Daily Record Financial News &
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 147 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Crunch time nearing for transition Curry committees on deadline for work
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Minutes before they officially met for the first time, it was handshakes, hugs and catching-up among members of Mayor-elect Lenny Curry’s transition team. Introductions for some, reminiscing about past times for others. Then it was down to business — and given the short time window, they’ll need every minute. Eight committees, 100 people and five weeks. It’s what lies before Curry’s transition group, those asked to review priority
Curry
aspects of City Hall and come back with findings to help shape the city’s direction. So far, there haven’t been challenges the group hasn’t been able to overcome, said Tom Petway, Curry’s transition committee chairman. “Right on schedule,” he said Monday. But the clock is ticking down to when Curry takes office July 1. The transition subcommittees will have a little longer to complete their work, but not much. They’ll begin meeting Wednesday and are expected to have results July 17 — three days
before Curry presents his first budget. The implementation of those recommendations will take longer, though, said Petway. They’ll tackle subjects like Jacksonville’s infrastructure, economic opportunity, and prevention and intervention for at-risk youth. They’re broken down into functions of government rather than departments like past transitional reviews, each group charged with several objectives. For instance, the economic opportunity group led by former Mayor John Delaney will be creating the “accountability” matrix for public funding Curry talked
Humana is negotiating to move its Northeast Florida market office from Downtown to Baymeadows by the end of the year, and a retail center will be set up in Mandarin. Almost 100 employees will be leaving for those suburbs. Spokesman Mitch Lubitz said Humana is working on a lease for 20,000 square feet of space for the regional office on the entire third floor of the Prominence building at 8381 Dix Ellis Trail. About 50 employees will make that move. “We are hoping to complete those negotiations over the summer and move our regional office by the end of this year,” he said. That space serves as Humana’s executive offices for its regional Medicare and commercial leaders along with support and administrative staff. Humana’s lease of about 35,000 square feet of space at the SunTrust Tower at 76 S. Laura St. expires Dec. 31. It occupies space on the ninth and 10th floors of the 23-story building. Humana also will relocate about 42 employees from the tower to a new retail customer service and sales office. Humana MarketPoint is slated to open in Merchants Walk in Mandarin by the first quarter of 2016. The MarketPoint sales team of about 30 employees offers Medicare and individual health plans. Another dozen associates work with CarePlus Health Plans, a Humana-owned Florida Medicare Advantage HMO. The company has opened separate sales centers in other Florida markets, including Tampa Bay and West Palm Beach. The relocation removes the health insurer from the Downtown building it once owned. Mathis
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Photo by Carole Hawkins
Humana leaving Downtown for suburbs
about during the campaign. The prevention and intervention group headed by Paul Perez and Johnny Gaffney will be reviewing Jacksonville Journey programs to find out what is and isn’t working. And an operations and talent group led by Kerri Stewart will look at the city’s organizational structure and metrics for employee evaluation. Each of the committees also are expected to provide feedback to transition leaders on current relationships within each department they review. Curry continued on Page A-2
AV Homes entered the Jacksonville market in September with the announcement it had purchased coveted land near the St. Johns Town Center for a community of 124 single-family homes. Florida Division President Dave Smith said he likes buying properties that aren’t for sale.
Targeting the right locations AV Homes leader matches markets, sites
By Carole Hawkins chawkins@realty-builder.com
David Smith isn’t the guy who wants to build one or two communities. He wants to build 10 or 20. “I like to take a business and to grow it,” he said. It makes him a good fit for AV Homes, where he serves as Florida division president. The Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based homebuilder is on a growth trajectory, going from 400 homes to 1,000 in a two-year time span. The company entered the Jacksonville
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market last year when it purchased valuable Skinner family land near the St. Johns Town Center for a 124-home subdivision, Old Still. On the heels of that came the announcement AV Homes had joined a select group of builders at Nocatee, the nation’s thirdfastest growing master-planned community. A 50-year-old company, AV Homes is new to Jacksonville. Smith isn’t. He was the Jacksonville division president for Pulte Homes from 2001-07. Before the downturn, he grew the division’s production from under 400 homes a year to
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1,500. It was a time when a lot of builders grew, but Pulte grew faster, Smith said. When he joined AV Homes three years ago, the company promised Smith it wanted growth. From its end, it delivered. Its chief financial officer recently brought in $135 million from private investment firm TPG Capital. “He keeps telling me that I can’t outrun the capital,” Smith said. “He said he’ll continue to get and give me the money I need to make the correct investment in every marketplace.” With a footprint in Arizona, Florida and Smith continued on Page A-3
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