Daily Record Financial News &
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 173 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Dirt moving at likely Amazon site
Site work is evident, timberland is being cleared on the perimeter and an entrance road is fronted by signs of impending construction at the expected Amazon.com site in North Jacksonville. Also, road-side signs flash that Pecan Park Road will be closed starting Thursday. The signs are near the fulfillment center development site at 12900 Pecan Park Road. It seems construction of the almost 2.4-million-square-foot multilevel fulfillment center cannot be far behind. The site is north of Interstate
295 at Duval and Pecan Park roads, near Jacksonville International Airport. Road improvements are among the city and state incentives to recruit the code-named fulfillment center to Jacksonville. The company is described in a city project summary as one with more than 20 years of experience
in the retail and e-commerce markets and with more than 200,000 employees worldwide. That description fits Amazon.com. Among the $18.4 million in taxpayer incentives, City Council approved an Economic Development Transportation Fund Grant in April capped at $2.5 million to supplement the state’s $3 million grant. In review as Project Rex and Project Duval, the anticipated Amazon.com center hasn’t been announced, although incentives are in place and project details are widely known.
It’s a $200 million, at least 1,500-job fulfillment center for an e-commerce company. Seasonal jobs will boost employment to at least 3,500 among two shifts. Construction should start this summer on the 2.4 million-squarefoot center on 155 acres. The base footprint is 855,000 square feet. The structure has a ground floor and three mezzanine levels. The city is reviewing a building permit for the $87 million construction job. Tetra Tech Inc. is the consultant and engineer. In April, the city approved a Mathis continued on Page A-2
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
Construction should begin this summer on fulfillment center
Trees are coming down on the perimeter of the site where Amazon.com is expected to build a fulfillment center.
Unions help push pension proposal
Contracts to be renegotiated if Curry reform passes Aug. 30
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
By David Chapman Staff Writer
Stacey Goldberg and her husband, Craig, opened the Urban Grind Coffee Co. shop in the historic Drew Building Downtown in February 2015. She designed it, focusing on local artisans. “We wanted a unique space,” she said.
Blending into Downtown
Urban Grind combines coffee and craftsmanship By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor Walk into Urban Grind Coffee Co. and you’ll enter a small, cozy Downtown coffee shop filled with the scents of brews and baking, the sounds of music and the espresso machine, and the sights and sense of local history and craftsmanship. It was a far different environment when owner Stacey Goldberg and her husband, Craig, first looked at the 45 W. Bay St. building, whose long history included fires and service as a printing company. The almost 800 square feet they inspect-
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ed at the front wasn’t inviting. “You can’t even say it was a diamond in the rough. It was a rough in the rough,” Goldberg said. That was two and a half years ago. With partners, the Goldbergs bought the building, known as the Drew Building. Their neighbors within are Daniel James Salon and Folio Media House. A central courtyard has become the Urban Garden of tables and chairs used by building tenants and patrons, a protected “outdoor” experience. “The building always had a really nice vibe to it,” she said.
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The Goldbergs already owned the Urban Grind kiosk at the next-block Bank of America Tower. Carving out a storefront coffee shop of their own tastes and design was a learning experience. Goldberg worked with Hota Design Studio to make every inch count in the twolevel shop — the downstairs for customers, the small upstairs for the kitchen, where she and her crew make the salads, sandwiches and pastries sold fresh daily. They opened in February 2015. The décor features the building’s brick and wood beams, but the rest of the space Workspace
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It has taken a team effort for Mayor Lenny Curry’s pension referendum to make it this far. City Council. The Legislature. Public safety unions. Yes, even the public safety unions, the groups that at times in the past decadeplus have been at odds with city officials over how their pension plans should and shouldn’t be handled. The same groups that often have been the target of some prickly council member affronts, message board diatribes and not-so-flattering letters to the editor to various media outlets. The police and fire Wyse unions are on board with the Aug. 30 referendum to extend a halfcent sales tax. They will continue to be until voters end up passing the plan. Then the relationship shifts from teammates to bargaining partners. Until then, though, everyone is on the same page and mostly have been since Curry pitched their leadership the idea at the beginning of the year. “I thought it was strong enough and an important enough issue that we do our fair share to push the issue,” said Randy Wyse, head of the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters. There were some res- Zona ervations about Curry’s initial pitch, though. It initially called for all new public safety officials to be placed into a defined contribution plan. That wouldn’t have worked, said Wyse and Steve Zona, head of the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter. Not when Pension continued on Page A-3
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