Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 139 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Corey, Shirk spar at debate
All that jazz
Photo by Max Marbut
By David Chapman Staff Writer
City preparing for weekend music festival
Special to the Daily Record
Above from left, saxophonist Skyler Nolan, Mayor Lenny Curry, City Council President Greg Anderson and city Sports & Entertainment Officer Dave Herrell provided a preview Wednesday of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival that starts today. Nolan, who performed at City Hall before the program began, is a junior at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and won the youth competition at last year’s festival. Left, Snarky Puppy performs at 9:30 p.m. Friday on the Swingin’ Stage at Main and Monroe streets. Read more about the festival on Page A-3.
At the outset of a debate between State Attorney Angela Corey and Public Defender Matt Shirk, moderator Dan Bean noted the two may disagree, but they’re not enemies. By the end of the Wednesday event, those attending likely agreed the two have some stark disagreements. Bean’s second point was a little less clear. The two elected officials sparred verbally, with Shirk calling for more transparency and the use of civil citations from Corey’s office as his main points of emphasis. Corey pushed back, claiming the public defender wasn’t knowledgeable about her office’s many diversion programs and was politically pandering. After eight years in office, both are up for re-election and face what’s expected to be tough competition. At the Southside Business Men’s Club debate, the focus was across the legal aisle — not the August primary. After almost 35 years, Corey said her style of prosecution has not changed and statistics show crime rates are lower overall now than when she took office. That includes conviction rates among the top five in the state. “We will not apologize for being tough on crime,” she said. Corey has critics, which she asserts comes from anecdotal stories and misinformation played out in the media. Her biggest disappointment, she said, is that she hasn’t corrected them all. Shirk took an offensive posture, calling for Corey to open up civil citations further than currently used. Across Florida, 46 percent of eligible juveniles receive the diversionary tactic, he said. In Jacksonville, it’s only 27 percent. “My view is we can do a lot better,” he said. For civil citations, the victim has to agree Debate continued on Page A-4
Gramercy Property Trust Inc. is reconfiguring the former Bank of America office park to make it more attractive to lease – and to sell. That’s according to an analyst’s report after the New Yorkbased real estate investment trust announced late Tuesday it has signed four leases for the bulk of the office park, including one to move Aetna from Downtown. Gramercy also said Tuesday the campus was no longer part of a master lease it has with a portfolio of Bank of America properties. “The diversified tenant base, longer lease term, and being unencumbered from the master lease, makes the asset more desirable and likely more saleable,”
Public
said a research report Tuesday by an analyst with the Stifel Equity Trading Desk. It was titled: “GPT Embraces Its Ingenuity At BofA Jacksonville Campus.” The report, by analyst Simon Yarmak, rated NYSE-traded GPT a buy. The 90-acre campus is highly visible – north of The Avenues mall between Interstate 95 and Southside Boulevard. It was developed in 1989 for Jackson-
legal notices begin on page
A-9
ville-based Barnett Banks Inc., which was acquired by Bank of America through mergers. Gramercy envisions being able to parcelize the property, according to a lawyer representing the firm at a Jacksonville Planning Commission meeting. The commission approved modifications to the property’s Planned Unit Development to amend the site plan to reflect current structures and to modify signage and the permit parcelization. Gramercy said the property consists of 10 buildings that total about 1.2 million square feet. A plan shows six office buildings; an office amenity building Mathis continued on Page A-2
Photo from Colliers International Northeast Florida
Gramercy Woods described as owner’s ‘ingenuity’
Gramercy Property Trust is leasing the 10-story Building 100 and the five-floor Building 700 to tenants in the newly renamed Gramercy Woods, the former Bank of America office park. Building 100 will be anchored by Aetna and likely will install prominent signage for it.
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