| | The Scoop | | • The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at UNF recently opened several locations in Jacksonville, including one at Cecil Commerce Center. The new locations are for potential and existing small business owners to meet with Certified Business Analysts. The meetings are free, confidential and offer access to information and guidance for small business owners. For more information, click here or call (904) 620-2476. • According to a study by Next Generation Consulting, Jacksonville is among three of Florida’s cities hailed as U.S. hotspots for young professionals. Click here to read the article. • JAA welcomes Steven Grossman as its new executive director. Grossman comes to Jacksonville from the Oakland International Airport in Oakland, Calif. where he was director of aviation. He brings years of aviation leadership experience to Jacksonville. • In terms of the number of associates degrees awarded, Florida State College at Jacksonville (formerly FCCJ) ranked No. 3 in the nation, according to a study by the U.S. Department of Education Data. Click here to read the article. • Delegates from ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and Kyrgyzstan visited Jacksonville in August as part of the IVCJ (International Visitor Corps of Jacksonville) program. The JEDC and DVI gave a presentation on how many different economic initiatives are streamlined. The IVCJ seeks to promote international understanding by hosting international visitors sponsored by the U.S. State Department, U.S. Congress and other professional exchange programs. • The city-wide branding effort continues as signs and banners promoting Jacksonville as “America's Logistics Center” were recently placed at Cecil Commerce Center. The logo highlights Jacksonville's geographical advantage by being located at the confluence of three interstate highways, three railroad lines, seaports and airports. • Jacksonville ranks 17th in a survey of mid-sized cities for best places to attend college, according to the American Institute of Economic Research. The survey compared the country’s 360 metropolitan statistical areas on factors including academic environment, quality of life and professional opportunities. • WilsonMiller, a consulting firm with a strong economic development initiative, recently opened a new office in Jacksonville. The company provides planning, design, engineering, mapping, ecological and transportation consulting services for public infrastructure, facilities, urban redevelopment and sustainable communities. For more information, visit www.wilsonmiller.com. • Beaver Street Enterprise Center welcomed new tenant Technology On Demand, LLC. Dena Ford-Francis, president and lead consultant, helps companies make their technology investments pay greater dividends. For more information on the Enterprise Center, visit: www.bsecenter.net. • Deutsche Bank recently celebrated one year of operations in Jacksonville. With more than 600 employees at its Jacksonville location, Deutsche Bank has experienced record growth during the year. The bank plans to employ 1,000 people by the end of 2011. Visit www.db.com for more information.
• Jacksonville added its eighth sister city with San Juan, Puerto Rico after Mayor John Peyton signed an agreement with San Juan Mayor Jorge Santini. The agreement supports the city’s goal to strengthen ties with cities that have existing trade connections with JAXPORT. Puerto Rico is Jacksonville's main trading partner and the commerce has a $1 billion annual impact on the city. • JTA has expanded their bus service, adding a new route on the Westside to better serve Cecil Commerce Center. The new route, which connects with an existing Downtown route, has several stops along 103rd St., helping transport students to Florida State College and also provides transportation for those individuals employed by businesses at Cecil. Click here to view the detailed route. • The Princeton Review named the University of North Florida’s Coggin College of Business one of the Best Business Schools in the country. • According to the Tax Foundation’s 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index, Florida ranks fifth most business-friendly state.. The index measures the competitiveness of the 50 states’ tax systems and ranks them based on corporate income, individual income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes. • SBDC News: New state legislature was passed, creating small business advocate and council programs designed to help prevent new rules, regulations and state legislation from being implemented until time and effort has been taken to ensure small businesses are not unfairly burdened by new requirements. The two programs created are the Small Business Regulatory Advisory Council (Council) and the Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA) that give small businesses a greater voice in state government. • According to a report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center, Florida ranks No. 4 in the nation for innovation. In terms of high-tech employment, Florida has 20,000 doctoral scientists and engineers and more than 276,000 high-tech workers. Click here to read the full report. • Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Update: Funds have been restored for improvements needed to bring a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Naval Station Mayport. The U.S. House approved $76 million for necessary upgrades, which is now included in the fiscal year 2010 Defense Authorization Bill. The bill must also be approved by the Senate before it is sent to the President for signature. • RailAmerica Inc., headquartered in Jacksonville and the operator of 40 short-line railroads in 27 states, went public after it offered up to $300 million in stock. The initial public offering closed October 16. • U.S. News and World Report named Jacksonville in the top ten list of America’s Best Affordable Places to Retire. Click here to read the article. The JEDC Sports & Entertainment News:
• The 87th annual Florida vs. Georgia Football Classic will take place October 28-31. Click here for more information.
• The 14th annual Outback Steakhouse Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony is on October 30 at noon. Inductees include Rex Grossman and Lawrence Wright from the University of Florida and Garrison Hearst and David Pollack from the University of Georgia.
• Jacksonville will host the first and second rounds of the 2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament on March 19 and 21, 2010. Tickets are still available at www.ncaa.org.
• Jacksonville has submitted a bid to be the host city for WrestleMania in 2012 or 2013. The event would generate more than $50 million for the city. The JEDC Film & Television Office News:
• Local producer Donald E. Barton was presented with the 2009 Jacksonville Film Industry Award at the 9th Annual Film Industry Reception. Members of the Mayor’s Advisory Board on Motion Pictures, Television and Commercial Production, City Council and the JEDC Film & Television Office gathered at the reception to celebrate the year’s highlights in local filmmaking and production. Barton was selected for this award for his significant contributions to Jacksonville’s film industry.
• The Viva Cinema Latin Film Festival took place in Jacksonville in October. The four-day event celebrated the best in Latino filmmaking with movies, parties, workshops and panel discussions.
• Jacksonville-based advertising and public relations firm St. Johns & Partners landed a three-year contract to promote the Florida Lottery. They will be filming several lottery commercials in Jacksonville and hiring local film professionals. The account is worth about $80 million over three years. • The Main Street Streetscaping and Park Project in Downtown Jacksonville was selected as a winner in the 2009 Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA) Landscape Awards program. HDR Engineering, Inc. was the landscape architect and St. John Irrigation & Landscaping was the landscape contractor for the project. • JEDC Business Development Chief Lindsey Ballas, CEcD, was elected At-Large Board Member for Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Jacksonville. CREW is focused on advancing the success and fostering the development of professional women in the commercial real estate industry. Click here to visit CREW’s Web site. Upcoming Events:
• The Jacksonville Urban League will host its 36th Annual Equal Opportunity Luncheon on Wednesday, October 28 at 12 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. Ephren Taylor II, CEO of City Capital Corporation, best selling author and the youngest African-American CEO of any publicly traded company in the history of the United States, will discuss getting “P.A.I.D” at any age, creating success from the inside out, vision driven wealth, corporate social responsibility and ensuring a green future. To RSVP, visit jaxul.org or contact Linnie Finley at (904) 366-3461 or l.finley@jaxul.org.
• The Jacksonville Airport Authority is hosting the Inaugural Airline Summit in November. Executives from air carriers all over the world will be invited to Jacksonville to learn about Northeast Florida. The ultimate goal of the summit is to give Jacksonville and JIA more exposure, potentially gaining more flight routes with new or existing air carriers.
• The Advanced Aerospace Manufacturing Conference will be held in Jacksonville on November 11-13 for the first time. The conference typically attracts 150-200 people from all over the world. This is a great opportunity to showcase Jacksonville to potential advanced manufacturing companies.
| | New Recovery Zone program gives Jacksonville another tool for its economic development efforts | | Jacksonville is now able to take advantage of a new program, the Recovery Zone (RZ) bond program, to promote job creation and investment within distressed and underutilized areas. This program was created under Obama administration's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) or the stimulus package. The program allows local governments to designate areas with significant poverty, unemployment, rate of home foreclosures or general distress, as a Recovery Zone. The Jacksonville City Council has passed legislation, introduced by the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC), that designates the Enterprise Zone, Empowerment Zone, Community Redevelopment Areas and the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field, as Jacksonville's RZ. Designation of an RZ will allow the City of Jacksonville and the State of Florida to issue Recovery Zone bonds for private and public projects that promote job creation and economic recovery. The two types of RZ bonds are: RZ Facility Bonds:
• Traditional tax-exempt private activity bonds have lower interest rates as the interest is tax-exempt to the investors for federal tax purposes.
• These bonds do not count against the state volume cap.
• These bonds can be used by private businesses for depreciable capital projects
(buildings and equipment) in active businesses in Recovery Zones. RZ Economic Development Bonds:
• Can be used by governmental entities for public capital projects in Recovery Zones and for job training and education.
• Conventional taxable bonds allow states and localities to obtain financing at lower borrowing costs since the Treasury Department pays the state or locality a direct payment subsidy equal to 45 percent of the coupon interest on the bonds. North Florida Shipyards, located on Talleyrand, is working with the JEDC to utilize RZ Facility Bonds to provide supplementary financing for new equipment to allow them to add 246 new jobs to Jacksonville. North Florida Shipyards has received $3.3 million through the federal stimulus package and are proposing to invest $7 million in new capital in the Enterprise Zone area. Jacksonville was allocated bond capacity of $16,346,000 in RZ Economic Development Bonds and $24,518,000 in RZ Facility Bonds. RZ Bonds must be issued by January 1, 2011. Interested parties are encouraged to contact Lindsey Ballas, JEDC Business Development Chief, at (904) 630-2940 or lballas@coj.net. Click here to view the RZ map of Duval County.
| | World Cup Soccer Opportunity | | |  | | FIFA World Cup 2010 Trophy | Jacksonville was selected as one of 27 cities to advance to the next stage of the United States’ FIFA World Cup bid process.. The winning city will host four to six FIFA World Cup games during a 30-day period in 2018 or 2022. The FIFA World Cup is the largest sporting event in the world and has an estimated economic impact of $300-500 million. “To give an idea of the magnitude of this event, it would be the equivalent of hosting two to three super bowls in a 30-day period”, said Michael Bouda, JEDC Sports and Entertainment Manager. The U.S. would like to sell 5 million tickets, with each match needing to average 78,000 fans. Each team brings an estimated 20,000 fans to each match. “Fan Fest” is a continued 30-day event. The World Cup was played in the U.S. in 1994. It drew a crowd of 3,587,538 and had an average match attendance of 68,991- an attendance record that still stands today. The games invigorated soccer in the U.S. and the world. Rising out of the success of the tournament, Major League Soccer kicked off two years later and continues to grow each year. Hosting the World Cup again would be a huge boost for the sport throughout the U.S. The JEDC Sports and Entertainment Office is looking forward to completing the bid process. Representatives will travel to New York City on November 9-11 to present Jacksonville’s bid and to participate in a workshop. If Jacksonville is selected as the winning city, it would be the biggest sporting event ever to be held at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Signatures are needed to show Jacksonville's enthusiasm and support to host this event. Go to: www.gousabid.com/city/local/Jacksonville-FL to add your name.
| | SAFT America, Inc. announced its proposal to build a major manufacturing plant at Cecil Commerce Center |  | | | Rendering of proposed SAFT plant at Cecil Commerce Center | Saft America, Inc., a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-technology batteries, recently announced its proposal to build a 143,500 sq. ft. lithium battery manufacturing plant on twelve acres at Cecil Commerce Center pending approval of state and local incentives. The project would bring at least 279 new full-time jobs to the area at an average wage of $44,807, more than 115 percent of the state average wage. Saft would invest approximately $122.8 million in new, private capital for facility construction, manufacturing equipment, furniture, fixtures and information technology infrastructure. SAFT was awarded a $95.5 million federal stimulus grant to construct the “LEED-certified factory of the future”, through a highly-competitive proposal process. President Obama announced the grant as part of his $2.4 billion in grant allocation to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of U.S. batteries and electric vehicles. Through a collaborative effort with local, state and federal officials, SAFT chose Jacksonville after considering several other cities. In the first 10 years of operation, Saft America is projected to contribute $16 million in new tax revenue to Duval County. Construction of the facility will begin as soon as possible, once state incentives are approved.
The JEDC is hopeful that groundbreaking will occur by the end of November.
| | Jacksonville celebrates Cecil Field and Cecil Commerce Center’s 10th anniversary | | |  | | Florida State College’s Aircraft Services Educational Facility Ground Breaking at the 10-Year Celebration | Mayor John Peyton joined members of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC) to celebrate Cecil Field and Cecil Commerce Center’s 10-year anniversary. It was a decade ago, in October 1999, when the U.S. Navy formally handed over ownership of the sprawling Cecil Field Naval Air Station to the City of Jacksonville and the JAA as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations. The JAA owns and manages the 6,000-acre airport portion of Cecil Commerce Center, which includes three 8,000-foot runways, one 12,500-foot runway and 1.4 million square feet of aircraft hangar and office space. Today, Cecil Field has 11 mostly aviation-related tenants that together employ about 3,000 personnel. In addition, the JEDC serves as the master developer and property manager for more than 4,800 acres ideal for manufacturing and distribution centers. The newly-opened first segment of the regional First Coast Outer Beltway, also known as the Cecil Commerce Parkway, will greatly enhance access and transportation entry to Cecil. The new interchange will accommodate more than 33,000 vehicles per day. “During the past decade, Cecil has been transformed from a master jet base to a burgeoning intermodal logistics hub, home to a number of manufacturing, transportation and aviation-related industries,” said Mayor John Peyton. “With recent successes including SAFT America’s commitment to build a battery manufacturing facility here, Cecil has and will continue to be a major asset for the city.”
“It has taken a tremendous amount of hard work over the past decade to develop Cecil Field into a commercial aviation maintenance and repair hub,” said JAA Chairman Ron Weaver. “I am proud of the job the JAA has done. Great strides have been made but the best is yet to come.” Joining Peyton and Weaver in delivering comments were Daniel Davis, Jacksonville City Council, Chair of the Seaport and Airport Special Committee; Dr. Steve Wallace, President of Florida State College at Jacksonville; Phil Voss, Chief Corporate Development Officer for LSI; Don Davis, Director, Business Development for The Boeing Company; and Steve Grossman, JAA Executive Director/CEO. Milestones including the acquisition of multiple tenants were celebrated. Cecil tenants include The Boeing Company, Flightstar Aircraft Services, Northrop Grumman, CDI, General Dynamics, Fleet Readiness Center Southeast, LSI, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Army National Guard, Woods Group Pratt & Whitney, L-3 Communications –Titan Group, Department of Homeland Security - U.S. Coast Guard, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Jacksonville JetPort and Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection. The celebration wasn’t all about the past. The ceremony ended as Florida State College at Jacksonville and JAA broke ground on an Aircraft Services Educational Facility. The 104,000-square-foot aircraft painting facility will consist of one hangar bay capable of housing an aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 767 and two hangar bays capable of housing a Boeing 757 size aircraft in addition to shop, office, and other space set aside for the educational component. The $20 million complex is being funded by JAA and Florida State College at Jacksonville and will provide about 200 new jobs when it opens in the fall of 2010. Flightstar Aircraft Services, a current tenant at Cecil, will operate the facility. In addition, the JAA will be celebrating the near completion of a new 22,500 square-foot aircraft hangar. This hangar will be the third new hangar built at Cecil Field since the JAA took ownership of the facility 10 years ago. With easy access to air and rail connections and a deepwater port, Cecil Field's facilities are ideally suited for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations and a variety of aviation-related industrial and commercial development. Cecil Field provides an effective base of operations for corporate aircraft, general aviation, air cargo and governmental aviation activity. The airport assets include four runways with full length parallel taxiways, 40 major buildings totaling 1.5 million square feet including hangar, warehouse, industrial and general-use space, and 537,000 square yards of aircraft parking apron. To view photos of this event, visit the city’s photo sharing site at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34206377@N08/sets/ |
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Mark your calendar for Saturday, December 5, 2009 from 1-5 p.m. to tour a century of sanctuaries in one afternoon. Begin at the Main Library and stroll through the streets of Downtown with family and friends and explore. Church staff will be available at each of the ten historic churches to share the architectural and historical highlights on this self-guided tour. While several churches are within walking distance, trolley service is provided along the tour route, and is included in the ticket price.
Juliette's Bistro 
Thanksgiving weekend is full of events in Downtown, including the 
Dos Gatos
The Trust for Public Land has initiated a survey to gather information about how Jacksonville residents want to use the St. Johns River and Jacksonville's waterfront, including recreational activities and areas of interest along the river. Don't miss this opportunity to share your vision for the St. Johns River!
Hemming Plaza will be bustling with River Music's "A Christmas to Remember," a candlelight sing-along at 7 and 8 p.m. Enjoy horse and carriage rides around the Plaza courtesy of the City of Jacksonville Office of Special Events, and check off your holiday gift list with art from more than 50 local artists. Catch a family-favorite Christmas movie at Snyder Memorial Church and meet Santa and Mrs. Claus at Visit Jacksonville. The new 229 N. Hogan Gallery features its first custom toy show, "Designers in Toyland." Art and toys come together in the spirit of Christmas during the "Tattoos-4-Tots" fundraiser, featuring henna tattoos and body painting by The Henna Princess at Cafe 331. Step into jolly old England for a not-so-traditional British Christmas full of new artwork and live local music at London Bridge Eatery & Pub. 
