Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 223 • Two SecTioNS
Working to make Downtown cool again
Case dealt with accounting issues
By Mark Basch Contributing Writer
By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer In 10 years, 10,000 people will be living Downtown. There will be apartments on the Northbank and Southbank. The Jacksonville Landing will be redeveloped and there will be restaurants and bars and a hip vibe through the connection of Downtown with the St. Johns River. Oh, and the vacancy rate for office buildings will be 10 percent. (Today, it’s 24 percent). That’s what office broker Traci Jenks sees in the city’s future. “I have an agenda,” said Jenks, a senior director for commercial real estate firm, Cushman & Wakefield. “I want Downtown to be cool because I want to live See Traci here when I retire.” Jenks’ favorite She’ll have a hand in getting it there. places in Jenks performs tenDowntown. ant placement and brokerage services Page A-6 for some of Jacksonville’s highest-profile office buildings, including Downtown’s SunTrust Tower, for which Cushman & Wakefield recently became the exclusive leasing representative. Jenks knows what brings companies to lease offices in Downtown Jacksonville. “It’s a younger creative class who want to be a part of changing our city and seeing it become vibrant,” she said. “The people who come Downtown already know they want to be here.” It’s a sentiment with which Jenks can identify.
Photo by Carole Hawkins
Inside
Dream of changing Downtown’s landscape
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www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Stein Mart settles with SEC for $800,000
Broker takes aim at urban core revitalization
Nearly 30 years ago at the University of Georgia, Jenks switched her major from marketing to real estate after an Atlanta developer spoke to her class. It was the late 1980s and huge office towers were being
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Traci Jenks was inspired in college to work in commercial real estate after seeing the redevelopment of Atlanta’s Downtown. Today, as a senior director, Office Brokerage Services, for Cushman & Wakefield, Jenks attracts owners and tenants for some of Jacksonville’s top office buildings, including Downtown’s SunTrust Tower.
Stein Mart Inc. on Tuesday announced an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to pay an $800,000 penalty, without admitting or denying the agency’s findings, to settle charges of using improper accounting procedures in fiscal 2010, 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. The SEC said in a news release that its investigation found the Jacksonville-based fashion retailer misstated its earnings in those periods because it improperly valued inventory that was subject to price discounts. The regulatory agency, which also charged Stein Mart with having inadequate internal accounting controls, said the misstated earnings included an overstatement of almost 30 percent for pretax earnings reported in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. Stein Mart eventually restated its earnings for that quarter and for fiscal 2010 and 2011 after its external auditor said its accounting treatment for markdowns was improper. “Inventory is one of the most significant assets for retail companies and as a result, it is critical that companies have effective internal accounting controls to ensure that inventory is valued properly,” said Michael Maloney, chief accountant of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, in the news release. “Stein Mart failed in this regard as its internal accounting controls to ensure proper inventory valuations were inadequate in various ways,” he said. The SEC also said it found Stein Mart had improper internal accounting controls in the areas of software assets, credit card liabilities, and other inventory-related issues. Stein Mart said in its news release that the SEC did not allege any fraud by the company and did not bring charges against any individual. Stein Mart also said it had previously established a reserve for the potential settlement of the SEC investigation, so the fine will not affect its finances in the third quarter this year. mbasch@baileypub.com
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. is considering Jacksonville for a restaurant, and a site of interest is near St. Johns Town Center. Confirmation that it is looking at a North Florida location is more than the Colorado-based chain has said during the many years of being asked about coming to Jacksonville. Its TV commercials are common in the area, and it has 21 restaurants throughout Florida, with the closest in Gainesville. “We can confirm that we are exploring the possibility of open-
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ing a Red Robin restaurant in the Jacksonville area,” said Brian Farley, a company spokesman, in an emailed statement Tuesday. He said it would be a full-size location, which is 6,000 square feet. Red Robin said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing it costs up to $2.2 million to
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open that size restaurant. Farley added it was early in the process and that was the only information the company wanted to share. One possible site is the Town Center Exchange property near St. Johns Town Center. Core Property Capital has a contract to buy the site for a mixed-use development, including restaurants. Tom Mundy with The Shopping Center Group LLC represents Core Property Capital and MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
Image from redrobin.com
Red Robin confirms Jacksonville interest
A St. Johns Town Center area broker confirms he has spoken with Red Robin about a restaurant.
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