Solera Holdings LLC, a Texas-based venture that provides data and software services to the auto insurance industry, said May 23 that new space in the Prominence office park will open in September and employ 300 people, with additional work-from-home opportunities.
The Bloomberg news service said that through its subsidiaries, Solera Holdings provides the services to the automobile insurance claims processing industry, collision repair facilities, independent assessors and automotive recyclers. It serves customers worldwide.
Solera already maintains its AutoPoint company within the Prominence office park, which is in the Baymeadows area of Jacksonville.
JLL Managing Director Michael Loftin, who represents the Prominence landlord, said AutoPoint will relocate within the park to the larger Solera space.
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.
Loftin said Solera will lease the entire third floor of Prominence 100 with the move targeted for the fourth quarter.
He referred questions about the operations to company representatives.
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.
“The office will perform a multitude of functions, including supporting our customer engagement center. The office will also support IT (engineering) operations, marketing, product operations, and Solera’s facilities,” Solera said May 23.
Solera, based in Westlake near Fort Worth, said why it chose Jacksonville for the center.
“The Jacksonville area provides a great quality of life for our employees. Florida consistently ranks as one of the best areas to live in the country,” it said.
“With reasonable taxes and cost of living, the Jacksonville area provides Solera the ability to recruit and develop top talent for its growing workforce. Many of Solera’s customers also run operations in the area, which facilitates our ability to connect in-person and foster stronger partnerships,” it said.
“Solera is thrilled and honored to join the Jacksonville community.”
Solera Holdings did not comment yet on how many employees AutoPoint has or how many employees might be added with the move.
It also did not address 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 that provides managerial oversight of the organization’s real estate and facilities.
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.”
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.
“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,” Cairo said in that release.
According to Bloomberg.com, Solera Holdings Inc. operates as a holding company.
Those holdings include AutoPoint, LoJack, DealerSocket, RedCap, Identifix, Audatex, Omnitracs, eDriving/Mentor, Explore, CAP HPI, Autodata, and others.
The Bloomberg 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.
Solera said it serves more than 300,000 global customers and partners in more than 100 countries. The website is solera.com.
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 says Solera Holdings’ 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.
AutoPoint operates at 8375 Dix Ellis Trail, Building 600, Suite 400, in the Prominence park.
The space size there is less than that identified at the new location. One floor at the building appears to be about 27,000 square feet of space, smaller than the build-out space at the next Solera project.
It’s not clear how much space AutoPoint leases now.
In March 2017, the city approved a permit for Emerald C’s Development Inc. to build-out almost 16,000 square feet of space at the Dix Ellis Trail address for AutoPoint.
AutoPoint says its dealership and service center software brings together “every service necessary for providing unmatched automotive customer service” for dealerships and equipment manufacturers.
AutoPoint was founded in 2003 to create technology tools for dealership service departments. Solera Holdings Inc. bought it in 2014.
AutoPoint had been leasing space in nearby Deerwood Center and previously operated as DMEautomotive.
Solera Holdings also bought DME.
In 2016, AutoPoint, DME and TitleTec — all automotive technology providers — integrated to create AutoPoint as a single brand.
Solera was founded in 2005. It went public in 2007 and then became private in 2016 in a $6.5 billion transaction backed by investors including Vista Equity Partners, Koch Industries and Goldman Sachs.