Solera Holdings LLC, a Texas-based venture that originates and funds customer financing, appears to be setting up a regional facility in the Prominence office park in the Baymeadows area of Jacksonville.
The city is reviewing a permit application for Solera Jacksonville for tenant build-out of 40,230 square feet of space on the third floor at 8900 Prominence Parkway. Plans indicate office and administrative workspace and break, training and meeting rooms.
No contractor is listed for the estimated $3 million project. Praxis3 of Atlanta is the architect.
No job count is indicated, but one plan says total occupants could be 331.
In what could be a related move, Solera Holdings LLC announced in March it was rolling out Solera Auto Finance, describing it as an integrated financing solution that will enable franchise and independent dealers to provide competitive-rate auto loans to the full spectrum of used car buyers.
Solera Auto Finance of Florida LLC, of Westlake, Texas, registered a fictitious name with the state Feb. 16 to do business in Florida.
Solera Auto Finance LLC, of Roanoke, Texas, registered May 11. Both Texas cities are north of Fort Worth.
Albert Cairo, Solera managing director of vehicle and fleet solutions (USA), is a manager of both LLCs.
Solera has posted several job openings for Jacksonville in recent weeks.
One was for a regional facilities manager.
The position provides managerial oversight of the organization’s real estate and facilities.
“The Regional Facilities Manager has overall responsibility for the implementation of various procedures and programs that will assure well-managed, well-maintained buildings and facilities,” it says.
“The position is the primary liaison with the business and leads the coordination of services, finance and procurement responsibilities, vendor management, and various needs required to meet the needs and expectations of the facilities set by the team’s leadership and the business.”
Another posting was for a call center supervisor who “coaches, motivates, trains, develops and guide employee performance through a variety of mechanisms such as observations, metrics analysis and feedback devices from customers, peers, management, and others.”
It said, “The incumbent will ensure and help the team operate at (the) highest level of quality and productivity. While meeting these objectives, the supervisor must exhibit high levels of integrity and ethical behavior.”
Another posting is for a customer service representative for call center support that responds to in-bound, routine customer telephone inquiries regarding products, services, order status, and other general questions.
Under the regional manager posting, Solera said it is a global leader in data and software services “that strives to transform every touchpoint of the vehicle lifecycle into a connected digital experience.”
On March 11, Solera Holdings LLC announced it would unveil Solera Auto Finance at the National Automobile Dealers Association Show in Las Vegas.
“We believe Solera Auto Finance’s commercial value proposition for franchise and independent used car dealers will positively impact the automotive industry,” Cairo said in the release.
“Solera Auto Finance provides our dealer customers with an integrated solution that creates a seamless journey for car buyers, accelerates the financing and funding processes, provides a superior car-buying experience, and reduces operating costs.”
The release said Solera Auto Finance provides franchise and independent dealers access to a “captive-like” financing solution “that rivals even the most prominent used car disrupters.”
“The big disrupters in the used car space have a distinct advantage over most franchise and independent dealerships. They own their own financing solution or have a captive financing solution,” the release said.
According to Bloomberg.com, Solera Holdings Inc., based in Westlake, operates as a holding company.
The news service said that through its subsidiaries, Solera Holdings provides data and software services to the automobile insurance claims processing industry, collision repair facilities, independent assessors, and automotive recyclers. It serves customers worldwide.
The website is solera.com.
The March 11 release said Solera Holdings is the leading global provider of integrated vehicle lifecycle and fleet management software-as-a-service, data, and services.
It says that through four lines of business – vehicle claims, vehicle repairs, vehicle solutions and fleet solutions – Solera is home to many leading brands in “the vehicle lifecycle ecosystem.”
Those include AutoPoint, LoJack, DealerSocket, RedCap, Identifix, Audatex, Omnitracs, eDriving/Mentor, Explore, CAP HPI, Autodata, and others.
Solera said it serves more than 300,000 global customers and partners in more than 100 countries.
“Today’s auto dealers need more flexible and intelligent financing solutions to sell vehicles. As a sales finance company, SAF integrates with the DMS and other dealer software solutions to deliver AI-powered decisioning and help dealerships increase profits and expedite funding.”
It says its AI-enabled technologies apply proprietary algorithms on vehicle, repair, performance and telematics data in the industry “to deliver actionable insights and streamlined workflows that accelerate business outcomes.”
Autoremarketing.com said March 14 that Solera Auto Finance initially will launch in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia and Washington, with plans to launch soon in more than a dozen more states.
Forbes.com summarizes Solera Holdings Inc. as providing software and services to the automobile insurance claims processing and decision support industries.
It says the company’s software and services help customers estimate the costs to repair damaged vehicles, determine pre-collision fair market values for vehicles damaged beyond repair, automate steps of the claims process, outsource steps of the claims process that insurance companies have historically performed internally, and monitor and manage their businesses through data reporting and analysis.
It says the company was founded in January 2005 by Tony Aquila.
According to news reports, in 2019, Aquila left Solera and alleged in a lawsuit that the company refused to honor its obligations to pay him for vested stock options worth more than $100 million.
Aquila alleged that after Vista Equity bought Solera in 2016 and became its controlling shareholder, Vista Equity failed to deliver on its promises to Solera and Aquila.
That suit was dismissed since Aquila and Solera agreed to resolve the matter through arbitration.