#AskJAXTDY | How does city win by giving incentives to ICE?

Q: A Jacksonville Today reader, Alex S., questions the $21 million in incentives approved for an expansion of Intercontinental Exchange Inc., a Fortune 500 company known as ICE.

ICE designs, builds and operates digital networks. It employs about 1,500 people in Jacksonville.

ICE received the city incentives to establish its mortgage and technology headquarters in Jacksonville, part of a $173 million expansion it says will create 500 jobs.

ICE plans to operate out of the former Black Knight building at 601 Riverside Ave., which it obtained when it bought Black Knight last year.

Alex asks how granting $21 million in incentives can be viewed as a “win” for the city when ICE was “already on the hook for the building.”

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“It seems like they were basically going to have to take a loss otherwise,” Alex says. “Hard to paint that as a win in my eyes.”

A: Mayor Donna Deegan says the city wins because it gains jobs and furthers its reputation as a center of financial technology, or fintech.

Many cities across the U.S. were courting ICE for its mortgage technology division, Deegan tells Jacksonville Today.

“We would have lost 1,500 existing jobs and not benefited from 500 new jobs if we didn’t compete,” Deegan says. “Jacksonville is on its way to becoming the fintech capital of the U.S. — which means more good-paying jobs and a growing local economy — with every large financial services company that expands into Jacksonville.”

The mayor laid out specifics of the city’s ICE investment:

• A Recapture Enhanced Value Grant of 90% of the increased property taxes over 13 years, equaling $16 million.
• A targeted industry job creation grant of $5 million ($10,000 per job for up to 500 jobs).