Harry Frisch, the 89-year-old chairman of Beaver Street Fisheries Inc., predicts the Jacksonville Jaguars will sell out tickets at EverBank Field under the franchise ownership of Shad Khan.
"In three to four years, every seat is going to be sold out," Frisch said Thursday after a Junior Achievement of North Florida event in which he presented Khan its top honor, the Thompson S. Baker "Solid as a Rock" Award.
Frisch encouraged Jacksonville area residents to support the team and to understand that Khan not only will turn the Jaguars into a winning franchise but also will rejuvenate the area.
"I am praying to the good lord I live that long that I can say 'I told you so,'" Frisch said.
"The man has a vision. The man has a heart," said Frisch, who said Khan moved to the United States to seek a better life and opportunities, as did Frisch.
Both were immigrants. Frisch moved to Jacksonville in 1953 with his wife and two young sons. Khan came to the U.S. in 1967 as a 16-year-old college student from Pakistan.
Frisch accepted the Thompson S. Baker Award in 2012 in recognition of his leadership at Beaver Street Fisheries Inc. Frisch built Beaver Street Fisheries, based along West Beaver Street near Downtown, from a fresh fish market into an international seafood and meat distributor.
As a teenager, Frisch and his brother escaped Austria in 1938 to avoid the invading Nazis. In a Daily Record interview in 2011, he said he lost most of his family in the Holocaust. He and his brother escaped to Czechoslovakia and then to what is now Israel and served in the Israeli army.
Frisch married his wife, Lilo, in 1948. They immigrated to the United States in 1953 from Israel with their two young sons to join his mother and step-father, who ran Beaver Street Fisheries.
Junior Achievement remarked in its award information in 2012 that Frisch has worked with four generations to develop Beaver Street Fisheries into a company with a half-billion dollars in sales.
Frisch also leads the Beaver Street Foundation, a charitable organization that supports many nonprofits.
Khan acquired and expanded Illinois-based Flex-N-Gate Corp. and bought the Jaguars for $770 million in January 2012 from Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver and their ownership group. The team began playing in 1995.
The Jaguars ended the 2012 season at 2-14.
In 18 years, the Jaguars had seven winning seasons, nine losing seasons and 8-8 records for two.
Frisch said the Jaguars' once-a-season game in London the next four years as well as Khan's global business connections will pay off for Jacksonville economic development.
"People in Europe are going to invest in Jacksonville," Frisch said.
Frisch said Jacksonville historically has not suffered from floods or tornados like other parts of the country and that Hurricane Dora in 1964 was the last major storm.
"Jacksonville is going to be one of the finest cities in the United States," Frisch said.
Khan's international connections and his focus on the area's economic development, most evident by his ownership of the Jaguars, will help Jacksonville, Frisch said.
Khan also has been investing in area businesses and deals, such as financing the $3 million acquisition of the Laura Street Trio and old Barnett Bank Building Downtown for redevelopment.
He also is interested in redeveloping the Shipyards property on the Northbank riverfront near the sports complex.
Khan also has backed L&J Diesel Service Inc., which specializes in fuel injection innovation and manufacturing in the diesel industry.
Khan is president of Stache Investments Corp., which made a $1.05 million mortgage and security agreement on June 10 to L&J Diesel Service.
L&J Diesel paid $1.1 million for property at 2345 Harper St. in West Jacksonville. Records show L&J Diesel bought a 24,850-square-foot office-warehouse on about 2.2 acres.
"For him, it is an honor to do something for Jacksonville," Frisch said.
Junior Achievement of North Florida called Khan "the embodiment of the America Dream."
Since owning the Jaguars, "he has been a source of energy and pride for the entire Jacksonville community as he oversees a total rebirth of the franchise, from the product on the field to the game experience for fans and much more," the group said in its awards program.
Khan is the president and owner of Flex-N-Gate, which employs more than 17,000 people at 52 manufacturing plants and nine product development and engineering facilities around the world, the program outlines.
Forbes reported that Flex-N-Gate had 2012 sales of $3.9 billion, up from $3.4 billion.
The Jaguars Foundation made more than $1 million in grants last year to programs serving children and families, said the program.
Junior Achievement began 50 years ago to bring financial literacy, workforce preparation and entrepreneurship programs to young people.
Remember the tolls?
The Florida Department of Transportation wants to take down the Hart Bridge toll plaza, which remains after Duval County voters approved a sales tax increase in 1989 to do away with tolls.
Agent Connelly & Wicker Inc. is asking the St. Johns River Water Management District whether it needs a permit to remove the toll plaza and the adjacent parking area.
JU building health sciences building, renovating dining hall
Jacksonville University applied for the building permit to construct the $5.9 million College of Health Sciences building at the 2800 University Blvd. N. campus.
Plans show a two-story, 29,800-square-foot building. No contractor was listed. Dasher Hurst Architecture is the architect.
The building is the centerpiece of the $85 million ASPIRE campaign to raise funds for campus improvements. The new building should open in August 2014 and is part of a larger, $20 million plan to expand the College of Health Sciences facilities and programs.
JU also has announced that Christine Sapienza, who starts July 1 as associate dean of the college, will roll out JU's speech-language pathology advanced-degree programs. She said the new space means JU's new Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders will be positioned to offer the most rigorous curriculum in the area.
JU also applied for a permit to renovate the dining hall. The $100,000 project encompasses almost 10,000 square feet of space and includes a relocated dessert bar and the pizza/pasta, deli and soups, vegetarian, diner comfort grill, relocated salad bar and dining areas.
Sodexo operates the dining facilities. The contractor is shown as Jewel of the South of Conyers, Ga., and the designer is Brown Design Group of Atlanta.
Prometric expanding in Jacksonville
The City is reviewing plans to renovate 2,859 square feet of space at 8081 Philips Highway, No. 21 for Prometric.
Prometric provides testing for more than 400 organizations worldwide. It provides testing for qualifications, certifications, school entrance exams and professional development.
Spokesman Kevin Kane said Prometric is expanding its business in Jacksonville in cooperation with its local partner, JOME Inc.
"Our partner test center at 8081 Philips Highway will undergo renovations, and we expect the expanded facility to open on Aug. 9," Kane said in an email.
Lighthouse Construction of North Florida LLC is the contractor for the $60,000 project.
"There is a strong interest in knowledge and skill assessment in Florida, and Prometric delivers more than 200,000 exams throughout the state per year, including Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) and Graduate Record Exam (GRE) exams," said the email from Kane, senior manager of corporate communications and global marketing with Prometric, based in Baltimore, Md.
Prometric says it is a wholly owned subsidiary of ETS and provides testing and assessment. It says it supports candidates worldwide who take close to 10 million tests annually with Prometric.
Prometric has corporate offices in more than 15 locations around the world.
"At Prometric, we administer more than 10 million exams to test takers each year – delivering tests every day of the week, any week of the year, in approximately 10,000 individual testing centers in more than 160 countries," it says.
Prometric says it has 2,000 employees and 400 clients in 160 countries. It has 10,000 testing centers and delivers 10 million tests a year.
It services clients in academic examinations, corporate testing and assessment, financial service licensing, health care licensing, information technology certification, professional licensure and certification, and state and federal government testing.
Meanwhile, HCI Spectrum LLC bought the property June 10 from Transamerica Life Insurance Co. for $4.25 million.
HCI Spectrum took out a $3.35 million mortgage June 10 from EverBank.
The Spectrum is a two-building office property on about 8.2 acres.
Building 1 is about 64,000 square feet and Building 2 is about 42,500 square feet.
Chase construction OK'd at Beach & Hodges
The City approved the construction permit for U.S. General Construction to build the Chase branch with four remote drive-thru teller lanes at 13520 Beach Blvd.
The permit shows a project cost of $900,000 for the construction of the 2,548-square-foot building.
Three Chase branches already have been approved for construction at 4372 Southside Blvd., 1661 Riverside Ave. and 6012 San Jose Blvd.
The Daily Record reported May 20 that JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it would open more than a dozen bank branches in the Jacksonville market in the next 18 months. It said it would start construction immediately on branches at the initial three locations, which are expected to open in mid-October.
LUSH opening within weeks
Jacksonville's first LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics store should open in early July, before July 4, at St. Johns Town Center. The company sent an email that the store, in a corner space next to True Religion, will be one of more than 176 stores in North America and one of more than 800 stores worldwide. Calling itself a "veritable beauty delicatessen," the company said the second LUSH in Jacksonville should open later this summer at The Avenues mall.
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