The Universal Marion Building

[jeh1980]

Here is an image of the former department store portion.

I wonder why the architect put no windows on the facade?  It would have made that building so much more attractive.

What for?    I don't see how the architect went wrong on that design. I thought that certain department store don't need windows...with the exception of Macy's in New York.

[Charles Hunter]

And they did have street level windows, that were (IIRC) decorated rather lavishly at Christmas.  Upper level windows would serve no real purpose in a department store.

[stjr]

Charter Oil.  Raymond Mason, a Jacksonville banker who finally devised for the United States the proper business structure to allow our firms to do business with their firms was a president for a while.

The company went down in flames after unsuccessful investments in Offshore Power Systems OPS, and an attempt to create offshore nuclear power plants.

Ray Mason is a legend in US business history and his son is the president of Center Bank in San Marco.

If ever there was a man in need of a biography it is the illustrious Mr. Mason.

This story is not right.  Offshore Power Systems was a joint venture of Tenneco and Westinghouse.  Its only connection to Charter was that when it failed, some of its senior executives joined Charter.  I would classify Raymond Mason Sr. as more of a deal maker, than a banker even though a bank was a small part of his portfolio.

Charter was a conglomerate built by Raymond Mason Sr. from his dad's  1950's to early 60's lumber business, Mason Lumber Co.  After merging it with several local home builders in the early 60's, he added banking (Jacksonville National Bank), mortgage banking (Charter Mortgage renamed Alliance Mortgage, now part of EverBank), insurance, real estate (throughout the southeast.  In Jax, see Charter Point, etc. in Arlington), and, in the late 60's/early 70's he added the oil assets of the Signal Companies right before the first Arab Oil Embargo hitting a huge home run.  In the late 70's he acquired out of bankruptcy the oil interests of Hugh Carey, brother of the governor of NY, Ed Carey.  This was in conjunction with another boon in oil prices.  In 1979, Charter became the largest company in Florida with 10,000 employees, 64th on the Fortune 500 with 5.5 billion in revenue, and invested in oil production, refineries in Houston (see the movie, Urban Cowboy with John Travolta) and Freeport, Bahamas, oil tankers, nearly 500 gas stations in the South, publishing (Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, Sport magazines, Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper), printing (Dayton Press), collectibles (Hamilton Mint), radio stations, billboards, commercial insurance agency (insured the Empire State Bldg.), life insurance (Charter Security Life, the largest single premium deferred annuity company sold to Met Life), and land development among other things.  In between, it engaged in odd things such as salmon farming in Oregon and other oddities.  President Ford was an adviser.  Charter had its name on its own skyscraper in NY (the Chartcom building) directly across the street from Citigroup's tower.  In 1984, the Company went bankrupt because if failed to plan for the downward cycle of oil, 80% of its revenues.  Charter also did a stock swap with Ed Ball's St. Joe Paper Comany (now just St. Joe) where Charter owned 8% of Joe and Joe owned 23% of Charter.  This looked brilliant for Joe when Charter was the largest gainer on the NYSE in '79, up 10 fold for the year.

In the early 80's, its top 4 operating executives were killed in a helicopter crash in Ireland.  Ironically, Charter had the largest corporate air force in the world at the time, 14 jets including two rebuilt 727's.  Charter built the largest hanger at JIA with its own fuel tanks, still the biggest to this day.

Charter also owned the Sears block where the Omni and Wachovia are now.  It had intended to build a 70 story HQ's building there before it failed.  Charter also built the Bellsouth building for Southern Bell before bailing out mid way due to financial difficulties.

Charter went through more excitement in its short corporate life than most companies do in a 100 years.  It was the toast of Jax at its peak and made the cover of almost every major business publication with regular appearances in the Wall St. Journal.  Today, almost every major company in Jax has a former Charter exec working for it or running it, such was the talent it brought to Jax.  You would be amazed how many of the movers and shakers in Jax crossed paths with Charter - probably more so than any company before or since.  Its legacy will forever live on in this City.

[stjr]

Here is the postcard picture featured in the MJ article with the obverse description of the famous revolving restaurant called the Embers atop the Universal Marion building :

[jeh1980]

Any pictures of the Charter Oil name on the Universal Marion Building yet?

[thelakelander]

stjr, great story on Charter.  I always wondered how that company fell so quick.

[reednavy]

Damn, to think of what could be if they hadn't failed.

[stjr]

Any pictures of the Charter Oil name on the Universal Marion Building yet?

I know lots of pictures of it were in the press, locally and nationally, but couldn't find any on Google yet.  Here is their logo posted in their Wikipedia article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_Company



I wrote my piece from memory.  Overall, the Wikpedia article below appears more precise on some points. However, it is INACCURATE in places such as Charter NEVER owned Florida National Banks.  That was a separate public company, originally controlled by Mason's mentor, Ed Ball, and ultimately acquired by First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo.  Charter did own a one-branch bank, Jacksonville National Bank, that was located in the "marble bank" building originally occupied decades earlier by Florida National Bank.  JNB and another Charter subsidiary, Charter Mortgage Company, were spun off to Jack Uible who, in turn, sold out to Florida National Bank, becoming its largest shareholder.  At one time, under Ed Ball, Florida National was the largest bank in Florida.  When sold to First Union, I think it was about #3 or #4 in the State. (Jacksonville was also home to two other of the six largest banks in Florida, Barnett, acquired by Bank of America, and Atlantic Banks, also acquired by First Union.  The other banks, not based in Jacksonville, were Southeast Banks of Miami, acquired out of Chapter 7 bankruptcy by First Union, Sun Banks of Orlando, now SunTrust, and one other, that escapes me at the moment but possibly NCNB, which became Bank of America.)  Uible became the largest non-institutional shareholder I believe of First Union when they bought Florida National.  JNB was spun off for anti-trust and Charter Mortgage was renamed Alliance Mortgage.  Eventually, Alliance Mortgage was sold to Owens Illinois then taken private and finally ended up with Everbank.  I think JNB was purchased by Ellis Banking and eventually became part of what is now Bank of America through various consolidations of regional banks over the years.   I do not recall Charter completing the acquisition of Commonwealth Oil in Puerto Rico.  Charter announced lots of acquisitions and projects that were never consummated but made lots of news.

The Charter Company of Jacksonville, Florida was a conglomerate with more than 180 subsidiaries that was in the Fortune 500 for 11 years beginning in 1974 and ranked 61st in 1984[1] before it sought bankruptcy protection in late 1984 and spiraled into obscurity.

The Charter Company was started in Jacksonville, Florida in 1949 by Jacksonville native, Raymond Knight Mason, just graduated from college. The company’s roots were from the Mason Lumber Company, founded in 1919.[2]

Edward Ball, a powerful figure in Florida business and politics for decades, was Mason’s friend and mentor. Ball worked for Alfred I. du Pont for nine years as a business associate before du Pont’s death in 1935, then managed the trust’s assets for another 46 years.

Charter started with a group of Florida mortgage, banking and land-developing firms. The company then bought 60 small gas stations in 1968.

In 1970, Charter purchased a petroleum operation for $70 million from the Signal Companies. Included in the deal was a small gasoline refinery in Houston, Texas in need of updating, a string of gas stations in the Southeast and a handful of questionable tanker contracts. Four years later, when the Arab Oil Embargo struck, Charter cashed in.

Also in 1970, congress repealed an exemption which allowed charitable trusts to control banks, forcing the du Pont Trust to divest itself of the Florida National Group, which Charter purchased. Charter also owned 8.4% of the St. Joe Paper Company, one of the largest assets in the du Pont Trust, while St. Joe owned 22% of Charter. The two companies exchanged shares in 1972 with the intention of merging.[3]

Senator Joseph Tydings was an investment partner in Charter since 1964 with $2 million in equity. At one time, Tydings was the largest Charter stockholder outside of the Mason family. A Life Magazine article in 1970 suggested that the senator used his influence to assist Charter in business deals, but no laws were broken.[4]

In 1975, Charter purchased Redbook from Norton Simon Inc.

Charter acknowledged that in 1978 & 1979, two of its’ oil executives had discussions with fugitive financier Robert Vesco; Mr. Vesco and Mr. Mason had business discussions as far back as 1971. Vesco was living in the Bahamas and had declined requests that he return to the U.S. to face charges that he swindled investors out of millions of dollars. The Senate Judiciary Committee was investigating connections between Billy Carter, brother of President Jimmy Carter, Vesco, and the country of Libya.[5]

Carey Energy Corporation, with $550 million in assets, was acquired by Charter in 1979 for $4 million is cash, $16 million in Charter convertible preferred stock and a consulting job for Edward M. Carey paying $200,000 per year. Carey Energy’s principal assets were a 65% ownership in a Bahamas Refinery and the New England Petroleum Company, a fuel oil distributorship based in Brooklyn which sold the fuel produced by the refinery up and down the Atlantic coast.[3]

In 1980, Charter decided to buy Commonwealth Oil Refining Co. and their Puerto Rican refinery, which processed 160,000 bbl. per-day, for $650 million. The company also had plans to build a 100,000 bbl. per-day refinery in Alaska to process the 75,000 bbl. per-day of North Slope crude that they were promised.[6]

[edit] Operations

The company was split along three lines: Oil Refining, Insurance and Communications.[2]
Year    Revenue    Net Earn    Per Share
1973    481.9    20.5    4.61
1974    1170    40.3    10.71
1975    1046.2    5.4    .19
1976    1190.9    16.9    0.81
1977    1481.6    20    1.00
1978    2046.3    23.3    1.17
1979    4296.4    365.3    14.83
1980    4421.1    50.2    1.59
1981    4966.2    7.7    0.06
1982    4017.2    35.3    1.04
1983    5656.8    61.7    2.35
1984    (29.8 )    (71.1)    0
1985    1559.7    1.3    0
1986    1136.3    153.2    3.23
1987    1042.6    46.9    0.98
1988    479.6    58.6    1.22
1989    665.1    5.3    0.1

[edit] Raymond Knight Mason

Mason had a reputation for eccentricity, but employees said he had "his own ways."[2] Mason owned two special properties, both of which were acquired through his friend, Ed Ball. Epping Forest was the former estate of Alfred I. du Pont and Jessie Ball du Pont, Ball’s sister. The Mason mansion, which Mason still owns, is a castle in Ballynahinch, County Galway, Ireland, and was once owned by Ed Ball.[2]

[edit] Performance

The company had sales totaling about $5 billion in 1981, when their earnings were .06 per share, the lowest point in a decade. The drop was attributed to the oil glut, which drove down prices.[3]

That year, Jack Donnell began eliminating some of the communications and publishing properties and whittled down the list of subsidiaries to a level the company could function with. Charter had net earnings of $53.89 million, or $2.01 a share in 1983. In 1984, the company reported a net loss of $749.34 million, $685 million of which the company attributed to discontinued operations, the expenses of filing for bankruptcy and provisions for estimated losses on disposal of assets which were partially offset by gains on assets sold.[7]

[edit] Troubles

The 1980’s began with earnings down dramatically, and things went from bad to worse.

[edit] Copter crash

The Charter Company suffered a tragedy in the foggy, early hours of July 29, 1982 when four senior executives died in Ireland when their helicopter crashed in route to Shannon International Airport. Killed were Jack T. Donnell, 53, Charter's president and chief operating officer and three from Charter Oil: Dudley K. Parker, 49, president; Barry L. Green, 34, executive vice president; and Jay L. Lammons, 43, senior vice president.[8]

[edit] Lawsuit

A lawsuit was filed on December 16, 1983 seeking more than $1.8 billion in damages The Charter Company and the Charter Oil Company of Jacksonville were one of four companies named as defendants.[9]

Independent Petrochemical Corporation (IPC), was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Charter Oil. On several occasions, and as a courtesy to a customer, IPC arranged for the disposal of waste oil by a St. Louis waste oil hauler, Bliss Oil, with the understanding that Bliss would take the oil to a waste disposal site. In actuality, after Bliss Oil's president tasted the oil to check its suitability for other uses and found the flavor fit, Bliss sprayed it as a dust suppressant at various locations throughout Missouri. The sprayings occurred over a period of at least two months, with each spraying lasting about 30-40 minutes. The waste oil contained dioxin, a chemical compound that was a known carcinogen. The discharge of the dioxin-contaminated oil was the basis of claims against IPC by the federal government, the State of Missouri, and over 1,600 private plaintiffs. The private suits sought an aggregate $4 billion in compensatory damages and an identical amount in punitive damages. IPC entered into settlements covering all of the claims which included over $100 million owed to the federal government for clean-up of various sites in Missouri.[10]

[edit] Bankruptcy

When Edward M. Carey sold Carey Energy Corporation to Charter in 1979, his comment was:

    "Being in the oil business is like having a bear by the tail. You have to keep feeding it. You have to feed it to get it to perform."[3]

At the time, Carey's bear (Carey Energy) had been in a prolonged mauling mood because he was unable to feed it (obtain a source of crude oil for the refinery). Five years later, the bear was hungry and got angry again.

One of the primary reasons for Charter's bankruptcy was the financial market. Oil prices dropped sharply and companies lost their ability to get trade credit, so they were unable to purchase crude oil (feed the bear) and that forced Charter into Chapter 11, according to Mason.[11]

The Charter Company and 43 subsidiaries (including IPC) filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy law on April 20, 1984. In conjunction with the Bankruptcy filing, the company laid off 200 people in its Jacksonville officeâ€"which represented almost a 50% lossâ€"and an equal number in Houston.[12]

Mason sold Epping Forest in 1984 and resigned as Charter's Chairman. Most of the company's subsidiaries were sold off before emerging from court protection in 1987. Creditors received Charter stock representing a 50.5% ownership in the company in payment for Charter's debts. Carl Lindner acquired control of Charter in bankruptcy court.[13] One notable element of Charter's bankruptcy was stockholder equity. Typically, company stock would be worthless, but Jacksonville attorney Stephen Busey, who represented Charter in the legal proceedings, stated that it is unusual for shareholders to get as much value as Charter's stockholders did.[11]

[edit] A long, drawn out ending

Charter vanished from Jacksonville's headlines and former employees found positions at other businesses when the bankruptcy was discharged in 1988. Carl Lindner’s American Financial Corporation which owned 53% of Charter’s stock, moved the company from Jacksonville to Cincinnati, Ohio.

In early 1992, Charter announced an agreement to sell all remaining oil operations in a management buyout. That transaction left Charter with one business, an 82% stake in Spelling Entertainment, the television production company that produced over a dozen popular series, including Charmed, Beverly Hills 90210, 7th Heaven, Dynasty and Melrose Place.[14]

Entertainment giant Viacom purchased the last remaining asset in 1999.[11]

Raymond Mason (left) and Ed Ball are seen at a news conference from Aug. 13, 1969. Ball was Mason's mentor and Mason even went on to write Ball's biography, Confusion to the Enemy.
The Times-Union file

And here is a retrospective from the Times Union:

The Florida Times-Union

May 22, 2005

The Charter Co. set a tremendous pace, all from Jacksonville


In the 1970s, The Charter Co. was the place to work in Jacksonville.


--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------

At least it was for the many Jacksonville real estate, banking, investment, hospital and other executives who grew up, at least professionally, at the company once described in a Jacksonville Journal news report as "flamboyant."

Charter Chairman Raymond Knight Mason, after all, hired young, energetic men and women and flew them around the world to tend to his massive, complex network of oil, insurance, communications and other companies.

The hard-charging Jacksonville-based Charter was based in a city dominated by the more staid industries of banking, insurance and the military as well as the blue-collar world of manufacturing and shipyards.

Of course Charter also had interests in banking and in paper mills and in railroads, but Charter itself was a huge, broad, diversified swirl of energy. Mason was just 36 when he became president of Charter, the new name of a company that traced its history to the Mason Lumber Co. in 1919.

Employees worked hard and they played hard, together. "That company was my family," recalls Shands Jacksonville executive Penny Thompson. "People there covered your back."

Alumni Curtis Loftin wouldn't call Charter "flamboyant." Instead of offering a better adjective for the company, he chose to describe Mason, its leader.

"It was Jacksonville-based, but the base was not Jacksonville. His sights were Paris and the Middle East and England and New York City. He had an apartment there, New York City. Very few people had a place in New York," Loftin said.

Jacksonville-born Mason also owns property in Ireland, especially the castle hotel once owned by his mentor, the legendary Ed Ball. Ball was the extraordinarily powerful Jacksonville financier who ran the Alfred I. duPont Trust formed by his wealthy brother-in-law. Alfred and Jessie Ball du Pont lived at the Epping Forest estate, which Mason and his family later owned and which businessman Herbert Peyton bought as Charter filed bankruptcy.

Charter soared to No. 61 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation's largest companies just before it spiraled into bankruptcy protection on April 20, 1984. No Jacksonville company has since broken into the elite Fortune 100.

Loftin, a real estate executive, was among the fraternity of Jacksonville business leaders who either worked with Charter, a subsidiary or an affiliate. Financiers, bankers, investors and other Charter veterans include Jim Winston, Steve Wilson, Jack Uible, Chester Stokes, Hawley Smith, Heyward Cantrell, Zeke Zechella, Fred McGinnis, Penny Thompson, Russell Newton, Bruce Bower, Dix Druce, Howard Serkin, Catherine Reynolds, and the list goes on.

Mason said during an interview last week that he doesn't have a single social gene, preferring to socialize as a part of business. Similarly, Loftin said a person's social background "wasn't a big issue for him."

"He didn't judge you by what you had done. He judged you by your potential," Loftin said.

Mason, still actively investing and traveling at 78, is proud of the men and women he hired, crediting them with carrying out the details of his many plans. Mason claims he has "no ability for detail," but he reads 150 books a year and associates say he initials each as he finishes. He recites names, dates, places and conversations from childhood up to now.

Mason read on the company plane as employees played cards.

Thompson described Mason as bold, visionary, and unafraid to take a risk. "He got such a charge in doing a deal," she recalled.

He still does. "It's almost impossible for me not to fall in love with a business," Mason said last week.

While some people might consider Mason eccentric, probably because of the long-ago Fortune magazine photo featuring him clad in yellow silk pajamas, his loyal hires shrug that he simply has his own ways.

Newspaper accounts from the '70s describe his business lunch entrees of hot dogs, sometimes served at his boat-house office at Epping, miles away from his 19th floor downtown office at the top of what is now a JEA building. Loftin explains that Mason "did not go by a special menu."

"You could have spaghetti and watermelon, if that appealed to him," he said.

Thompson said Mason often hosted his employees at his home, and "he'd flip light switches at his house when it was time to wind down a party." Mason and his wife, Minerva, have three children, including CenterBank President and Chief Executive Officer Raymond K. Mason Jr.

When Charter filed for bankruptcy, it was an emotional low for many. But the company's personal tragedy came in July 1982 when four of its top executives died in a helicopter crash on Ireland's countryside. They ranged in age from 34 to 53.

The men and their wives were part of a senior management group, including Mason, who were staying at the Irish castle for management meetings. Charter -- the company and the people -- took the deaths hard, as did the city.

Charter eventually vanished from Jacksonville's headlines and skyline as the bankruptcy wound down almost 20 years ago. Thompson still recalls the company vividly.

"It was 'wow'. The whole time, it was 'wow.'"

[deathstar]

Buildings like that seem like an eye sore to me. Like the Roosevelt Shopping Center, with the ugly Belk building & Publix. Given they both look much better on the inside, the outside is fugly.

[Timkin]

I definitely remember Ivey's as a young child.  Also remember Woolworths (present site of the hideous Federal Courthouse) and the Downtown Sears Department Store was my personal favorite . Cohen Brothers Dept Store (now City Hall )  was a little before my time.   I would love to see pictures of these stores in their heyday. 

As to the Universal Marion Building... it is not one of my favorites, but before Id see it go, Id wreck the Haydon Burns Library...  But I guess both of these places have value as a style of Architecture, and Jacksonville has razed so many buildings.. We need to stop somewhere.   I never knew that Monroe Midyette had a club at the top of the building though... that must have been well before my time.

[fieldafm]

That's a fascinating article... thanks for posting that SJTR!!  I want to learn more, seems I should do some digging this week.

My dad always beams about Ivey's and the rotating restaurant.  He also had mentioned that the Sears store downtown(which he described as having carried everything you could possibly imagine to need to buy) was actually once a very successful store, in fact a top grossing store in the Southeast for the Sears Company.

[Timkin]

But Malls and Tearing everything in downtown , to replace  with glass towers, Parking Garages, and surface parking, became the order of the day...so we have nearly nothing (compared to 1960) to come to downtown for...unless of course you want to tour the many surface parking spaces and parking garages.

[Jaxson]

Hollywood has the maps to he stars' homes.  We could have maps to the illustrious parking garages and vacant lots of downtown Jacksonville.  Anyone ready to tear down some more historic buildings to make this dream a reality?

[Timkin]

Well there really is not that many left down town.. but Im sure the mindset will be that they have to go

[ChriswUfGator]

Hollywood has the maps to he stars' homes.  We could have maps to the illustrious parking garages and vacant lots of downtown Jacksonville.  Anyone ready to tear down some more historic buildings to make this dream a reality?

Don't forget to include on your Hollywood tour all the parking meters where famous people got parking tickets...

"And here is the spot where former professional football player Reggie Johnson's Mercedes was ticketed and booted, and over there is the very parking meter where President Clinton's motorcade tried to stop to attend a public appearance until COJ parking enforcement had his limo towed away."

"And ladies and gentlemen, right over there is the very same parking meter where John Travolta stood while deciding whether to film his movie in Jacksonville. His decision was made after COJ ticketed and towed his film production van. All of these people vowed never to return to Jacksonville again, but the City was nevertheless happy because they collected $0.75 in parking revenue..."

LMAO!