Leading financial services firm Dun & Bradstreet is opening a new office in Jacksonville and plans to designate the city as its corporate headquarters. The move is expected to create about 500 jobs over the course of five years, the company announced Thursday alongside Mayor Lenny Curry.
Most of those jobs are expected to be newly created local positions.
Dun & Bradstreet is a global provider of business decisioning data and analytics and boasts that four U.S. Presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland and William McKinley) worked for the firm or its predecessor, Mercantile Agency, since its founding in 1841. According to its website, Dun & Bradstreet brings in an annual revenue of $1.74 billion and has a total of 5,000 employees. It’s currently based in New Jersey, but CEO Anthony Jabbour has lived in Jacksonville for the past 11 years.
“We plan to open up our office here in the fall, so we’re working on final site selection now,” Jabbour said Thursday. “But we’re very excited about it. Our future is here in Jacksonville, and we’re very excited to get started here.”
With an expected capital investment of $75 million in the city, Dun & Bradstreet qualifies for both state and local incentive packages. The company expects to receive up to $21 million in city incentives and up to $4 million from the state.
In a written news release, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is proud to welcome the company to Northeast Florida.
“To have such a globally respected company select Jacksonville as their home demonstrates our growing stature as a leading destination for the financial services sector and clear confidence in the skills and abilities of our local workforce,” he said.
“On behalf of the governor, this is a true testament to his work to make Florida the most business-friendly states in the entire company,” said Florida Secretary of Commerce Jamal Sowell at an event Thursday. “Dun & Bradstreet’s decision to relocate its headquarters to Jacksonville will have immediate, significant economic impacts in the entire region. Even more, this will continue to position Florida at the epicenter of economic development nationally and internationally.”
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry says he expects Dun & Bradstreet’s investment in the city will attract other financial services firms to Northeast Florida.
Contact Sydney Boles at sboles@wjct.org, or on Twitter at @sydneyboles.
