You don’t move a bull – or a statue of one – for no good reason.
The pending move of a Merrill Lynch bull statue signals that the Deerwood Park North campus the company occupies could be available for other use if any operations are relocated.
If so, that availability could be an option for Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which is establishing the headquarters of its mortgage technology division in Jacksonville.
ICE, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, bought Jacksonville-based Black Knight, a software, data and analytics company that serves the housing finance market, for $11.9 billion in 2023.
It owns the 327,000-square-foot Black Knight building at 601 Riverside Ave. in the Brooklyn area of Downtown Jacksonville.
Mayor Donna Deegan, JAXUSA Partnership President Aundra Wallace, Jacksonville City Council President Randy White and ICE Mortgage Technology Vice Chair Joe Nackashi announced the mortgage technology division headquarters Dec 17.
They did not announce the location.
Jacksonville City Council agreed Nov. 26 to $21 million in property tax refunds and cash grants for the deal, code-named Project Paper Company.
The deal retains more than 1,500 jobs and adds 500 over seven years.
Site decision
One expectation is that ICE would use the Black Knight space along Riverside Avenue.
Industry speculation also surfaced about the Merrill campus in Deerwood Park North in Southside as a potential ICE site.
Bank of America, which owns the Merrill investment and wealth management company, is steering the statue to the Bank of America campus at Gramercy Woods.
After the Dec. 17 news conference, city Chief Communications Officer Phil Perry mentioned the Deerwood area but said he did not know the site.
He referred questions to city Office of Economic Development Executive Director Ed Randolph, who said ICE is still working on choosing the location.
Randolph said he expects ICE and the mayor to sign the economic development agreement, which would specify the location, in a few weeks.
Wallace said ICE has to finish finalizing its plans, “and I’m going to leave it up to them to announce that whenever they decide. They’ve got multiple options.”
Wallace said what was most important was an agreement that Jacksonville will be the location for the ICE division.
“When we first started this, there were conversations about staying within the state but not Jacksonville,” Wallace said.
“Another city was on the landscape.”
Wallace said that over the past 25 months, Jacksonville was successful in showing ICE that the expansion didn’t need to be in another Florida city.
And they did that,” he said, “and they can do whatever they want to use all of the space there” at the Black Knight property.
Black Knight shared a building with Fidelity National Information Services Inc., or FIS, which moved nearby to its own structure.
That opens the door to more opportunity for ICE to expand there, Wallace said.
“I certainly hope this is the beginning of more,” Wallace said.
“During this respective project, it was really important for them to really, really be appreciated in Jacksonville.”
Further expansion is possible, but “that’s not something that they promised, but I certainly believe that if we do what we’re supposed to do, they will consider Jacksonville” for more jobs.
ICE and Bank of America media contacts did not respond immediately to emailed questions.
No bull at the Merrill campus
It’s unclear whether ICE would buy or lease, or already owns, its chosen site. The city legislation says the company plans at least a $173 million capital investment and possibly more than $216 million over five years in construction, equipment and building improvements.
The property appraiser’s office assesses the Merrill campus at $78.59 million for tax purposes. It comprises two properties totaling 52.23 acres.
Regardless, there is movement at the Merrill site.
The city is reviewing permits for Bank of America to move a Merrill Lynch bull statue from its Merrill campus at 4800 Deer Lake Drive E. to the bank’s campus 6 miles south at 9000 Southside Blvd. Infinity Engineering Group LLC of Tampa is the consultant and agent.
A new location for the bull statue signals a potential new address for Merrill.
Bank of America has been consolidating, expanding and upgrading its operations campus in the Gramercy Woods office park north of The Avenues mall. Industry observers say it makes sense to include Merrill’s operations.
Bank of America has owned Merrill Lynch, the former Merrill Lynch & Co. Wall Street investment firm, for almost 16 years.
Since the 2009 acquisition, Merrill operates as the bank’s wealth management division.
Merrill and Bank of America operate in four buildings, totaling almost 579,000 square feet of space, and two two-level parking garages in Deerwood Park North, at northeast Butler and Southside boulevards.
A 32.98-acre parcel comprises three buildings comprising 452,873 square feet and a garage.
A 19.25-acre parcel has a 125,918-square-foot building and a garage.
There also appears to be land available for construction on the smaller parcel.
That amount of office space could accommodate at least 2,600 workers, which is more than ICE’s pledge to retain the existing 1,500 Black Knight jobs in Jacksonville and create 500 more.
The city is reviewing permit applications for Bank of America to demolish the foundation for the bull statue at 4800 Deer Lake Drive E. at a cost of $9,250 and install a foundation for one at 9000 Southside Blvd. at $27,750.
Merrill Lynch developed the structures in 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1998, adding the garages in 1998 and 2007, according to the Duval County Property Appraiser.
It was a big deal in 1991 when Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. announced plans to build a 160,000-square-foot operations center in Jacksonville, in a move expected to create up to 800 jobs in the area.
It has since expanded.