FRIDAY December 27, 2019
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
SMALL BUSINESS
THE MATHIS REPORT
Daily 5 SISTERS, 1 CATERINGRecord COMPANY JACKSONVILLE
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KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
Availity wants more time on job creation
Health care IT company says it may miss 130-job incentives target by 15.
in the United States. The sisters are natives of Saigon, Vietnam, but came to the U.S. as children just days before the fall of Saigon in 1975. Their father was a member of the U.S. Merchant Marine and had arranged for the family to leave April 30. But in the darkness of April 24, the family was told it had a half-hour to reach the docks and board the boat. It was just minutes before the nightly curfew would start and there was no time to gather belongings.
Availity LLC, a Jacksonvillebased health care IT company said it asked the city and state to extend its incentives deadline for a year to create 250 jobs. Availity agreed to create the jobs at an average wage of $70,000 by year-end 2021, starting with 130 this year. Molly Miles, Availity vice president of product and brand marketing, said the company added 115 jobs during 2018 and this year through Nov. 30 and continues to hire, but the company wasn’t sure it would fill the additional 15 jobs by year-end. “These are very skilled workers with competitive compensation,” Miles said. Miles said Availity pays the added employees an average of $88,000, exceeding the target wage level by 25 percent. “We have a lot of people relocating to Jacksonville for these jobs and what we do is very complex. We have a lot of extremely skilled people and a ton of applicants for every job,” she said. Instead of trying to fill the 15 jobs by year-end, she said Avail-
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Special to the Daily Record
From left, sisters Paige, Tram and Rachele Nguyen are three of five sisters who operate Oizeo5 catering. Four of the five left behind their college degrees to start a family-run business.
The sisters, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam as children, pooled their savings to start Oizeo5, offering savories and desserts with an Asian flair. BY DAN MACDONALD CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The company name, Oizeo5, means nothing. Like Haagen-Dazs for ice cream, it’s just a word that sounds good but has
no meaning. The name is pronounced “oy-zay-oh five.” “We just made it up,” said Paige Nguyen, the spokesperson for the five-sister catering company that specializes in desserts and savories with an Asian flair. Paige, Rachele, Tram and Thoa live together in West Jacksonville and work in the business. The fifth, Nikki, is a college professor at the University of San Francisco where she teaches marketing. She provides financial guidance when needed. Next year, the sisters will mark 25 years
Regency Point shopping center sold Franklin Street announced Dec. 18 it brokered the $8.3 million sale of Regency Point, a 51,381-square-foot retail center at 9430 Arlington Expressway, to a private Jacksonville-based investor. Franklin Street said Bryan Belk and John Tennant represented the buyer, Regency Pointe of Jacksonville LLC, and the seller, Sand Capital of Phoenix, in the transaction. The deal closed Dec. 10. Franklin Street said the buyer plans to hold the property long-term. Regency Point is along the expressway across from Regency Square Mall. Tenants include Skechers, Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Wingstop and T-Mobile.
VOLUME 107, NO. 29 • ONE SECTION