A handful of companies are seeking public incentives to relocate to Jacksonville.
Jacksonville Daily Record Editor Karen Mathis tells WJCT News Director Jessica Palombo about a couple of the biggest asks currently before the city and state.
That’s this week’s Business Brief.
Project Blaze
Project Blaze, we know, is Ecoco Inc., a Chicago-based hair-care products maker that wants to open a manufacturing and distribution center in Jacksonville. Their products contain Cannabis Oil.
It recently bought the building it intends to use in EastPark, which is at Beach Boulevard and St. Johns Bluff Road. It seeks incentives incentive to set up the center and hire 150 people. Ecoco also took out a business license and registered with the state.
It seeks a $450,000 Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund from the city and state. Average pay would be $50,000.
Read more about Project Blaze from the Jacksonville Daily Record.
Project Buckeye
Project Buckeye is the toy, art and stationery products company that wants incentives to consolidate manufacturing and distribution in Jacksonville.
That appears to be Cra-Z-Art, part of LaRose Industries, based in New Jersey.
That company wants to lease a 293,000-square-foot warehouse that would be built in Northwest Jacksonville.
It would create at least 21 jobs within three years for 21 production supervisors, management staff and warehouse personnel at an average wage of more than $53,000.
Project Buckeye asks for $638,600 in city incentives for a Recapture Enhanced Value Grant and a Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund. The state would pay $50,400 in QTI funds.
Read more about Project Buckeye from the Jacksonville Daily Record.
Projects frequently are submitted for city incentives under code names to keep them private, although the projects do become public through various means – especially when they buy property. These are two of at least five code-named projects this year, including what started as Project Volt and was discovered to be JinkoSolar, the 200-job solar-panel plant going into Cecil Commerce Center on the city’s Westside.
