LPS seeks incentives for jobs

[thelakelander]

Lender Processing Services Inc. is talking with several cities, including Jacksonville, about incentives to expand operations and bring jobs to whichever area it selects.

Executives from the Jacksonville-based mortgage processing services provider (NYSE: LPS) met with Mayor John Peyton and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission Tuesday to discuss its expansion plans, according to the mayor’s office.

“JEDC will explore what tools are available and what options can be considered to make Jacksonville competitive in locating jobs here,” said Misty Skipper, the mayor's spokeswoman.

Skipper would not comment on the details of the discussion.

LPS, which has about 30 other campuses nationwide including in Georgia, California, Ohio, North Carolina and Texas, is talking with other cities about where it can grow, said Michelle Kersch, LPS’ senior vice president, marketing and corporate communications.

“We are looking at all options,” she said.

Although incentives are part of what LPS is seeking to generate the jobs, Kersch said LPS would have to seek out leased space to place the jobs in Jacksonville. The company owns buildings in other cities.

“Ideally, we’d like to expand in Jacksonville” from a business standpoint and the fact that the headquarters is here, Kersch said. “But if we can’t get it, we will look for other options.”

The company is currently hiring throughout the country and has added 550 new jobs to the area in the past year and a half.

Kersch would not disclose the number of employees needed in this expansion.

“I would imagine we’d continue to hire in Jacksonville,” she said. But in terms of “expanding in a big way, the incentives will determine where that’s going to be.”

LPS spun off from Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (NYSE: FIS) in mid-2008 and has grown to about 2,100 employees in Jacksonville and a total of 8,500 employees.

http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2010/01/04/daily23.html?surround=lfn

[Dan B]

Awesome! Another business for downto.... I mean, Deerwood Park.......

[thelakelander]

Its not like DT doesn't have available office space.  However, I agree.  If they add the jobs here, they will probably be closer to SJTC than DT.

[A-Finnius]

Its not like DT doesn't have available office space.  However, I agree.  If they add the jobs here, they will probably be closer to SJTC than DT.

Don't Bank on that...

[Karl_Pilkington]

great just what we need to do, give taxdollars to a corrupt firm that shits out fraud.. typical.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:4TPYUw7XEg8J:www.msfraud.org/Articles/DOJ%2520Probing%2520Mortgage%2520Data%2520Processing%2520Firms.pdf+doj+probing+lps&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=opera

[mtraininjax]

Fidelity moved people from the southside to downtown. They have space in the Blue Cross building as well. I don't see them splitting people to the southside, they like to have control in one area. Plus their parking deck could use a few more cars.

[stjr]

Seems to me, the Fidelity campus may have room for another tower to be built on it.  Not sure but maybe someone here could verify.  It appears there is a spot on the circle sidewalk in the aerial shot below.  Also, if they  purchased Blue Cross's riverfront employee parking lot between them and St. Joe, they could add quite a bit more space.  Another option would to buy out Blue Cross's tower and other Riverside properties completely with Blue Cross moving everyone to its Deer Park campus.

Aerial:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=forest+street,+jacksonville,+fl&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.038806,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Forest+St,+Jacksonville,+Duval,+Florida&ll=30.318988,-81.672299&spn=0.004529,0.009645&t=h&z=17

[mtraininjax]

Another option would to buy out Blue Cross's tower and other Riverside properties completely with Blue Cross moving everyone to its Deer Park campus.

Not enough room at 4600 Deerwood Campus Parkway, and why mix For-Profit with Not-for-profit, it makes for a brother sister relationship that is not always friendly. If LPS offers to build the new 500 and 700 buildings, I am sure BCBSF would listen, but the healthcare business is a little shaky right now, don't look for BCBSF to go spend money on new buildings for a while.

[cityimrov]

Can someone here explain the "Fidelity National" company to me & what they do? 

I've been trying to figure this out and I'm getting really lost.  First there was Fidelity National Finance.  That company bought a whole lot of little companies.  The company then split into Fidelity National Finance, Fidelity Information Systems, and Lending Processing Services.  They all seem to do something.  Fidelity Information Systems seems to be a part of Fidelity which bought a company called Metavante.  It seems like something went wrong with FIS that caused a whole lot of negative reviews to appear on the internet yet the same company is now ran by the former CEO of Metavante.  This is only one piece of one part of this.

The more I keep looking at this company, the more confused I get since they seem to be all over the place in what they do in the insurance industry. 

[fsu813]

Good 1 page article about LPS as "Jax's best kept fortune 1000 secret" in the Nov/Dec issue of Access (COC's magazine) as well.

[stjr]

Can someone here explain the "Fidelity National" company to me & what they do? 

In short, the original company, Fidelity National, was primarily a TITLE insurance company that bought Jax based mortgage processor Alltel Information Systems (originally named Computer Power, Inc.) and then moved its HQ's here.

Over time, after a number of other acquisitions and restructurings, they split the company into three different companies.  As I recall, two still have the Fidelity name imbedded in them and the third is the mortgage processing division, now known as LPS.  The split was supposedly done to "unlock" stockholder value by making the separate businesses they were in more transparent and to increase focus as to their individual performances.  I would visit each company's web site to learn more.

I think the bad PR had to due with the title insurance business and "commissions" paid to agents, attorneys, mortgage companies, etc. for referrals.

That's the two minute story as I know it.

[77danj7]

Our wonderful mayor was on the radio about this today...He did say they working on a package to present of benefits to present by February and that they would be staying Downtown.

[JeffreyS]

They also own the Everbank building.

[ac]

I thought incentives for companies to stay or occupy DT were a good thing?

[mtraininjax]

They also own the Everbank building.

I don't think so, every tenant owns a part of the building that Everbank has its name on, and Harden Associates spearheaded that development. This explains why Volpe wanted to sue Auchter when it defaulted on the building. My understanding from friends who are partners with the companies is that each company is a fractional owner of the building.