” he said, meaning a relo-
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cation is not a given. The landlord wants it to stay put. “They’re a great tenant for Jacksonville. They’re a great tenant for Downtown. It’s our desire that they stay that way for the long term,” said Jason Isaacson, the founding partner and president of IP Capital Partners LLC, a private real estate invest-
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Aetna Inc.’s lease at 841 Prudential Drive expires in two years.
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File photo by Karen Brune Mathis
Aetna scouting early for office space
While about 116,000 public school students are pondering what they’ll do over summer break, Duval County Public Schools officials know what’s on their schedule this summer and into next year — nearly $3 million in fire sprinkler repair and replacement. That’s on top of more than $5 million in fire sprinkler work completed in the past 18 months. With more than 60 percent of the school system’s buildings at least 50 years old, upkeep is a continual process, said Paul Soares, assistant superintendent for operations. The school system employs a staff of state-certified fire safety inspectors who work under the guidelines of the Division of the State Fire Marshal and Florida State Fire College. They visit each campus annually, evaluate each building and schedule necessary repairs or replacements. With certified inspectors on staff, school buildings are not routinely inspected by the Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department, said spokesman Tom Francis. Private schools, day care centers and other private businesses and places of assembly are inspected annually, he said. The public schools maintenance staff services more than 17 million square feet of building space and completes more than 140,000 work orders each year. The major maintenance line item is funded this fiscal year by the school system at $12.7 million with an additional $11.6 million appropriated for Safety to Life. Sprinkler systems at five high schools and middle schools have been repaired or replaced since February 2014. Three schools are scheduled for major Sprinklers... Continued
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