Daily Record Financial News &
Monday, July 13, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 171 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
FSCJ eyes Downtown student housing
School would need $2M from taxpayers
Photo by Max Marbut
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan began his new job July 1 after being elected in March.
New job? No problem
Supervisor of elections is job No. 38 for Hogan By Max Marbut Staff Writer A lifetime learner. That would be a good way to describe Mike Hogan, Duval County’s new supervisor of elections. Hogan, 66, has a diverse resume, documenting 38 jobs since he was 12 years old. The list begins with mowing lawns, selling greeting cards door-to-door and a newspaper route. Along the way to supervisor of elections, there’s construction labor; selling shoes, siding and automobiles; and tending bar before Hogan joined one of Jacksonville’s largest companies 15 years before his career in government began. “I like learning new things,” he said. After graduating from college with a degree in zoology, Hogan taught science at a private school in West Jacksonville for
a year before his first stint in government service as a health inspector. He entered the corporate arena in 1975 when he began a 22-year career with BellSouth. Originally hired for the sales department, over the years Hogan evolved in the company, working later in the labor relations, risk management, safety and real estate departments. A direct descendant of some of the founders of Jacksonville, Hogan decided after he hit 40 years old it was time to take a shot at serving his hometown by seeking public office. He ran a successful campaign for City Council in 1991 and was re-elected four years later. When the two-term limit ended his stint on the council, Hogan ran another successful campaign for the District 13 seat in the state House of Representatives, where he represented Duval and a portion of Clay County until 2003, when he came
home after being elected Duval County Tax Collector. Before Hogan finished his second term as tax collector, he served on the Statewide Constitutional Commission and the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. Following an unsuccessful run for mayor in 2011, Hogan went back to Tallahassee when he was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott as chairman of the Public Employees Relations Commission. His last day in Tallahassee was June 30, the day before he began his job as supervisor of elections. Hogan was elected to his new job in March. While still unpacking last week in his new office Downtown, Hogan looked back on his career while looking forward to the latest challenge. “I’ve been doing new things all my life. I’m used to it,” he said. Hogan continued on Page A-11
Florida State College at Jacksonville annually provides the college experience for thousands of students, but it’s always missed out on one key element. Student housing. President Cynthia Bioteau seeks to change that. And she wants to bring that experience to the heart of Downtown, blocks away from FSCJ’s urban core campus. Bioteau and other school officials for months have talked to city leaders about its “Downtown Immersion” project, a goal of initially acquiring two buildings for up to 50 residential units and the creation of a civic engagement and culinary center. The residential complex would spring from the abandoned 218 W. Church St. building, about four blocks from the Downtown campus. At five stories and more than 26,000 square feet, it could be converted into up to 50 Bioteau units. Across the street at 502 N. Hogan St. lies the building that currently houses the Farah’s of Uptown Deli restaurant. The school wants to convert the storefront into a culinary enterprise, while the Church Street frontage could house office and meeting space for the FSCJ Center of Civic Engagement. “I believe it’s very, very important for FSCJ to have a presence in the core and heart of Downtown Jacksonville,” Bioteau said Friday. “As Jacksonville tries to revitalize itself to be very vibrant for everyone … the presence of students 24 hours a day lends such a dimension of vitality.” FSCJ
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Aetna-Humana merger could impact office moves
Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. will have a lot of questions to answer as they move forward with their planned merger, including one they really can’t answer definitively right now: What are the companies going to do with their Jacksonville offices? As the Daily Record reported last month, both companies were looking to possibly move their Jacksonville operations to other local properties. The merger will likely have an impact on their decisions. Aetna announced its $37 billion
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agreement to buy Humana as the Fourth of July holiday weekend was beginning. Aetna is by far the bigger of the two, as far as their Jacksonville presences are concerned. The company employs about 775 people in the Aetna Building at 841 Prudential Drive on the Southbank. A month before announcing the Humana deal, Aetna told the Daily Record it was considering looking for a new site when its lease expires in that building in August 2017. However, Aetna
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said no decisions had been made and it could stay in that space. Last week, Aetna spokesman Walt Cherniak said again the company hasn’t made any decisions. “It is standard Aetna practice to evaluate all of our options when the leases on our facilities
near expiration,” Cherniak said by email. Meanwhile, Humana said it was relocating nearly 100 employees out of its offices in the Downtown SunTrust Tower at 76 S. Laura St. and moving them to two new locations in Baymeadows and Mandarin. Humana’s lease in the SunTrust Tower expires Dec. 31. “As of now, we are moving ahead” with those plans, Humana spokesman Mitch Lubitz said by email last week. “Of course, with the proposed
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merger with Aetna, they’re subject to change,” he said. Humana once had a much bigger presence in that Downtown office and, in fact, owned the building from 1998-2004. However, it downsized significantly in 2003 when it closed a national customer service center, laying off more than 500 employees. The Aetna-Humana deal will face much bigger questions than these as the companies move forward, including addressing Basch continued on Page A-7
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