Aetna considering move from Southbank to Suburbs

[Kerry]

Their new office is nowhere close to being as dense as the current location.  For example, draw a 1 mile circle around their current location and draw 1 mile circle around the new building.

It probably just came down to price.  The bean counters don't take anything else into consideration.

[thelakelander]

Jacksonville is a donut hole community. A one mile circle around their current location doesn't even pick up most of Five Points or the Cathedral District on the Northbank. It does cover San Marco and Brooklyn though. Maybe 4k residents tops, based on 2010 census numbers. Outside of that, there's a denser collection of surface parking lots, garages, half vacant office buildings, personal despair, river water and crab traps.

Expand to a 3 mile radius, where chunks of the Westside and Northside neighborhoods are included and the numbers change. However, the demographics of that population base most likely don't align with the demographics of their workforce.

Nevertheless, yes, I agree that it came down to price 100%. But I don't fault the company. Aetna is a private company in business to make money. They aren't based in Jax, so there's no civic obligation to pay more for space and parking in DT Jax verses heading elsewhere.

[Kerry]

Yea, the problem was created long ago when the City allowed large-scale suburban office buildings.  I guess we will just have to wait for economic realities to catch up and then we can pay the tax piper for our economic sins.

[thelakelander]

We're starting to see some of the economic realities now. Our pension situation is an indirect result of poor growth management decisions over an extended period of time.

[Kerry]

We're starting to see some of the economic realities now. Our pension situation is an indirect result of poor growth management decisions over an extended period of time.

That, and toll lanes on sububan freeways.  The free ride is litterally coming to an end.

[thelakelander]

Good example. FDOT can't afford to keep building and maintaining all of these highways, so managed lanes are a partially a response to this situation.

[spuwho]

Good example. FDOT can't afford to keep building and maintaining all of these highways, so managed lanes are a partially a response to this situation.

You pay one way or the other. Tolls either provide new roads, they can suppress temporarily tax increases, but ultimately, the cost is born by the user.

Many northern US states have highway maintenance budgets that are enormous due to the weather demands, which Florida typically doesnt deal with.

Toll Roads are popular in the north because it helps with the maintenance costs.

Toll roads in Florida were tools to get roads built for economic development, now they are more traffic management efforts.

[thelakelander]

I'm totally fine with cost born by the user. Most toll roads still don't cover the full cost that covers their construction and long term maintenance but it's better than the alternative. Nevertheless, we're still building them for economic development too. The First Coast Expressway and Polk Parkway are two great examples in this state.

[Kerry]

I know we are getting way off subject (sort of), but if freeways created sustainable economic growth every sprawling city in America would have so much excess cash they couldn't spend it all.  Instead, we still have to subsidize developers and companies and cities are broke.  Somewhere along the way the growth model didn't work like we were told it would.

[spuwho]

Aetna completes their move to the Southside this week to the former Barnett Bank Campus (now Gramercy Woods Corporate Park).

(Also SS&C is moving 200 people in as well)

The $21 Million, 5 deck, 2000 car garage Gramercy built for Bank of America employees is nearly finished.  The former bank parking garages will be for Aetna employees only and will require a badge to get through the gates. (The garage also includes e-chargers to support plug ins)

Gramercy has also started a free shuttle service between the far ends of the campus so BAC employees don't have to traverse the entire breadth of the campus to reach another building.

Odd signs have popped up on the surface parking lots that say "Tenant Parking Only" which means no BAC employees allowed (even though technically, they are tenants too)  They want them in that expensive garage, not taking up space for the other lease holders.

The campus cafeteria has odd signs that say, "BAC Employees Only" ...."Tenants use front door"..but the cafe is run by Compass Food Services.

Long time BAC employees have noted there is a new buzz on the campus now with all of the Aetna employees moving in.  More pedestrians, more people in the cafeteria, but in a negative note, way more traffic.

With Aetna taking over the 2 existing garages and BAC restricted to the new multi-level parking deck, traffic backups leaving the campus have already started. With only 2 exits to Southside Blvd and a psuedo exit to the Avenues Mall, the campus is already seeing backups that swing all the way to the back.  Old time Barnett employees are saying its almost 1998 again.

Oddly, right after filling the park up, renaming it after its owner (Gramercy Woods), they sold the 4 of the buildings to Ladder of NYC 4 weeks ago for $115 Million. The rest is still up for sale.

I brought up the major move of new companies with the managers of the nearby Chick-Fil-A, Newks, Longhorn and Five Guys across Southside.

They said that biz from the BAC people had actually gone down due to the construction and subsequent shortage of parking spots. But they all expected sales to rise when things settle down. 

Some BAC HR people have been cranky because it appears the bank gave up "too much" space it seems and can't get all of their new hires and contractors any cube space.

It will be interesting to see how retail, traffic and other patterns change due to this major shift in Jacksonville employment.

[heights unknown]

So no more "AETNA" sign on the skyscraper on the southbank?

[Westside Guy]

So no more "AETNA" sign on the skyscraper on the southbank?

Not anymore, but the discussion has been that a company named One Call is taking over the naming rights for the building.