Fanatics gets West Coast CEO, but HQ stays in Jacksonville

[thelakelander]

Fanatics Inc. has a new CEO who lives on the West Coast.

Despite hiring an " entrenched" San Francisco Bay resident who will continue to work from the West Coast, Fanatics Inc. says its headquarters will remain in Northeast Florida.

The online retailer announced Wednesday that Doug Mack, CEO of online home goods retailer One Kings Lane, would be CEO of Fanatics effective April 21. Mack had been with One Kings Lane since May 2010, growing it to its recent $1 billion valuation.

full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2014/04/09/fanatics-gets-west-coast-ceo-but-hq-stays-in.html

[IrvAdams]

Article says they're looking for space - downtown, anyone?

[finehoe]

There's a long history of research showing that a very large element of business location decisions is what's most convenient for the CEO. Joel Garreau talks about this in the seminal urban planning book Edge City, and cites some earlier research from William Whyte.

Whyte, in his book City, has a great map showing that of thirty-eight companies that moved out of New York City in one period "to better meet the quality-of-life needs of their employees," thirty-one moved to the Edge City around Greenwich and Stamford, Connecticut. ...

The average distance from the CEO's home: eight miles.

[Steve]

Article says they're looking for space - downtown, anyone?

I don't see it happening.

[spuwho]

There's a long history of research showing that a very large element of business location decisions is what's most convenient for the CEO. Joel Garreau talks about this in the seminal urban planning book Edge City, and cites some earlier research from William Whyte.

Whyte, in his book City, has a great map showing that of thirty-eight companies that moved out of New York City in one period "to better meet the quality-of-life needs of their employees," thirty-one moved to the Edge City around Greenwich and Stamford, Connecticut. ...

The average distance from the CEO's home: eight miles.

This is very true.

Countless stories of new CEO's, once they get their people into the board, convince them to move the company to them. If the CEO is performing they usually get their wish.

[thelakelander]

Isn't this why CSX relocated their headquarters from Richmond?

[Lunican]

Isn't this why CSX relocated their headquarters from Richmond?

Maybe a little but but not completely. CSX Corp. was headquartered in Richmond as a compromise between the Seaboard Coast Line (Jacksonville) and the Chessie System (Cleveland). There were only a few dozen employees in Richmond vs thousands in Jacksonville at CSXT headquarters (the railroad subsidiary), so when John Snow stepped down they did away with non railroad businesses and Richmond.

[ProjectMaximus]

Article says they're looking for space - downtown, anyone?

Probably not. They want to consolidate their massive warehouse along with the office space...i don't think anything downtown really works like that.

[Steve]

Warehouse and Office are separate. The space they are looking for is office only at this point.

[Steve]

Let me amend that. The current HQ and warehouse are at the same place, but the search for space is about Office only

[ProjectMaximus]

Oh. I had heard differently a long time ago. What's the reason for not considering downtown then?

[Steve]

Well (and this was previously reported so I'm not spilling anything)....Fanatics is looking for about 150k sqft. Honestly, to find that contiguous is actually a little tough downtown. One Enterprise has it, but in order to get to that number you need 15 floors, and honestly, if you're an employee that interacts with a lot of other departments, it's actually a pain in the ass. The flip side is with that site, 15 of 22 floors would almost certainly get you naming rights.

The other place is EverBank center, but I'm not sure they'd want to be second fiddle tenant in the building.

Outside of that, there really isn't 150k in the market, contiguous. They definitely did look downtown, and honestly, nothing is set in stone

[thelakelander]

Fanatics can go the joint campus route with DB and consume the JEA property! Just add some green space and extend the riverwalk!

Two days a week, I work on the 14th floor of EverBank Center. I have 6 elevators to myself because most floors served by my elevator bank are empty. On the flip end, there's a huge line every morning of EverBank people at the other bank trying to get to their offices. It's like I have VIP access!

[simms3]

There's a long history of research showing that a very large element of business location decisions is what's most convenient for the CEO. Joel Garreau talks about this in the seminal urban planning book Edge City, and cites some earlier research from William Whyte.

Whyte, in his book City, has a great map showing that of thirty-eight companies that moved out of New York City in one period "to better meet the quality-of-life needs of their employees," thirty-one moved to the Edge City around Greenwich and Stamford, Connecticut. ...

The average distance from the CEO's home: eight miles.

This is very true.  As the article says, though (and I read this on Tech Crunch a few days ago, as well), Doug Mack is super "entrenched" in the Bay Area.  OKL was co-founded by the wife of Zynga's founder.  The tech industry is incestuous and leadership of startups (such as Fanatics) is fickle.  I wouldn't be surprised if Mack buys a home in Jax to live in during his travels, but keeps his primary and relatively large family out here on the Peninsula.  BTW, all articles I've read indicates that Mack is a huge sports fan, so as opposed to OKL, Fanatics will be more his passion.

Well (and this was previously reported so I'm not spilling anything)....Fanatics is looking for about 150k sqft. Honestly, to find that contiguous is actually a little tough downtown. One Enterprise has it, but in order to get to that number you need 15 floors, and honestly, if you're an employee that interacts with a lot of other departments, it's actually a pain in the ass. The flip side is with that site, 15 of 22 floors would almost certainly get you naming rights.

The other place is EverBank center, but I'm not sure they'd want to be second fiddle tenant in the building.

Outside of that, there really isn't 150k in the market, contiguous. They definitely did look downtown, and honestly, nothing is set in stone

Under Mack's leadership, OKL followed Twitter and Yammer into an 800,000 SF prewar merchandise mart that Shorenstein has rebranded and spent hundreds of millions of dollars renovating.  It has 80,000 SF floorplates.  I got to tour the building and was very impressed - Twitter itself takes about 800,000 SF combined between this building and the vintage mid-century building Shorenstein also renovated next door, for a real campus setting in the city, complete with roof decks, high end cafeteria, etc etc.

Unfortunately, Jacksonville has very limited brick and timber opportunities, especially in the 150,000 SF range.  And while by no means is brick and timber, as you said, One Enterprise Center has TINY TINY inefficient floorplates (10,000 SF??).  It's also ugly and undesirable to this kind of tenant.

The Everbank Center does have larger floorplates (~25,000 SF?), but they are inefficient (what is the load factor in that building, geez) and the building is attrocious.  I don't know what a firm like Fanatics does in Jax, but it's a lot easier to comment about SF, a market I know much better.