Author Topic: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?  (Read 22560 times)

vicupstate

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #45 on: December 20, 2012, 06:59:04 PM »
Jacksonville approved the incentives by Oct. 9 and St. Johns by Oct. 16, yet St. Johns was 'quicker'. 

On Oct. 9 the company had what they needed to move forward to go DT.  They were going to St. Johns regardless, probably because of free parking and a ready-made building.
 
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simms3

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #46 on: December 20, 2012, 07:17:26 PM »
What would be the advantage of Advanced Disposal being downtown anyway?  They wouldn't be a downtown office user in any other city, either.

Jacksonville needs to get smart here...it has lost a lot of its "downtown users" and the financial services sector down there is more back operation than downtown regional office.  There aren't many law firms or prominent architecture firms.

Perhaps the immediate future of downtown shouldn't revolve around office to begin with...maybe focusing on anything and everything else is more important.  Just because you have Everbank there now doesn't mean DT is going to come back.  those workers are there through incentives...so now they commute in and commute out.  Big deal.

Focus on the Landing and residential.  Small business growth...bring all the small business gurus from Avondale and Riverside and San Marco/Beaches into downtown, too.  Make it a cool place and somebody on the office side will eventually take note.  Problem is the office brokers in Jacksonville wield so much power...they still get paid if the city offers incentives.  Otherwise they aren't getting paid because deals are not happening.  Tough luck guys...sorry :(
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Jason

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #47 on: December 21, 2012, 10:35:42 AM »
All of their employees live around the 210 corridor?  That's too hard to imagine.

well, the higher-ups probably do.  Ponte Vedra is only a short drive away and most all of South Jax can reach the Nocatee area in under 20 minutes.

simms3

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #48 on: December 21, 2012, 11:10:49 AM »
The fact remains that their choices were seemingly between downtown office space not really suitable to their needs with higher rent/costs even with incentives/parking, or a foreclosed "class A" building in Nocatee, mostly furnished and a give away.  I doubt it had anything to do with which county acted faster or the location of its executives.  Advanced Disposal is a waste management company not unlike Waste Management...correct me if I'm wrong, but they aren't a typical downtown firm that needs downtown space and downtown incentives.  COJ should quit chasing ghosts.

I'm going to compile a list of all major accounting, banking, architecture, PR/marketing, law firms, etc etc active in the SE and where the nearest office is.  You'll find that Atlanta has everyone and a pretty thriving investment banking industry, hence all the trophy office buildings, and then Miami has a number, and then Charlotte has a few, but overall most cities in the south don't have the robust downtown office users that the larger cities have, and Jax is not in a position right now to start attracting them.  Nashville is adding hotel, residential and retail right now.  Not office space.

Time to focus on other things like retail, small business growth, and residential - easier to force this stuff to happen than to force Paul Hastings to bring 50 partners down from NYC to lease 100,000 SF in a trophy downtown office tower when they have no business being in Jax.
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MEGATRON

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #49 on: December 21, 2012, 11:35:19 AM »
Jacksonville approved the incentives by Oct. 9 and St. Johns by Oct. 16, yet St. Johns was 'quicker'. 

On Oct. 9 the company had what they needed to move forward to go DT.  They were going to St. Johns regardless, probably because of free parking and a ready-made building.
St. Johns took 4 days and had office space furnished and available for immediate use.  In Duval, any office space would have had to be renovated.  If Duval had wrapped it up earlier, ADS could have had space renovated in time for its move.
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MEGATRON

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #50 on: December 21, 2012, 11:39:13 AM »
What would be the advantage of Advanced Disposal being downtown anyway?  They wouldn't be a downtown office user in any other city, either.

Jacksonville needs to get smart here...it has lost a lot of its "downtown users" and the financial services sector down there is more back operation than downtown regional office.  There aren't many law firms or prominent architecture firms.

What on earth are you talking about?  No prominent law firms downtown?  The financial services downtown are no back operation.  Back operations offices tend more towards the southpoint area.  ADS would have brought somewhere in the neighborhood of 85 jobs with an average salary of $115K downtown.  You are nuts to discount getting the 4th largest waste management company in the country downtown.
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simms3

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #51 on: December 21, 2012, 11:57:09 AM »
^^^Foley & Lardner and Holland & Knight are the only top 100 law firms I can think of with offices in Jax.  That's a high avg salary, but do they need office space in a tower downtown?  Doesn't strike me as the sort of space they would want.  Besides, having more employees commute in and then commute out, regardless of their salary, won't be the DT renaissance we all want.  DT Dallas up until basically now has been one of the deadest downtowns in the country and has thousands of people making hundreds of thousands of dollars commuting in and out.  Austin, on the other hand, has much less office space, but has a thriving downtown thanks to the bars, hotels, condos/apts, students, etc.
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Tacachale

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #52 on: December 21, 2012, 12:04:25 PM »
Jacksonville approved the incentives by Oct. 9 and St. Johns by Oct. 16, yet St. Johns was 'quicker'. 

On Oct. 9 the company had what they needed to move forward to go DT.  They were going to St. Johns regardless, probably because of free parking and a ready-made building.
St. Johns took 4 days and had office space furnished and available for immediate use.  In Duval, any office space would have had to be renovated.  If Duval had wrapped it up earlier, ADS could have had space renovated in time for its move.

Yes, our incentives approvals process is far too slow and it needs to be fixed, stat. Though Nocatee was attractive for other reasons beyond just the incentives. It evidently had cheaper rates with a more eager landlord than their current setup, but had the same advantages over downtown. And I doubt it's much more inconvenient for their employees (or at least the higher ups) than their current location, let alone downtown.
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tufsu1

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #53 on: December 21, 2012, 03:37:59 PM »
^^^Foley & Lardner and Holland & Knight are the only top 100 law firms I can think of with offices in Jax. 

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downtownjag

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Re: Advanced Disposal HQ's to St Johns County?
« Reply #54 on: December 21, 2012, 07:53:12 PM »
^^^Foley & Lardner and Holland & Knight are the only top 100 law firms I can think of with offices in Jax.  That's a high avg salary, but do they need office space in a tower downtown?  Doesn't strike me as the sort of space they would want.  Besides, having more employees commute in and then commute out, regardless of their salary, won't be the DT renaissance we all want.  DT Dallas up until basically now has been one of the deadest downtowns in the country and has thousands of people making hundreds of thousands of dollars commuting in and out.  Austin, on the other hand, has much less office space, but has a thriving downtown thanks to the bars, hotels, condos/apts, students, etc.

Agreed that the Jax approach has to be to create a neighborhood rather than force business this way