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Economic Yearbook 2007
NORTHEAST: Room for the Boom
The port is calling.
Jacksonville
ASIAN CONNECTION: The $200-million project by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) that will open direct shipping lines between Jacksonville and Asia is bringing boatloads of economic development to the city: Michaels Stores announced it will relocate its Southeast seasonal distribution center from Savannah, Ga., to Jacksonville as a result of MOL's facility; Bridgestone Firestone cited MOL in its decision to build a $44-million, 1 million-sq.-ft. distribution center on 63 acres at Cecil Commerce Center. The company will import tires from both Asia and Latin America to Jacksonville for retail distribution throughout the Southeast. The center is expected to employ 250 in three years.
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HOMEGROWN: Local companies, too, are expanding to take advantage: Caribbean Shipping Services, a logistics firm that ships goods around the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, called off its merger with a competitor, saying the Mitsui line allows it to expand on its own. The company plans a 100,000-sq.-ft. facility near the Mitsui terminal to handle new cargo; PSS World Medical already imports 5% of its supplies from Asia and now expects its Asia business to grow 25% a year. With the Jacksonville shipping line available, PSS plans to bring products destined for the Southeast through Jacksonville, where it is building a 168,500-sq.-ft. redistribution center.
Innovators
? School psychologist Laura L. Bailet, executive director of the Bright Start! Dyslexia Initiative at Nemours Children's Clinic, wants to build the program to screen every pre-K student in Duval County for dyslexia. Bailet, who has worked with dyslexic children and adults for 25 years, is convinced that helping families identify and overcome dyslexia can "help level the academic playing field for young, vulnerable learners."
? Antonio C. Barretto is vice president of finance at Votorantim Cimentos North America, a division of S?o Paulo-based Votorantim Group, one of Brazil's largest corporations. Barretto helped grow Votorantim's North American market, which included acquiring a 50% stake in Suwannee American Cement and control of S&W Materials, a Jacksonville concrete company. He's brought an international mix to Florida's cement operations, along the way helping to boost revenue at Votorantim's North American operation from $70 million to $200 million.
? Jacksonville banker Cleve E. Warren, president of Essential Capital, is new chairman of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, which is designing and building 32 major road projects in partnership with The Better Jacksonville Plan. But he may be most innovative for his philanthropic work. Warren grew up in Jacksonville, earned his degrees at UNF and Jacksonville University and now chairs the Eartha M.M. White Legacy Fund, pushing its mission to advance philanthropy in the African-American community.
