Topic: Living Here

St. Johns County will deliver more than 100 affordable housing units by 2022

Posted on September 26, 2020

Several affordable housing projects planned by St. Johns County have quietly been progressing in recent months. And between two of the three complexes, residents could see more than 100 units of low-to-moderate income units ready for occupancy by 2022.

A project planned for State Road 207 and another in Hastings make use of more than $30 million the county received in federal disaster relief funds following Hurricane Matthew in 2016. County officials were able to fit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant grant under the heading of storm-related improvements as both projects will include
hurricane shelter space.

One development, tentatively named San Marcos Heights, is slated for construction at 127 Adair Rd., along the north side of S.R. 207, not far from the intersection at Kings Estate Road.

The County has allocated $15 million toward the total estimated cost of $20.7 million; the balance will be paid by the developer, and in the end it will encompass 132 multi-family units on 15 acres of land.

According to the terms set down by county officials, a minimum of 51% of those units must meet HUD’s guidelines for iow-moderate Income, which will mean between $400 to $900 in monthly rent, depending on square footage, according to Joy Andrews, deputy county administrator for St. Johns County.

Andrews, who is leading the county’s effort to increase affordable housing, said the Planning and Zoning Agency recently voted to recommend rezoning the site to Planned Unit Development. Once final approvals are in place, construction is expected to begin soon after, with an anticipated completion date of the end of 2022.

The other project that will take advantage of county-received disaster relief funds is planned for the intersection of East Essex Road and Beaman Avenue in Hastings. The complex would include 80 multifamily rental units, with half of them at low-to-moderate rate and the other half at market value.

The county will cover about $15 million of the $23 million total cost, with the developer picking up the rest of the tab. Turnstone Development Corporation was selected as the development partner, and Andrews said she expected the County to finalize the contract within days.

The proposed project includes walking trails, landscaping and amenities such as laundry facilities and a social and family services center.
Construction is expected to begin in April 2021, with residential occupancy by November 2022.

For years, Home Again St. Johns, a nonprofit helping connect the county’s “economically homeless” to resources, has sought a way to add transitional housing to its site at 1850 S.R. 207.

Plans are in the works to finally make that happen, according to Andrews.

The Board of County Commissioners will review a land swap agreement for consideration at its Oct. 20 meeting. The deal involves the trade of the 13-plus acres owned by the local Salvation Army on which Home Again currently operates a drop-in center.

Andrews said the property has already been rezoned to allow for use as an affordable housing complex to serve disadvantaged and indigent members of the local population.

The Salvation Army has agreed to sell their property at S.R. 207 to the County for $1.15 million, plus the County-owned parcel located at 1425 Old Dixie Highway for a total value of $1.7 million. Additional funding will come from the County’s affordable housing trust fund.

Details about how the complex will be run— including whether Home Again will continue to be a presence at the site — are still being worked out, according to Andrews.

When asked who the target demographic for these county-planned affordable housing units was, Andrews said, depending on the monthly rental rates, tenants might include displaced elderly, young adults starting out, or struggling families.

“With unemployment rates up due to COVID, it could be a lot of people,” Andrews added. While attempts to bridge any of the gap in an economic disparity of housing options in the county are admirable to Bill Lazar, the director of the St. Johns Housing Partnership is also realistic.

“What’s ‘affordable’ for some, is not for some of our working class here,” Lazar said. That’s because even rental units that are 50% of the county’s median income are still out of reach for many, and in part that is due to the impact fees developers have to pay to get projects off the ground and then recoup in rental rates passed on to tenants, Lazar said.

If employers, especially those in the service industry, cannot start paying their staff more in wages they will be hard pressed to fill certain skilled positions because those employees will not want to commute out of county if they cannot afford to live in St. Johns.

Lazar also said that if rents continue to remain high, those who want to save up for their first home will not be able to.

By Colleen Michele Jones, St. Augustine Record, Sept. 26, 2020

Republican National Convention Showcases Jacksonville’s “Open For Business” Mentality

Posted on June 12, 2020

Preparations are underway in the Jacksonville region for the 2020 Republican National Convention. Jacksonville was selected to host the celebratory aspects of the convention, highlighted by President Donald Trump’s acceptance of the party’s nomination in Jacksonville’s VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

The convention is estimated to have an economic impact of $100 million, but it will show value to the region long after the convention is gone. Tens of thousands of people from across the country will not only have the opportunity to experience Northeast Florida’s quality of life, business-friendly environment and talent-rich workforce but see the Jacksonville region as a viable destination for business growth and expansion.

The RNC mentioned Jacksonville’s strong interest in hosting the convention and willingness to support an event of this scale as key determinants in their selection process. Jacksonville was the first city to host a major sporting event since the start of the pandemic – UFC 249 in May – which brought to the forefront the region’s ability to move quickly and support high impact events.

With a seven-county region and an infrastructure able to support the influx of visitors, Jacksonville is well suited to play host to one of the key events on this year’s political calendar. To date, city officials have secured more than 10,000 hotel rooms across the Jacksonville metropolitan area and are coordinating with lodging, event and entertainment properties throughout Northeast Florida.

Even with the influx of people to the region for the event, Jacksonville is prepared to provide a safe environment for both visitors and convention participants. As one of the first areas in the country to open back up safely, Jacksonville is well on pace in its return to normal.

The selection of Jacksonville as a host city for the Republican National Convention shows that Jacksonville is open for business and dedicated to helping organizations of all shapes and sizes move forward.

JAXUSA Launches New Video Targeting Business Expansion

Posted on February 27, 2020

Today, JAXUSA Partnership unveiled a new video to showcase the seven-county region’s appeal for business development, job creation and investment to national and international C-Suite executives, business decision-makers and site consultants. It highlights the region’s five target industries, benefits of doing business, education, low cost of living, cities and towns, infrastructure and more that give credence to why Northeast Florida is one of the fastest growing regions in the country.

The 2 ½ minute video also places heavy emphasis on the waterways and the people that contribute to region’s success. The current and future workforce is featured enjoying the work-life balance, advancement opportunities and quality of life that makes the region home.  For these reasons and so many others, the region is growing, claiming the top spot in the Emsi Talent Attraction Scorecard and seeing population growth at a faster rate than the U.S. average.

Produced by Kennetic Productions, the video connects the message through an original poem written and performed by Jacksonville artist Roderick Borisade.

 

 

Regional Opportunity Zones Offer Abundance of Economic Benefits

Posted on August 19, 2019

Designed to spur economic development and job creation, Opportunity Zones are valuable investment tools for private investors as they provide tax incentives on new development opportunities and strengthen local areas with an influx of capital dollars and investment.

The federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 established the ability for zones to be created across the country to incite private development by deferring certain taxes, most notably, the capital gains tax. Designation of Opportunity Zones is based on several factors including an analysis of poverty rates, population, unemployment rates and other economic indicators.

There are more than 30 designated Opportunity Zones throughout the region providing many real estate, commercial and business development opportunities for investors. To showcase the region’s investment potential of Opportunity Zones, JAXUSA Partnership is hosting an Opportunity Zones Conference and Marketplace on Aug. 22 at Florida State College of Jacksonville.

National economic development and community experts from Madison Street Strategies and Carras Community Investment, Inc. will highlight the economic benefits of Opportunity Zones and the ability to reinvest unrealized capital gains in Opportunity Funds. Local regional experts will highlight real estate and business development opportunities found throughout the region.

Other featured conference speakers include representatives from T. Brown Consulting Group, Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Greenberg Traurig, City of Jacksonville Mayor’s Office, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, GrayRobinson, Hospitality Ventures Management and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration, where they will be discussing other important aspects of Opportunity Zones.

Being Smarter on Transportation Technologies and Strategies

Posted on August 8, 2019

Smart sensor technology, autonomous vehicles, operational intelligence software development and a regional data exchange represent some of the innovation advancing efforts to make Jacksonville and Northeast Florida a smart region.

JAXUSA Partnership recently hosted a panel of leading experts to discuss ongoing collaborative projects using real-time data and other smart-centric technology to solve community problems like transportation. The panel, moderated by RS&H Vice President Morgan County, featured commentary from Transportation Authority (JTA) CEO Nat Ford, North Florida Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Executive Director Jeff Sheffield and JEA CEO Aaron Zahn.

North Florida TPO Executive Director Jeff Sheffield discussed its “Smart North Florida” initiative that allows a public parking management program in St. Augustine in St. Johns County to collect payments via smartphone apps to improve efficiency for drivers and the city, as well as its pavement analytics project in Clay County that utilizes sensors to best determine what roads need surfacing.

Sheffield also shared that a regional open data exchange went live in June that allows government agencies and companies to share information like pedestrian and vehicle flow rates using GIS mapping.

JTA CEO Nat Ford outlined the transportation authority’s efforts to create the first autonomous vehicle transit network in the United States as part of its work on Downtown Jacksonville’s Bay Street Innovation Corridor. JTA’s autonomous vehicle test track is supporting four driverless vehicles, which affects the authority’s plan to retrofit the Downtown Skyway monorail system into an elevated roadway for autonomous public transit.

Through work on its Bay Street test track, JTA is developing minimum specifications for autonomous vehicles and is releasing those to manufacturers and the U.S. and Florida Departments of Transportation that can position JTA as an early adopter of autonomous vehicle technology.

While JEA is not directly involved in transportation, CEO Aaron Zahn discussed how employees at the public energy and water utility designed augmented operational intelligence software to track water and sewer flows to limit the number of overflows in storm conditions that can affect transportation infrastructure.

Smart North Florida is working with these regional partners and many others, including JAXUSA Partnership, on projects using smart technologies and strategies that can further improve our region’s economic competitiveness, sustainability and quality of life.

Region’s Top-Rated School Districts Receive High Scores

Posted on July 25, 2019

Developing the workforce of the future is essential to growth and long-term prosperity. Quality schools, learning facilities and talent development are integral components in our strategy to supporting the region and its businesses.

The Jacksonville region is home to some of the highest performing school districts in the state, according to recently released district and school grades from the Florida Department of Education. Five of our county school districts – Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau and St. Johns – are in the Top 25 Florida school districts, with St. Johns holding its ranking as the #1 K-12 public school district in Florida.

Of our region’s K-12 schools, 129 received an “A” grade. School grades are compiled based on components including achievement, learning gains, graduation rate and college and career acceleration.

Our area’s colleges and universities also work together to fill the region’s higher education needs. In downtown Jacksonville, a higher education corridor has developed as Jacksonville University, University of North Florida and Florida State College of Jacksonville opened new education facilities and tailor some of their programs to the local business community.

JAXUSA Partnership recently hired VP of Talent Development Anna Lebesch, a longtime education and workforce development executive, to lead talent recruitment and development for the region. When commenting on the region’s education offerings, Lebesch states, “We have everything in place to continue to build on our strengths as a region and work to ensure everyone in our community has an opportunity to succeed.”

Winning on Business Recruitment

Posted on July 16, 2019

Positive momentum in the recruitment of worldwide businesses is occurring in Jacksonville. More and more companies are discovering our region’s distinguishing strengths and assets that enable their operations to grow and be successful.

In a recent article, JAXUSA Partnership President Aundra Wallace highlighted a few of the characteristics and aspects that attract companies to our area as they discover Jacksonville is an ideal location for relocation or expansion.

All target industries are experiencing growth, but especially our IT & innovation career fields, particularly those areas related to data security and analytics. Companies and workers value our low labor costs, low cost of living and access to a skilled talent pool graduating from the region’s renowned K-12 schools and institutions of higher learning, validating Jacksonville’s recent recognition of being named a Top 10 Emerging Tech City by Site Selection Group.

In the interview, Wallace pinpoints JAXPORT, one of the fastest-growing ports in the country, as a major economic attractor for companies, particularly in the manufacturing and transportation/logistics sectors. E-commerce company Wayfair broke ground on a Jacksonville distribution center earlier this year with the intent to utilize the port for its global shipping and distribution capabilities.

Wallace also shared how international businesses have strong interest in our region, especially when companies participate in foreign direct investment in the area. Our Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) spans the entire seven-county region and helps companies doing business internationally reduce the cost of operations and function more efficiently. Our FTZ is the largest of Florida’s 21 FTZs based on a combined value of import/export trade.

Our skilled workforce and talent pipeline further contribute to the attractiveness of our area and entice potential company interest.

Financial Nearshoring Proves Successful in Jacksonville Region

Posted on June 28, 2019

More than 20 major banks, insurance and investment services firms on Forbes’ Global 500 list have a presence in the Jacksonville region. In addition, several other global and regional financial services organizations make up what Financial Times referred to as “an emerging finance powerhouse.”

With this week’s announcement, add one more to that growing list. Wildermuth Advisory, an established investment firm, recently chose to move its headquarters from Atlanta to Ponte Vedra. The company’s CEO cited many reasons why they selected Jacksonville including the area’s existing large financial sector presence and lower cost of living compared to traditional markets.

Deutsche Bank has served as one of the biggest success stories of nearshoring its operations to Jacksonville when it shifted jobs traditionally only found on Wall Street to the area. In 2008, Deutsche Bank chose Jacksonville for a 100-employee single-function operations center due to the city’s corporate-friendly tax structure, low operating costs and quality of life. Today, the two Jacksonville campuses of Deutsche Bank have grown to 2,250 employees across all divisions including corporate finance, global markets, fintech/IT and cybersecurity.

Australian-based financial services company Macquarie Group has experienced similar success to its workforce and operations in their downtown Jacksonville office with 120 jobs in 2015 to 225 today. Jacksonville is also the global headquarters of Florida Blue; TIAA Bank; Fidelity National Financial; Black Knight, Inc.; and FIS, a global financial services company, which recently announced its $43 billion acquisition of secure payment processing company Worldpay that will further bolster the company’s significant local presence.

Other leading financial services companies including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, CIT and JPMorgan Chase also continue to increase their local operations as Jacksonville attracts more talent to the area and grows its labor force, which is happening at an exponential rate.

According to recently released U.S. Census Reports, the Jacksonville MSA is growing at a rate faster than United States. In 2018, Jacksonville’s metro population grew 2 percent over the previous year, making it the 6th fastest growing large metro of at least 1 million residents.

Forbes Showcases Jacksonville As Active, Enjoyable Destination

Posted on April 25, 2019

Jacksonville offers a wonderful quality of life with many great attributes that make our region so inviting. From our 1,100+ miles of waterways with 22 miles of beaches to having the largest urban park system in the country, our area has something to entice anyone.

Forbes recently showcased the city in an article titled “How to Spend an Active Weekend in Jacksonville, Florida” that featured a variety of the area’s healthy pursuits and active adventures.

Some of the featured activities include taking surfing lessons from the Saltwater Cowgirls at Jacksonville Beach, doing Paddleboard High Intensity Training (PHIT) from Kayak Amelia and biking along the 15-mile Jacksonville Baldwin Rail Trail.

Jacksonville also offers a variety of eateries and restaurants to suit any taste. The article suggests breakfast at the Omni Hotel’s Juliette’s restaurant that offers a “Light & Healthy” option on the menu, and having lunch or dinner at Black Sheep, led by Chef Jonathan Insetta, one of Jacksonville’s biggest restaurateurs.

If you want to treat yourself to a flight of spirits, then visit Jacksonville’s new all-organic craft distillery, Manifest Distilling, which uses a copper pot-column hybrid still to create small batch potato vodka, gin, whiskey and rye.

More information on Jacksonville’s active adventures can be found at Forbes.

Area Hospitals Plan for Future with Growth & Expansions

Posted on April 15, 2019

Healthcare is a leading industry in the region with local hospitals acting as trailblazers, attracting medical tourists and serving as large employers in the area.

Many of the area’s hospitals have recently expanded their campuses adding new specialties, extending their reach and looking towards the future.

St. Vincent’s Medical Center Serves the Community

Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit healthcare system, is the parent company of St. Vincent’s Medical Center. With 5,000 employees in the area, St. Vincent’s is growing rapidly and is looking for new talent.

In the past three years, St. Vincent’s has added more than 55 physicians and invested in its Clay County campus that was completed in 2013.

It is now building a heart and vascular pavilion at its Riverside location. The 54,000-square-foot pavilion will include 30 medical and surgical rooms along with 30 intensive care rooms that will primarily be used for patients with heart and vascular needs. The pavilion includes two nursing units devoted to caring for patients who undergo open-heart surgeries and other cardiovascular procedures.

For low-level illness and injuries, patients can video chat with a physician for a small fee. “St. Vincent’s On Demand,” launches from the hospital’s website and is a virtual doctor’s visit.

Baptist Health Ready to Grow with Jacksonville

Baptist Health is the largest health system in the community, with almost a third of all patients that go to a hospital in Jacksonville seeking services at one of Baptist Health’s locations.

There are three pillars the health system hopes to achieve moving forward. The first is becoming more comprehensive in clinical services offered through expanding behavioral health options. Growing the hospital regionally is the second and becoming more consumer responsive through embracing technological innovation is the third.

Following an extensive national search, Baptist Health recently selected a new president and CEO. Brett S. McClung, FACHE, is joining Baptist Health from Texas Health Resources, one of the largest faith-based, nonprofit health care systems in the United States, with 29 hospitals serving nearly 7 million people. He will assume the role in early July, succeeding Hugh Greene, FACHE, who has been with Baptist Health since 1989 and served as its CEO for the past 19 years.

UF Health Jacksonville Expands Vision

The first heart transplant in Northeast Florida was completed in the late ’90s by the medical complex known today as UF Health Jacksonville.

Over the next two decades, the hospital plans to work on a number of initiatives that could transform the area around its campus in the Springfield neighborhood. The hospital hopes to bring more food and shopping options to the area as well as workforce housing.

UF Health is looking regionally, as well, including opening a medical complex in Wildlight, a 2,900-acre master planned community in Nassau County, which should be completed later this year. The 42,000-square-foot facility will feature office and medical space for primary care using a patient-centered model focused on prevention and early diagnosis, urgent care staffed by emergency medicine faculty, imaging services, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, mental health services, dentistry and a laboratory.

UF Health is also working on improving metrics and creating a seamless healthcare experience with the help of an integrated electronic health record called “Epic.”

For more information, visit the Jacksonville Business Journal.