Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Vol. 103, No. 034 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Company planning $170M expansion
Anheuser-Busch OK’d for $14.85M in incentives
Metal Container Corp. is rolling out initial permitting applications for the proposed $170 million expansion by its parent company, Anheuser-Busch. The company, which makes cans for the beer maker’s U.S. operations, applied to the city for a mobility fee calculation for a 202,000-square-foot expansion to its 1100 Ellis Road plant in West Jacksonville. Part of Anheuser-Busch’s plan is to increase production of the Budweiser and Bud Light aluminum bottles. The company began producing the bottles in 2013. The Jacksonville facility will be the second Metal Container Corp. plant to produce them. The expansion will boost the plant to almost 450,000 square feet, the application shows. The mobility fee is calculated at $130,854. The city’s mobility fee is the cost for a new development based upon the link between land development and transportation. The certificates generally are valid for a year. Anheuser-Busch won approvals for $14.85 million in city and state incentives to make the $170 million investment and hire 75 more employees. The city adopted a resolution in May and amended it in June. The city would pay $12,045,000, comprising a Recapture Enhanced Value grant of $12 million over 12 years and a Qualified Target Industry grant up to $45,000 after the jobs are created, over six years. The jobs would pay an average wage of about $75,000. The state would pay $2,805,000, comprising its 80 percent QTI match of up to $180,000, with the city paying the other 20 percent; a $2.4 million Quick Action Closing Fund; and up to $225,000 in a Quick Response Training grant. Anheuser-Busch, which is owned by
Momentum for Downtown, growth for real estate and retail markets, pension and HRO for city, and maybe justice for Cherish Perrywinkle. See stories on Pages A-2 and A-3
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New FOP president ready to negotiate contract By Max Marbut Staff Writer Steve Zona won’t be sworn in as president of the Fraternal Order of Police Jacksonville Lodge 5-30 until Jan. 19. But he’s already walking the beat in regard to what the 26-year police veteran says will be his most important issue in 2016 — negotiating a contract for the city’s police officers. “Our members haven’t received a raise since 2008,” he said, but they endured, along with other city employees, a 3 percent pay cut in 2008.
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Officers also have agreed to increase the contribution from their paychecks for the Police and Fire Pension Fund. The combination has resulted in a significant loss of income that officers and their families use for basic needs like housing, food and clothing, Zona said. Taking into account the pay cut and increased pension fund contributions, officers have essentially had a 6 percent reduction in pay since 2008, he said. Zona said working out a new contract may not only allow officers to regain some or all of the salary they lost, it will help JSO
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retain experienced officers rather than watch them take jobs in other cities with higher pay and better benefits. He said the lodge doesn’t have statistics on how many officers have left Jacksonville over compensation and benefits issues, but it’s been an issue. Based on data from other municipalities, Zona said, “We’ve fallen from pretty high up the scale to below the median compared to other agencies in the state.” The department wants to be competitive with other agencies, Zona said.
“We tell the young officers to hang in there and wait until the contract negotiations are over before they make a decision,” he said. Like many police officers, law enforcement is the career Zona decided he wanted at a young age and it’s the only job he’s had. After graduating from Fletcher High School, he became a reserve officer and in 1988 joined the Jacksonville Beach Police Department. Two years later, he transferred to JSO and was a member of the field force until 1996, when he FOP continued on Page A-4
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