Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the company best known as the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, will spend at least $173 million to locate the headquarters of its Mortgage/Technology Division in Jacksonville.
In a Dec. 17 announcement at the JAX Chamber offices, officials confirmed that ICE is the financial services provider code-named Project Paper Company in city documents related to a $21 million incentive package for the expansion.
Officials did not say where in Jacksonville the headquarters would be located.
In exchange for the incentives, ICE agreed to house its 1,500 current employees in Jacksonville and grow that workforce by 500 over seven years. The city said the new jobs will include front-office and executive positions paying an average base wage of $100,000. That compensation rises to $125,000 with benefits.
“Great day for Jacksonville,” City Council member Nick Howland said. “We’re retaining 1,500 jobs, bringing in an additional 500 jobs and I’m hearing rumors that there could be an extra 1,000 here as they grow and move divisions other than the Mortgage/Technology Division here.”
Mayor Donna Deegan said several cities competed to land ICE’s divisional headquarters, with Jacksonville winning out because of “our strong financial services sector and our employee base in the region, along with our friendly business climate that we always promote and a city incentives package that will give dividends to our local economy for many, many years.”
“The financial services industry will continue to grow by leaps and bounds in Jacksonville because we have international companies like ICE that are choosing to grow right here,” Deegan said.
ICE acquired Jacksonville-based Black Knight Inc. in September 2023 for $11.9 billion. In early 2024, ICE Chief Financial Officer Warren Gardiner told analysts that spending plans for 2024 included $100 million for new office space, expansion and improvements across offices in New York, London and Jacksonville.
Black Knight is a software, data and analytics company that serves the housing finance market, including real estate data, mortgage lending and servicing.
Joe Nackashi, former Black Knight CEO and now vice president of ICE Mortgage Technology, said ICE had already begun moving jobs into Jacksonville. Employees from Chicago, New York City, Boston and London have relocated to Northeast Florida, he said.
Council President Randy White said the agreement between the city and ICE took about two years to develop and was the result of collaboration between Deegan and city government leaders, the Council, the JAX Chamber and its economic development division, JAXUSA Partnership, and others.
It also involved the state of Florida, which agreed to provide the company with a High-Impact Performance Incentive of $4 million and a Capital Investment Tax Credit of 100% of the state’s corporate tax liability for the company.
Council passed legislation containing the incentives, Resolution 2024-0836, on an 18-1 in November 2024. Council member Rory Diamond, who regularly votes against incentives, cast the no vote.
At the lead of Howland and Council member Will Lahnen, the incentives were revised after being introduced. The changes, which involved reducing the percentage of so-called cash grants that are drawn from the city’s general fund, reflected concerns among Council members about the future budget impact of recent high-cost expenditures by the city for such items as the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium deal and compensation increases for police and firefighters.
Based on those expenditures and projections of modest increases in incoming tax revenue, the Council auditor’s office has projected budget deficits of up to $105 million over the next five years.
The revisions impelled by Howland and Lahnen lowered the amount of cash grants by $6 million while increasing the amount of Recapture Enhanced Value grant funding from $10 million to $16 million.
REV grants provide rebates on ad valorem tax value from property improvements, meaning the city gives up a portion of the tax revenue that would otherwise go into its general fund.
The finalized REV grant in ICE’s package is for 90% of the increased property revenue over 13 years.
The approved package raised the city’s return on investment of public funding from $1.01 per $1 to $1.17 per dollar,
“This whole thing shows that as a City Council, we can make a deal better for the city of Jacksonville by pushing back and asking more questions,” Lahnen said. “What led to it being deferred and ultimately renegotiated was the concern a number of us had over what would have been essentially $11 million streamed out of our operating reserves.”
Howland said he believed the agreement could be a model for upcoming incentives deals, with more weight being placed on REV grants.
“I think there will be a gradual move to shift cash grants to tax rebates, or, if that’s not possible, to push out the cash grants to be paid out over a longer period of years to relieve the burden on the city and the taxpayers.”
Renegotiating the deal carried the risk of ICE walking away, but Howland said he didn’t believe the negotiations would have come to that.
“The incentive came before Council at a very unique time when we’re looking forward and seeing the city’s finances potentially deep in the red,” he said. “So it came to us as how do we make this deal still attractive to ICE and still possible given the city’s potential economic issues. And basically, what we ended up doing is shifting a large burden of that incentive package to tax rebates, whereby shifting some of the risk to Project ICE for their investment. But they accepted it, being eager to grow in Jacksonville.”
The event drew seven Council members in addition to White, Lahnen and Howland, along with such local business leaders as JEA CEO and Managing Director Vickie Cavey and JTA CEO Nat Ford.
“For those of you who do not understand and recognize this, Jacksonville is a tech city,” JAXUSA President Aundra Wallace said in his closing remarks. “That’s why these companies are coming here.”
This story has been updated.