Daily Record Financial News &
Friday, December 25, 2015
Vol. 103, No. 030 • One Section
Photo courtesy of John Crispens
Main Street makeover
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Parades, pies and Christmas ornaments
Realtors find creative ways to say thanks
The Akra Bros. department store, shown in the photo at the top, opened in 1933 and operated at 1735 N. Main St. for 40 years. Businessman John Crispens, above, bought the structure last year and is renovating it as Crispy’s, a more than 150-seat restaurant, bar, art gallery, music venue and dry-cleaning service.
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
By Kevin Hogencamp Contributing Writer
Crispy’s opening in former Akra Bros. store
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor By May, John Crispens hopes to renovate his vintage Springfield building at 1735 N. Main St. into Crispy’s, a restaurant, bar, art gallery and dry-cleaning service. “I’ve been wanting to start a business in Springfield for quite a while,” said Crispens, 46, who moved to Jacksonville from Long Island, N.Y., in 1992 and has been a Springfield resident for more than six years. Crispens said he wants to contribute to the level of development along that part of Main Street, which is north of Downtown. He considers himself lucky to have found the almost 6,000-square-foot building,
which he bought last year. “The building is over 80 years old, with many unique architectural features including terrazzo marble floors and two giant original skylights,” he said. In addition to the floors and skylights, the grand staircase to the second level also will be restored. The city is reviewing a building permit application for Johnson Home Builders Inc. of Yulee to convert the space. Plans show the renovation would turn the first floor into a dining room, bar, kitchen, business area and storage. The partial second floor would accommodate more dining, as well as live music and private events. Bmorcreative Inc. is the interior designer.
Baker Klein Engineering and The Ohmega Group are the engineers for the plans. All three are based in Springfield. “This project is a Springfield group effort,” Crispens said. Christina Parrish, executive director of Springfield Preservation and Revitalization, said Wednesday the organization welcomes the prospect of another good business along Main Street. She said the Springfield neighborhood has come a long way, but “new businesses on Main Street is where we need to see improvement.” Parrish said Crispens has experience and a good business plan for Crispy’s. “We think Crispy’s continued on Page A-3
As they prepared for the 2014 holiday season, Christina Welch and her Keller Williams Jacksonville Realty colleagues figured they had come up with a perfect gift for their clients: A pretty, iridescent Christmas ornament that fit nicely into a greeting card. “It was a wooden snowflake with a little blue ribbon and glitter all over it,” Welch said. The Welch Team members made their list of hundreds of recent clients and checked it twice. They knew the Oriental Trading Co. ornament’s height and width, but didn’t account for its half-inch thickness. Thus, the cost for postage — about $2.25 apiece — was more than four times what was budgeted. “The ripple effect of the cost of postage was sort of overwhelming,” Welch said. Lesson learned. This holiday season, 499 Welch Team clients will receive a much thinner trinket in the form of a colorful stocking to adorn their trees. With the costly hiccup behind the team, an Welch annual holiday tradition is well underway. “Before, we hadn’t really done anything special except for calling customers and thanking them,” Welch said. “Now, we’re giving our customers something that not only thanks them, but for them to remember us by and to look forward to receiving every year.” Sally Suslak, Jacksonville’s Traditions Realty’s managing broker, says reaching out to customers with a thoughtful expression during the holidays is a proven marketing technique that inspires customer loyalty. “Of course, we want people to think about us positively all year around,” said Suslak, who also is president of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors. Suslak’s company spreads holiday cheer to its customers each year through the gift of music. Realtors
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City considering incentives to keep Aetna Downtown By David Chapman Staff Writer Aetna has its name on a Southbank building. The health-care institution has more than 900 employees there, too. However, the business wants assistance to stay — and possibly grow — in the building where it’s been since 1999, according to a report filed with the city. The city and JAXUSA Partnership are working with the land-
Public
lord, GV-IP Jacksonville, and the company to ensure Aetna remains Downtown. The company has requested $45 per square foot for 160,000 square feet of office space to help pay for improvements. The landlord is offering $30 per square foot and asking the Downtown Investment Authority and city to make up the difference. That amounts to $1.5 million that could be funded through a Recaptured Enhanced Value
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grant over 12 years, according to the report. Those grants are paid after expansions and provide tax breaks for property improvements. As part of any incentive deal, the report said the company could add 150-300 new jobs. Authority CEO Aundra Wallace said he’s talked with the landlord about the deal, but has not spoken with the company. With Aetna’s lease expiring sometime in 2017, he said there is
time to work out something. He acknowledged Aetna’s importance to the Downtown workforce and said keeping those jobs in the core is critical. Likewise, authority board Chair Jim Bailey said retaining those jobs — and possibly adding more — would be “huge.” If the city provides $1.5 million over 12 years, Bailey (who is publisher of the Daily Record) said it would a good investment for keeping Aetna and its employees
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Downtown. A call left for GV-IP seeking comment on negotiations was not returned Wednesday. Aetna is the primary tenant in the building that was developed in 1955 for Prudential Insurance Co. of America. At that time, it was the tallest building in Florida. dchapman@jaxdailyrecord.com @writerchapman (904) 356-2466
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