Daily Record Financial News &
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 257 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Reasons SunGard could be Revere
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor It could be just coincidence that the details of the unidentified Project Revere so closely match those of the SunGard expansion. If so, there are some major coincidences. The city’s development agreement for Project Revere, which seeks incentives through City Council Resolution 2015-780, specifies the creation of jobs will run concurrently with the new agreement and the prior agreement. SunGard just happens to be adding jobs under a prior agreement, Resolution 2013286. That agreement ends at the end of 2016. That deal went under the code name Project Visor. Let’s take a look at previously reported similarities of Project Revere and SunGard. Project Revere is called one of the world’s largest privately held software and technology services companies. SunGard Data Systems Inc. is privately held and calls itself one of the world’s leading financial software companies. Project Revere is an expansion of a company’s operations in Jacksonville. SunGard operates in two locations on the Downtown Southbank and the city recently approved a permit for SunGard to add another floor of space at the Prudential Building on the Southbank. Project Revere has committed to create 250 permanent full-time equivalent new jobs. SunGard’s additional space can accommodate 250-275 work positions. Project Revere will add the jobs at a Downtown office space on the Southbank. SunGard occupies the 11th floor at the Prudential Building at 701 San Marco Blvd. and is expanding onto the 10th floor. It also has space in the duPont Center along Prudential Drive, on the Southbank. Project Revere pledges to keep 120 jobs it SunGard
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Photo by Wes Lester / City of Jacksonville
Firm’s expansion plans similar to secret project
Mayor Lenny Curry holds a picture book, much to the delight of a 1-year old at Little Wise Kids Early Learning Center in Arlington. At right is Mozella Wilson, one of the center’s staff members. The center was the second of three stops Curry made to see the impact of Jacksonville Journey programs.
Curry takes his own‘Journey ’ Mayor visits programs before deciding on funding
By David Chapman Staff Writer Just after entering the Southside classroom portable, Mayor Lenny Curry spotted a student deep into a textbook. “What are you working on?” the mayor asked. Social studies, the student said. A subject, the student quickly added, he didn’t really like. “But it is good for you,” Curry said. “I promise.” In the next room, close to a dozen more eighth- through 10th-graders were drawing, supervised by a social worker. It wasn’t a normal classroom. These students had made poor choices and were in the Alternative Out-of-School Suspension program, also known as ATOSS.
There are five centers in Duval County, with the students having to attend up to five days, depending on their offense. “Last time I was suspended was in the eighth grade,” Curry told the students. Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti used that as a launching point to tell the students they were good kids who just made a bad decision. They were facing a consequence, but could learn — and were better off in the classroom environment than sitting at home. Most of the students agreed. “If I was home I’d just be bored,” one girl said. Another said being in school meant he could do his classwork. ATOSS is part of the anti-crime Jacksonville Journey initiative. This year, ATOSS
received $800,000, but it could end up with more. Curry spent much of Monday afternoon touring Journey-related programs, saying he wanted to see more than spreadsheets and descriptions of the programs. He wanted to see the people doing the work and learning about their impact. The mayor also has some decisions to make. His budget included additional Journey funding of about $3 million, bringing the program’s total to $5 million. The new money has been spent down to about $2.3 million. The spending so far includes a library-related program slated tonight at City Council to receive an additional $266,000. Curry made no funding decisions Monday, saying he’d do so “very soon.” Instead, Journey continued on Page A-3
Washington distributor plans for Westside site A Washington-based gaming, sports and entertainment collectibles wholesaler could open a Jacksonville distribution center in Westside Industrial Park, according to building plans. GTS Distribution, which is privately held, would open a 33,000-square-foot office and warehouse at 8291 Forshee Drive, according to a permit application. Duckworth Construction Co. is the contractor for improvements of more than 3,000 square feet of offices and almost 30,000 square feet of warehouse space. Adrian Sawczuk, vice president of operations in Atlanta for
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GTS, said as a private company, it does not comment about its operations. GTS is based in Lynnwood, Wash., near Seattle, and has 10 distribution centers, according to its website, gtsdistribution.com. The nearest to Jacksonville is in Orlando, which is one of four in the Eastern U.S. along with Atlanta, Boston and Allentown, Pa. The others are in Michigan, Arizona, California, Washington and Hawaii. GTS calls itself a leading wholesale distributor of gaming, toys, sports and entertainment collectibles. It does not sell to the
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general public. Its customers are retail and specialty stores. GTS Distribution was formed in 2005 upon the merger of Talkin’ Sports and Gamus Distribution. The building plans refer to the tenant as Gamus LLC. Gamus Distribution began in 1976 as Georgia Music Inc., a family-owned business distributing trading cards, hobby supplies
and sheet music that expanded to three Southeastern U.S. facilities. Talkin’ Sports had five locations serving the West Coast. GTS Distribution says it offers products in four major categories: trading cards, games, toys and hobby supplies. At the same time, GTS Distribution will gain a neighbor. GTS Distribution will occupy units A-C, while The Grimes Companies, based in Jacksonville, will move into 40,000 square feet in Units D-F at the building. Grimes will relocate from about 30,000 square feet within Westside Industrial Park into the
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larger space. Grimes is a logistics and supply-chain management company.
International Management plans spec Flagler building
International Management Co. LLC, which recently began construction of a speculative office building in Nocatee, intends to build a spec structure in Flagler Center in South Jacksonville. The Jacksonville-based company bought five acres in Flagler Center for construction of a Mathis cont inued on Page A-2
consecutive weekdays