‘Jacksonville is hot,’ says Lenny Curry at Macquarie ribbon cutting

Early in the term of Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, Australian financial sector titans the Macquarie Group came to town.

Jacksonville beat out other competitors in what was called a robust global search in 2015; in 2017, Macquarie doubled down with an expansion of its Southbank Riverwalk location.

The incentive package driving that was rolled out in May.

 City incentives helped MacQuarie decide to bring 50 new operations jobs and $1.7M in capital investment to the River City instead of a city in Northern India.

Jacksonville assumes 20 percent, or $50,000 of the cost, via the QTI Targeted Tax Refund Program. The state meanwhile assumes $200,000 of the financial impact.

On Monday at Macquarie’s Jacksonville HQ, Mayor Curry said that the expansion is one more piece of evidence that “Jacksonville is hot.”

Curry cited the private sector, universities, and the regulatory environment as reasons why that is.

Council President Anna Brosche added that “once businesses come here, they grow here.”

The partnership between the Mayor’s Office, the City Council, and the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce has been pivotal toward closing deals, Curry said.

The Mayor added that, despite changes in incentives on the state level, there’s still room for economic incentives to drive similar relocations.

While the economy is necessarily “cyclical,” Curry said that “if you have a wave, it’s smart to ride that wave.”

Chamber Chair Darnell Smith noted that the Chamber has already announced 2,600 new jobs with a $550M economic impact this year.