2008 Fortune 500 Release, Jacksonville with four

[Steve]

CSX - #261
Winn-Dixie - #347
Fidelity National Financial - #435
Fidelity National Information Services - #481

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/

[thelakelander]

Nice to see.  I had a feeling that Fidelity National Information Services would not make the list.

[Steve]

Nice to see.  I had a feeling that Fidelity National Information Services would not make the list.

They probably won't next year - FIS is splitting their operations into two companies.

[Driven1]

Charlotte, NC  - 8 (including one located in suburb of Matthews)
Columbus, OH - 7
Richmond, VA - 6
Cleveland, OH - 5
Orlando, FL - 4
Winston-Salem, NC - 3 (with one of them coming at #510)
Louisville, KY  - 2

[thelakelander]

Orlando only has 1 ( Darden Restaurants #415).

State of Florida (by Metro)

6 - Miami/Ft. Lauderdale (AutoNation, Office Depot, FPL, World Fuel Services, Lennar, Ryder System)
4 - Jacksonville (CSX, Winn Dixie, FNF, FIS)
2 - Tampa/St. Pete (Tech Data, Jabil Circuit)
1 - Orlando (Darden)
1 - Lakeland (Publix)

[fightingosprey07]

Charlotte, NC  - 8 (including one located in suburb of Matthews)
Columbus, OH - 7
Richmond, VA - 6
Cleveland, OH - 5
Orlando, FL - 4
Winston-Salem, NC - 3 (with one of them coming at #510)
Louisville, KY  - 2

Orlando has 4 in the fortune 1000, but only 1 in the fortune 500.

Tampa has zero (2 in the metro area, 1 in clearwater and 1 in st petersburg)

[RiversideGator]

Good news though.  We need to keep growing the local companies and bring in outside companies like Fidelity.  The best way to do this is for Tallahassee to lower tax and regulation burdens for free enterprises.  Had they done this sooner, companies like Bank of America might have been headquartered here rather than in a lesser city like Charlotte. 

[Driven1]

FYI...

BAC would've never been headquartered here...NationsBank was headquartered in Charlotte for time eternal...they bought out BAC (but kept the BAC name - similar to what First Union did with Wachovia). 

Also, Charlotte...a lesser city?  Have you ever been there?  Charlotte KILLS Jax.  I chalk it up to better leadership and the advantage of being the 2nd largest banking capital of the U.S. 

[RiversideGator]

FYI...

BAC would've never been headquartered here...NationsBank was headquartered in Charlotte for time eternal...they bought out BAC (but kept the BAC name - similar to what First Union did with Wachovia). 

Also, Charlotte...a lesser city?  Have you ever been there?  Charlotte KILLS Jax.  I chalk it up to better leadership and the advantage of being the 2nd largest banking capital of the U.S. 

Re BOA, I knew this already.  The point was North Carolina eliminated the restrictions on intrastate and interstate banking long before Florida did enabling the NC banks to grow larger than their population base would otherwise permit and then to expand into neighboring states and eventually go nationwide.  So, by wisely reducing regulations, NC set the stage for the creation of a banking empire.  We should follow their example by reducing hindrances to business in Florida.

As to Charlotte, I have not spent significant time there - I basically drove through there once.  I do know one guy who lives there, hates it and who is actively trying to move back to Jax and one guy who spends a significant amount of time there on business and doesnt care for it but this is the extent of my knowledge.  I can say generally that no inland city in North Carolina (outside the mountains) would be as physically attractive a place as Jacksonville or many other coastal cities IMO.  I wasnt talking about the great economic activity there, which was begun largely by the deregulation outlined above.  I also prefer older neighborhoods and I understand Charlotte is lacking in that department.  I will have to pay it a visit though and see for myself.

[Driven1]

hmm...never knew that about the eliminations of " restrictions on intrastate and interstate banking"...interesting and makes sense.  so, FL has these kind of restrictions??

you are correct that Charlotte is lacking in the older neighborhoods.  but for developed "uptown" areas, that is where it kills jax.  in fairness to all the other cities out there though (excepting maybe Knoxville), most of them do too. 

[RiversideGator]

hmm...never knew that about the eliminations of " restrictions on intrastate and interstate banking"...interesting and makes sense.  so, FL has these kind of restrictions??

From what I recall, in Florida (and many other states) until the early 1990s, a bank had to have a separately incorporated holding company for each county in which it operated.  This was probably intended as an early populist measure to prevent the formation of large banks in Florida which would (supposedly) take advantage of people.  Obviously this was a problem for banks which were headquartered in Florida and made them less efficient than those in many neighboring states.  There were also federal regulations against banks having operations in many different states so most banks were local or just statewide affairs at the time as a result.  Barnett Bank was the largest Florida based bank and Florida National was probably a close second and both were Jacksonville based.  Jacksonville was a big banking city even into the early 1990s which is why we have the BOA Tower downtown. 

Florida obviously had a much larger population and wealth base than did North Carolina in the 1980s but NC liberalized their banking laws to eliminate such anachronistic nonsense in the 1970s or so.  So, the predecessor banks to today's Wachovia and BOA were able to become much more efficient than those in other southeastern states.  Hence, they were ready and able to rapidly expand regionally and eventually nationwide once the federal laws were changed.  And, some of their first big moves were into target rich Florida and within the space of a few years all of Jacksonville's big banks were gone.  And the sad thing is all this could have been avoided (and even perhaps Jacksonville could have been the Charlotte of today in terms of banking) had Florida's politicians been far sighted about making things easier for business. 

This BTW is why liberals upset me so much.  Their stupid ideas resulted directly in this.  They leave destruction in their wake without a second thought and never take the blame for it.  The laws in Florida are also tough on companies who seek to relocate here and manufacture here which is one reason why car companies never come to Florida.  So, going forward we need to reduce taxes and regulations generally and open things up to encourage business to come in and raise our income levels and standard of living.