Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 044 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Dreamette, the 68-year Murray Hill ice-cream destination, will branch out to the Beaches this spring. Kyle Jones has the trade name license agreement to open a Dreamette in Neptune Beach at 309 Atlantic Blvd. in a former Yobe Frozen Yogurt location. “I think there is a definite need for ice cream there,” said Jones, a property manager and a family friend of the Dreamette owner. Jones said there are nearby yogurt and custard shops, but no soft-serve ice cream like the kind customers crave from Dreamette. It will serve soft-serve cones and cups, dipped cones, shakes, sundaes, banana splits, floats, slushes and freezes.
The location should open between March 1 and April 1. It will offer walk-up and walkin service as well as indoor and deck seating. Being a block from the beach, the Dreamette “will have a real beachy feel to it,” he said. The original Dreamette is at 3646 Post St. There are Dreamettes with license agreements in Mandarin and Macclenny. Katy Figg, associate of retail leasing with Franklin Street real
estate services, represented the landlord, Ansbacher Realty, in the lease negotiation with Jones. Johnny Nettles has owned the landmark business for seven and a half years and is the fifth Dreamette owner since it opened in October 1948. “We keep it the way they did it back in the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s,” Nettles said of the menu’s ingredients and attraction. Nettles said the Neptune Beach location should do well, considering it’s in a busy area and also will be led by a motivated business owner. The timing should work well, too. Nettles said the business is affected by the weather as well as the clock. After daylight saving
time resumes March 13 and the temperature rises, customers are more inclined to partake. “It’s like turning a switch,” he said of the time change. People at home finish dinner and see it’s still daylight and think, “Hey, let’s go to Dreamette and get some ice cream,” he said. Businessinsider.com reported in June that Dreamette was the best ice-cream shop in Florida, based on Foursquare users’ likes, saves, shares and other sentiments. The Foursquare app lets users find popular places. “Ice cream dreams come true at Dreamette,” said businessinsider.com. Mathis continued on Page A-2
Special to the Daily Record
Dreamette heads to the Beach
Dreamette owner Johnny Nettles said the shop is famous for its banana split upside down in a cup.
Large realty moves to town CSX sees
5 percent decline in earnings
La Rosa firm rivals size of giant Watson By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer
Public
Ward sees continued drop in freight demand By Mark Basch Contributing Writer
Photo by Carole Hawkins
Most people in Jacksonville have never heard of the independent brokerage, La Rosa Realty. Then again, most people in Miami have never heard of Watson Realty. Based in Orlando and with 17 branches statewide, La Rosa Realty launched in the Jacksonville market this week, celebrating the grand opening of its Southside office Tuesday. Thirty-five agents already have signed on, and Jacksonville managing broker Tom Stewart’s goal is to recruit 150 by the end of the year. The reason to scale up so quickly? Brand recognition. “If you go to South Florida, everybody knows who La Rosa Realty is,” Stewart said. In Jacksonville, not so much. But with more than 1,200 agents statewide, the brokerage rivals the size of Watson, based in Jacksonville, which has 1,350 agents, according to last year’s RISMedia survey. Founded in 2004 by Joe La Rosa, the firm differentiates itself as a 100 percent commission company, “the fastest growing” one in the state of Florida, according to its website. One hundred percent commission means agents don’t split their sales commissions with their broker. At traditional brokerages, the commission split can be as high as 50 percent. “It’s what’s so obscene about real estate,” Stewart said, “that agents pay so much to their broker, when the agents do all the work.” La Rosa earns its money by charging fees to Realtors — a flat fee of $345 per real estate sale, charged to the customer; a $36 monthly desk fee; fees for marketing services; and a fee to use its customer relationship management system. It’s a model that can be attractive to topproducing agents, because it enables them to tailor the services they purchase from their broker. But, Stewart said he enjoys training new agents and he plans to recruit some. When Joe La Rosa first opened the real estate company in Celebration, it was to market homes built by his development company. During the downturn, he switched to selling franchises nationally for another real estate brokerage, Casa Latino.
Tom Stewart is managing broker of La Rosa Realty’s Jacksonville office. But in late 2010, he brought La Rosa Realty back, adopting its progressive business model. “I felt with the downturn, Realtors were left in limbo,” La Rosa said. “They were giving so much to the brokerages in return just for the branding.” Coming out of the recession there was an opportunity for new ideas to gain a foothold. There are other 100 percent commission companies in the market, but each offers a different fee structure and many don’t
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have office support and education, he said. La Rosa Realty offers title company services, back office support, webinar training, marketing and residual payments for agents that recruit other agents. La Rosa will compete in the region with another 100 percent commission company, Florida Homes Realty & Mortgage. Based in Jacksonville, that company advertises over 500 agents statewide. chawkins@jaxdailyrecord.com (904) 356-2466
Published
CSX Corp. reported lower fourth-quarter earnings, as expected, and Chairman and CEO Michael Ward doesn’t expect the trend of reduced freight demand to change any time soon. “All the railroads are showing reduced carloads,” Ward said in an interview Wednesday after the Jacksonville-based railroad company reported fourth-quarter earnings fell 5 percent to $466 million, or 48 cents a share. “Quite frankly, we don’t see anything on the horizon to change that,” he said. The volume of freight shipped by CSX fell by 6 percent in the fourth quarter and was widespread across most busiWard ness segments, with the notable exception of automobile shipments, which rose 5 percent. Ward expects automobiles to continue to be a growth market, and he also sees good demand for housing-related materials. But, he said, “if we look at most of the other markets, they’re challenging.” Coal shipments, traditionally CSX’s largest business segment, continue to fall, dropping 32 percent in the fourth quarter. Low energy prices and a strong U.S. dollar affecting export coal demand are impacting the market. CSX’s earnings for all of 2015 rose by 8 cents a share to $2, but the company is projecting 2016 earnings per share to be lower than last year. Total revenue fell 13 percent in the fourth quarter to $2.8 billion. For all of 2015, revenue fell 7 percent to $11.8 billion. CSX
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