An incentives package that includes $21 million in city grants for a financial services company’s expansion in Jacksonville will be up for consideration by City Council.
On Oct. 7, the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee voted to allow the Office of Economic Development to file Council legislation on the incentives, which would go toward the company’s plans to invest up to $216 million in a new divisional headquarters in Jacksonville.
The MBRC vote puts the legislation on a path to introduction at the Oct. 22 Council meeting.
Project Paper Company, as it is code-named in an OED document, has a presence in Jacksonville and is looking to build headquarters for its national mortgage/technology division. The company plans to invest a minimum of $173 million over five years on construction, equipment and building improvements.
Ed Randolph, executive director of the OED, told MBRC members that the company also is considering Tampa, Atlanta and possibly Charlotte, North Carolina, as sites for its divisional headquarters.
According to the OED document, the company has more than 1,500 office employees and expects that number to grow by 500 over seven years.
The expansion will house both executive positions and front office staff. For the new jobs, the average annual salary with benefits is $125,000, with an average base of $100,000.
City incentives
The proposed city incentives comprise:
• A Recapture Enhanced Value grant of up to $10 million, based on 50% of the taxes generated by the project site for 13 years.
• A Job Creation Grant of up to $3 million for 500 new jobs the company is expected to create. The jobs will have an average annual base salary of $100,000, the document states.
• A Business Expansion Grant of $5 million, payable at $500,000 per year for 10 years starting on the sixth year after execution of an economic development agreement between the company and city.
• A Job Retention Grant of up to $3 million for maintaining the current 1,500 jobs.
The OED lists the return on investment for the city incentives at $1.01 for every $1 invested.
State incentives
The company also is seeking state incentives in the form of a High-Impact Performance Incentive award of $4 million and a Capital Investment Tax Credit of $120 million, or 100% of the state’s corporate tax liability for the company.
Financial service firms
Financial service companies that operate in Jacksonville include JPMorgan Chase & Co., whose CEO, Jamie Dimon, told the Daily Record that the company was looking to grow its branch network in the Jacksonville area and also to add back-office operations in addition to its large mortgage center.
JPMorgan employs about 1,700 people in Jacksonville and said it will hire 100 more for the new branches and other needs.
In 2022, Fidelity National Information Services Inc. opened its new $156 million headquarters on Riverside Avenue, for which the city and state provided $29.9 million in incentives. FIS employed about 1,200 people at that time and said it was 75% of the way toward adding 500 jobs, a commitment it made in its development agreement with the city.
Another firm in the mortgage business is Black Knight Inc., headquartered at 601 Riverside Ave., in Brooklyn near the FIS headquarters.
Citi, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America also have campuses in Jacksonville.