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Unless somethings changed recently, Orlando still only has 1 Fortune 500 company which is Darden Restaurants. We also have Tupperware Brands but that's a Fortune 1000 and it's closer to the 1000 mark than the 500 mark.
Edit: Unless you were referring to International Assets Holding listed in Altamonte Springs by the Fortune 500 website but it's HQ is in KC.
Last edited by OrlFlaUsa; 12-09-2010 at 10:52 AM..
Reason: mistake
That's a very simplistic way of viewing it. New York was helped by finance recovering...which was a result of:
1. The Federal bailout, which gave the financial institutions the liquidity they badly needed. They also bought toxic assets that these banks were holding on their balance sheets. So all of a sudden these banks went from "low liquidity and packed with toxic assets" to "packed with cash and getting a great deal of toxic assets off the books".
2. Finance was beaten so hard that stocks were pushed so low that there was no way they couldn't go up (unless that bank itself was actually insolvent...which was the situation in a few cases). Banks were often undervalued because people were so scared of what was happening that they went far below fair value.
I agree that eventually tourism will come back, but housing is a whole different animal. Florida is very overbuilt in terms of housing and that's very hard to remedy. It sounds like entire communities were being built as "speculative" properties...simply being built because property values were going up and not because there was actually a market demand for it. Now the bottom has fallen out there's a boatload of vacant, rotting properties. I know the next answer is "well there are people moving here!"...but who is moving there? As I mentioned in my previous post, the type of people moving there is just as important as the number of people. If the region is being flooded by poor immigrants, then that does nothing to help ease the pain of a bunch of $600-800k McMansions which are hanging out on the market. Also take into account that not only have the price of these homes dropped, but the longer they sit stagnant, the more they rot and lose even more value.
This is not a case of "well people will move here and the problem will be solved!" at all. I fear this will be a more painful recovery than you're implying it will be. Hopefully not.
Again, I think you're too hung-up on one word. Miami is the city in Florida with the most complete economy...I'm pretty sure that's what he meant. If it isn't, then that's your problem for being so sensitive. I know forumers get pissed because people will say their city isn't a "real" city...well stop giving those people the satisfaction of getting under your skin. Move on.
Fair enough, I wasn't really angry at all, just confused.
Jacksonville has the most balanced economy in Florida and is less reliant on tourism, RE, and retired people than the other three metros.
Jacksonville has a 5 pillar economy.
First it has the navy. Mayport is a huge base, along with NAS, and all of the support services. That's a pretty stable industry (for comparison, VA Beach/Norfolk is completely reliant on the navy and so they are mad that Jax is stealing one of their nuke carriers).
Secondly, Jacksonville has a very large and rapidly expanding port. There are channel deepening projects, a new Hanjin line terminal being built, hopefully a new cruise port, and a recently constructed Mitsui terminal that when maxed out alone could triple Jacksonville's current container capacity. Savannah's and NY/NJ's ports are its main competitors for containers and automobiles.
Thirdly, Jacksonville has a large healthcare sector. I think we even have more hospital beds than Atlanta has (and we're a 5th the size). Mayo Clinic, St. Vincent's, and Shands UF hospital with its Proton Therapy (one of 5 or 6 in the world) are major drivers along with Baptist Health (not affiliated with the church) and Nemours Clinic (started by Alfred duPont's charitable trust...he lived and died in Jax).
Fourth, Jacksonville is a major financial sector employer, which is what has brought up our unemployment recently. Merrill Lynch has one of their biggest offices here, and BofA Florida is here along with Everbank (soon to be largest bank in FL), Deutsche Bank, and the list goes on. Florida National, Atlantic National, and Barnett Bank used to be HQ'd here before takeovers in the 90s, but there is still a large presence here. Deutsche just hired 850 more people in Jax and BofA is hiring 1,000 more on top of their 7,000 already in Jax. Also, outside of Palm Beach and Miami, Jax has a very high concentration of hedge funds operated out of the city. A lot of the former bankers/financiers switched over to hedge funds. There are some big players in town (not to mention Martin Siegel of New York, the movie Wall Street is loosely based on him, lives in the Jax area and commutes via his jet to New York).
Fifth, Jacksonville is an insurance hub. We used to have a popular nickname "Hartford of the South" when there were so many insurance companies HQ'd here. To this day, BCBS Florida is here, Prudential, Aetna, Humana, AHL, Chicago Title is technically HQ'd in Jax because it was taken over by Fidelity National Financial, also HQ'd in Jax, and the list goes on.
And also, if there were a 6th pillar, it would be manufacturing and industry. Florida Rock is here, Embraer is here, and many more due to the port.
Because of this information, I believe Jacksonville will be the first to recover. It is also the 2nd fastest growing metro area in the state. Its office space has always been overbuilt, even in good times, so don't look at that as an indicator. Look for unemployment to decrease the fastest here. There are also still a good number of retirees and tourists in the area, but not to a degree that the city relies on them. RE never inflated as much as S FL or Orlando, either, and so our bubble didn't pop as hard.
Jacksonville has the most balanced economy in Florida and is less reliant on tourism, RE, and retired people than the other three metros.
Jacksonville has a 5 pillar economy.
First it has the navy. Mayport is a huge base, along with NAS, and all of the support services. That's a pretty stable industry (for comparison, VA Beach/Norfolk is completely reliant on the navy and so they are mad that Jax is stealing one of their nuke carriers).
Secondly, Jacksonville has a very large and rapidly expanding port. There are channel deepening projects, a new Hanjin line terminal being built, hopefully a new cruise port, and a recently constructed Mitsui terminal that when maxed out alone could triple Jacksonville's current container capacity. Savannah's and NY/NJ's ports are its main competitors for containers and automobiles.
Thirdly, Jacksonville has a large healthcare sector. I think we even have more hospital beds than Atlanta has (and we're a 5th the size). Mayo Clinic, St. Vincent's, and Shands UF hospital with its Proton Therapy (one of 5 or 6 in the world) are major drivers along with Baptist Health (not affiliated with the church) and Nemours Clinic (started by Alfred duPont's charitable trust...he lived and died in Jax).
Fourth, Jacksonville is a major financial sector employer, which is what has brought up our unemployment recently. Merrill Lynch has one of their biggest offices here, and BofA Florida is here along with Everbank (soon to be largest bank in FL), Deutsche Bank, and the list goes on. Florida National, Atlantic National, and Barnett Bank used to be HQ'd here before takeovers in the 90s, but there is still a large presence here. Deutsche just hired 850 more people in Jax and BofA is hiring 1,000 more on top of their 7,000 already in Jax. Also, outside of Palm Beach and Miami, Jax has a very high concentration of hedge funds operated out of the city. A lot of the former bankers/financiers switched over to hedge funds. There are some big players in town (not to mention Martin Siegel of New York, the movie Wall Street is loosely based on him, lives in the Jax area and commutes via his jet to New York).
Fifth, Jacksonville is an insurance hub. We used to have a popular nickname "Hartford of the South" when there were so many insurance companies HQ'd here. To this day, BCBS Florida is here, Prudential, Aetna, Humana, AHL, Chicago Title is technically HQ'd in Jax because it was taken over by Fidelity National Financial, also HQ'd in Jax, and the list goes on.
And also, if there were a 6th pillar, it would be manufacturing and industry. Florida Rock is here, Embraer is here, and many more due to the port.
Because of this information, I believe Jacksonville will be the first to recover. It is also the 2nd fastest growing metro area in the state. Its office space has always been overbuilt, even in good times, so don't look at that as an indicator. Look for unemployment to decrease the fastest here. There are also still a good number of retirees and tourists in the area, but not to a degree that the city relies on them. RE never inflated as much as S FL or Orlando, either, and so our bubble didn't pop as hard.
It's good to know, Jacksonville is underestimated.
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