Daily Record Financial News &
Friday, June 12, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 145 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
What should the Landing become? Workshops will give public chance to share ideas
By David Chapman Staff Writer Workforce housing. An entertainment venue. A public park. All have been suggested uses for the Jacksonville Landing. With a new design effort underway, though, it’s back to being a blank slate. One the public has a chance to weigh in on next week. The principals behind the project will host a public workshop 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at the Landing’s Blue Room, on the second floor behind Koja Sushi.
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“We really are starting from scratch with no preconceptions,” said Doris Goldstein, the Downtown Investment Authority board member liaison for the project. Design firms Wakefield Beasley & Associates and Urban Design Associates, along with the DIA and Landing co-owner Sleiman Enterprises, want to hear how people like to use and view the venue. The design companies and Sleiman’s team toured the facility in late May after the firms were selected for the project that has
From paperbacks to pistols to surfboards
an emphasis in public waterfront access. The work starts with the public outreach Tuesday, Goldstein said, but don’t expect any pretty renderings or pictures. Instead, it’ll be more of the principals listening to the public about what they like and don’t like about the Landing, possibly followed by breakout sessions and group discussions. The team also will have private focus groups over a two-day span while they are in town. “It’s very obvious to us the
Landing is a very important place to people,” said Goldstein. “I can expect we are going to hear all kinds of ideas.” The workshop is the first of two parts of the public process, with the second coming sometime in late July. That’s when the visual components will be introduced through a design charrette that will take shape over several days. After the workshop, the next step in the public process will come in late July when visual components will be introduced Landing continued on Page A-3
Vision Care investing in $12M expansion
It’s surprising what Hyatt guests leave at hotel By Max Marbut Staff Writer
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Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., one of Jacksonville’s largest manufacturers with 2,000 employees, is making another multimillion-dollar investment in the city. The maker of the Acuvue brand of disposable contact lenses applied for a building permit that shows its proposed central utility plant will be a $12 million project. Gilbane Building Co. is the contractor for the 9,600-square-foot addition. Vision Care said the plant will house mechanical equipment, such as chillers and cooling towers, needed to provide utility services for its buildings and manufacturing lines. The plant would serve the growing campus of manufacturing, research, office and distribution functions, reaching almost 900,000 square feet of space. Vision Care makes 1.7 billion Acuvue disposable contact lenses a year at the 69-acre campus at 7500 Centurion Parkway. The company said the project will bring all of its utility equipment to one location and replace older units with new, energyefficient equipment. Construction is targeted to begin in August and be completed in June 2016. The central utility plant joins the $19 million Phase 7 construction addition project that is part of a proposed $301 million expansion when manufacturing, research and development equipment is added. Vision Care, formerly known as Vistakon, also is adding a solvent tank farm.
Michael Mottinger, director of hotel services at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, is the keeper of items left behind by guests. A baseball with Mickey Mantle’s name on it, top, was left behind after a sports collectors’ convention.
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If you’re going to lose something, there’s probably no better place than the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. That’s because you’ll get it back if you ask. With more than 900 rooms and a steady procession of business and leisure travelers and conventioneers, on average, 400 items of all descriptions are left behind each month. “It’s not just in the rooms,” said Michael Mottinger, director of hotel services. “People who come to the hotel for banquets and conventions leave things behind, too.” The list includes just about anything: cosmetics, toiletries, eyeglasses, books and clothing of all sorts. One guest forgot to take a surfboard home when checking out of the hotel. Another guest apparently couldn’t fit a barbecue grill into their suitcase. Mottinger said the most common items found after guests check out are cellphone and laptop chargers. “People leave it plugged in and they just forget to take it with them,” he said. When it comes to convention guests, each group has its patterns for the lostand-found department. Sometimes, there’s an influx of sports memorabilia after a collectors’ convention. Guests attending meetings hosted by faith-based organizations sometimes leave behind Bibles. “We can predict what people will leave behind,” Mottinger said. Valuable items like jewelry are kept at the hotel for 90 days. Less valuable items are stored for 30 days. If after that time an item isn’t claimed, the hotel donates it to the Salvation Army, Mottinger said. If a guest can’t come to the hotel to claim an item, the hotel will ship it via FedEx. Sometimes, a guest leaves behind something that isn’t so easy to handle and return. There are categories that warrant special handling.
Baptist moves ahead at duPont
Baptist Health quickly took steps to prepare a medical office in the Southbank duPont Center buildings it intends to buy this month for $16 million. Baptist seeks a permit for an estimated $440,000 renovation of more than 8,000 square feet at 1660 Prudential Drive, one of the two buildings the health care system
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