Daily Record Financial News &
Friday, April 1, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 100 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Aetna decision not just financial
Company looking for campus facility usually found in suburbs
Art Walk
DVI leading merger of evolving
One Spark
One Spark with longstanding monthly Art Walk By Max Marbut, Staff Writer
“The reality is we’re making it up as we go,” said Downtown Vision Inc. board Chair Debbie Buckland, describing the organization taking over the festival side of One Spark. They aren’t exactly starting from scratch, however. The group has presented 147 Art Walks on the first Wednesday of each month in the past almost 13 years. But Wednesday’s will be different, as “Spark Walk” incorporates a much scaled-down version of One Spark. The event’s time will be extended (noon to 10 p.m. instead of 5-9 p.m.) and the footprint will be enlarged to include a showcase for 66 entrepreneurs along Laura Street and inside the Jacksonville Landing. A food truck village will be set up in the parking lot at Regions Bank and the Jacksonville Sharks Arena Football League team will present a sports area with a rock climbing wall and other attractions at Adams and Laura streets, said Hana Ashchi, DVI marketing and events coordinator.
Special to the Daily Record
Aetna’s decision to stay Downtown or move to the suburbs isn’t just about money. The company has been seeking a campus-style facility like its peers in the financial sector. The insurance giant leases 170,000 square feet and has 840 employees in the 22-story Southbank building that bears its name. It wants to expand by another 150 to 300 jobs, mainly in the area of call center representatives, said Downtown Investment Authority CEO Aundra Wallace. Such jobs are typically housed in suburban office parks, which is where Aetna has scouted. “I knew when they were looking into the suburbs, they were looking for campustype environments,” said Wallace, comparing such a setup to that of Florida Blue and others with similar arrangements. Wallace Wallace said the nature of the expansion is a factor in the company’s possible move, as office parks have ample surface parking that doesn’t factor into lease rates. Mayor Lenny Curry last week made a pitch to Aetna executives during a phone call, said Kerri Stewart, the mayor’s chief of staff. While those conversations were productive, she said, one takeaway was that the company was concerned about the Downtown facility given their needs. “There’s a pretty big difference in what the suburbs and Downtown can offer,” she said. Wallace said when the company does make its decision — as of Friday morning, Aetna continued on Page A-4
File photo by Fran Ruchalski
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Spark Walk
continued on
Page A-3
Ad agency moving to Southbank, panoramic view
St. John & Partners spending $2M to renovate two floors at Riverplace Tower
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
It had to be cool. It had to be unique. And it had to be different. When Dan St. John, chairman and CEO of St. John & Partners found those three elements in the same place, he signed a lease for two floors at Riverplace Tower Downtown along the Southbank. The advertising and public relations agency will move into its new space in January after a $2 million build-out of the sec-
Public
ond and third floors of the office tower. The second floor has 30-foot ceilings with a panoramic view of the Northbank skyline through floor-to-ceiling windows. A staircase will be constructed to connect the two floors. There’s also a bank vault in the space formerly occupied by a Wells Fargo branch. “In our business, we didn’t want to be on just any floor,” said St. John. “We looked at higher floors. But we didn’t find anything like this anywhere else.”
legal notices begin on page
A-9
And after 17 years in an office park along Belfort Road, “We were ready for a change,” he said. The two floors combined are nearly 31,000 square feet of space, an increase of about 7,000 square feet. Design details are being developed, but St. John said the more than 100 members of the agency’s staff will work in a tech-enabled environment, including a large café area that will be used for meetings and social functions. St. John said the search for
the perfect location took about 10 months. Options were considered throughout Jacksonville, including the Southside, Riverside and the urban core. In addition to finding the distinctive office space, St. John said the development underway on the Southbank, including The District and Broadstone River House, plus the improvements to the Southbank Riverwalk helped tip the scales in favor of Riverplace Tower. “Our young, millennial staff is St. John continued on Page A-2
Published
for
26,900
St. John consecutive weekdays