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Intercontinental Exchange picks Jacksonville for its mortgage technology headquarters

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Intercontinental Exchange picks Jacksonville for its mortgage technology headquarters

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Fortune 500 company Intercontinental Exchange picked Jacksonville as the home base for its mortgage technology division after fielding offers from other cities in a battle for landing the company’s high-paying jobs.

The decision announced Tuesday will keep 1,500 employees of Intercontinental Exchange in Jacksonville with plans to increase that by 500 more jobs at an average $100,000 salary over the the next seven years.

The city and the state of Florida combined on a multimillion dollar incentive package that convinced Intercontinental Exchange, whose main headquarters is in Atlanta, to anchor its wholly-owned subsidiary ICE Mortgage Technology in Jacksonville.

“For those of you who do not recognize and understand this — Jacksonville is a tech city,” JAXUSA Partnership President Aundra Wallace said during the announcement at the front of the JAX Chamber building in downtown.

He said it’s the latest case of a tech-centered company coming to Jacksonville.

Mayor Donna Deegan called it a “very big win for our city.”

She said it shows the strength of Jacksonville’s financial services sector and the regional employee base for those jobs, the city’s “friendly business climate” and the taxpayer incentives “that will reap dividends for our local economy for many, many years to come.”

International Exchange bought Black Knight in 2023

Intercontinental Exchange, also called ICE, has had a Jacksonville presence since it completed an $11.9 billion purchase of Jacksonville-based Black Knight in September 2023.

Intercontinental Exchange’s acquisition of Black Knight made it the owner of the 601 Riverside Ave. office building where Black Knight had operated its corporate headquarters. The building is next to two other Fortune 500 financial service companies based in Jacksonville: Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS, and Fidelity National Financial.

Intercontinental Exchange expects to spend $173 million to $216 million on its office space by the end of December 2029. The company has not said whether the Riverside Avenue building will be the long-term home in Jacksonville for its mortgage technology division.

Black Knight had about 2,000 employees in the Jacksonville area when Intercontinental Exchange announced in May 2022 it had struck a deal to purchase Black Knight.

Intercontinental Exchange had 1,500 employees in Jacksonville at the end of November, which is the baseline for counting the addition of 500 new jobs that will qualify the company for job-based incentives.

Jacksonville City Council approved an incentive package on Dec. 10 for the company which was code-named Project Paper Company. Intercontinental Exchange will be able to get up to $5 million from the city’s targeted industry job creation program based on $10,000 for each new job added. The company will have until the end of December 2031 to bring all 500 new jobs for that incentive.

“Being able to keep 1,500 jobs in the city and the additional 500 is huge,” City Council President Randy White said.

Multimillion incentive package locked in decision for Jacksonville

The company also will get rebates on city property taxes it pays based on the increase in property value caused by its investment in building improvements. For the additional city property taxes generated by the company’s investment, Intercontinental would get 90% of those taxes rebated over a 13-year period for a maximum incentive of $16 million.

The state will pay $4 million in grants from its high-impact performance incentive program and give a capital investment tax credit for 100% of the company state’s corporate tax liability.

Joe Nackashi, vice chair of the company’s mortgage technology division, said ICE has started bringing online some of the 500 new jobs.

“We’ve had team members relocate from Chicago, from New York, from Boston and yes from the U.K. in terms of London,” said Nackashi, who previously was CEO of Black Knight.

On a global basis, Intercontinental had 13,222 employees at the end of 2023 in the United States, India, the United Kingdom and Europe. The company had U.S. employees in Florida, New York, Georgia, California, Massachusetts and Illinois.

City Council retooled incentive to reduce amount of cash grants

The incentives originally proposed to City Council in October would have totaled $11 million in cash grants from three programs — business expansion, employment retention and local targeted industry employment — plus $10 million in property tax rebates over 13 years.

Council members Will Lahnen and Nick Howland pushed back on that framework.

Lahnen said he was concerned about drawing $11 million in cash grants directly from the city’s general fund, which he called the “city savings account.” He also disliked the idea that one of the cash grants would be for employee retention.

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“Just in general, I was uncomfortable with giving out money for what is essentially playing defense to keep people here instead of incentivizing more people to come here,” Lahnen said at a City Council Finance Committee meeting.

The city’s Office of Economic Development and the chamber went back to Intercontinental Exchange and renegotiated the incentives to bring down the amount of cash grants and shift more of the incentives to property tax rebates, which Howland called “a great compromise.”

(This story was updated to add new information.)

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