It could be just coincidence that the details of the unidentified Project Revere so closely match those of the SunGard expansion.
If so, there are some major coincidences.
The city’s development agreement for Project Revere, which seeks incentives through City Council Resolution 2015-780, specifies the creation of jobs will run concurrently with the new agreement and the prior agreement.
SunGard just happens to be adding jobs under a prior agreement, Resolution 2013-286. That agreement ends at the end of 2016. That deal went under the code name Project Visor.
Let’s take a look at previously reported similarities of Project Revere and SunGard.
Project Revere is called one of the world’s largest privately held software and technology services companies. SunGard Data Systems Inc. is privately held and calls itself one of the world’s leading financial software companies.
Project Revere is an expansion of a company’s operations in Jacksonville. SunGard operates in two locations on the Downtown Southbank and the city recently approved a permit for SunGard to add another floor of space at the Prudential Building on the Southbank.
Project Revere has committed to create 250 permanent full-time equivalent new jobs. SunGard’s additional space can accommodate 250-275 work positions.
Project Revere will add the jobs at a Downtown office space on the Southbank. SunGard occupies the 11th floor at the Prudential Building at 701 San Marco Blvd. and is expanding onto the 10th floor.
It also has space in the duPont Center along Prudential Drive, on the Southbank.
Project Revere pledges to keep 120 jobs it already has in Jacksonville. SunGard had 80 jobs when it began to expand under the 2013 deal, pledging to add 120 jobs by the end of this year. (It added 92 new jobs as of the end of 2014, almost a year ago. City records don’t reflect the 2015 additions to date.)
Back to the concurrent agreements, Project Revere refers to the unidentified prior agreement and the new agreement to run concurrently, and the city will monitor both.
With SunGard, the concurrent year would be 2016.
As for the jobs, SunGard’s prior agreement calls for 170 new jobs to be created in three years through year-end 2016 at an average salary of about $48,340 a year.
The new agreement with Project Revere calls for 250 jobs to be created by year-end 2020 at an average salary of $54,719.
Meanwhile, SunGard said in 2013 it anticipated a two-phase expansion and taking the extra floor at the Prudential Building. If it is Project Revere, that space could be part of the new deal.
As for incentives, SunGard was approved in 2013 for a city and state Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund of up to $1.02 million, based on the number of jobs created. The city is responsible for up to $204,000.
Project Revere requests city and state incentives of $1.83 million, including $1.25 million in QTI refunds.
The city would be responsible for $330,000, comprising up to $250,000 for QTI and $80,000 for a Recapture Enhanced Value grant.
The state would pick up the remaining $1 million in QTI and up to $500,000 in a training grant.
There’s also the matter of Wayne, Pa.-based SunGard’s pending acquisition by Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Information Services Inc. That deal is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
Would SunGard apply for incentives and an expansion in light of a merger? Project Revere makes room for that.
Its development agreement said that its use of the word “company” will include any parent, holding or subsidiary company or any other business related by virtue of a merger, purchase or acquisition by the company.
FIS has said it would immediately begin to integrate SunGard into its system upon the acquisition, but didn’t have insights into SunGard’s real estate perspective.
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