St. Joe Company

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St. Joe Company
legal form Public company
ISIN US7901481009
founding 1936
Seat Watersound (Florida)
Branch Real estate industry
Website https://www.joe.com/

The St. Joe Company , until May 1996 St. Joe Paper Company , is an American real estate company based in Watersound (Florida) . From 1936 to the early 2000s, the company was under the control of the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust .

history

In 1926, the Delaware entrepreneur Alfred I. du Pont settled in Florida. In Florida, land prices fell sharply after the land boom ended . This gave du Pont and his brother-in-law Edward Ball, who was responsible for the business, the opportunity to acquire larger pieces of land at low prices. Among other things, he acquired 97,000 hectares in northwest Florida. The purchase included almost the entire city of Port St. Joe , two railroad companies, several telephone companies, a land development company, a port and a sawmill. The plan was to develop this area further by building a paper mill. After Alfred du Pont's death in 1935, this plan was implemented with the establishment of the St. Joe Paper Company on May 25, 1936. Until May 31, 1940 the company was a joint venture with the Mead Corporation of Ohio. Du Pont's shares were initially held through Almours Securities. After the foundation of the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust , the latter took over the shares. The foundation financed the non-profit Nemours Foundation. In the years that followed, the St. Joe Paper Company served Edward Ball as the foundation for growing his fortune.

Immediately after the company was founded, construction of the paper mill began. In addition, the port was expanded. In order to put the company on a secure income basis, the acquisition of forest areas began. By 1999 the property had reached an area of ​​4450 km². This made the company the largest private land owner in Florida. St. Joe Paper was one of the largest producers of paper and cardboard in the United States. Furthermore, were corrugated nfabriken and acquired the sugar mill Talisman Sugar Corporation.

From the mid-1940s, shares in the Florida East Coast Railway were acquired. From 1949 the company began to act against a takeover of the railway company by larger railway companies. In 1961 the FEC was finally taken over.

Edward Ball died in 1981. In the following 15 years there were hardly any changes in the direction of the company. The St. Joe Paper Company made regular profits. In relation to the existing assets (real estate, cash reserves), however, these were rather small. This led to criticism from the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust and from the work of the Foundation-funded Nemours Foundation and the beneficiary states of Florida and Delaware. One effect was the gradual reduction of the DuPont Foundation's shareholding in the company from 86% in 1989 to 57% in 1998 and from 2006 to below 5%. The shares were barely traded in the market until the 1990s and were highly valued.

In 1984 the Florida East Coast Railway became a subsidiary of the newly founded Florida East Coast Industries . St. Joe Paper continued to hold a 54% stake in this holding.

Finally, in the early 1990s, the company began to realign. This was also due to the economic stagnation in some economic sectors. Overseas trade in the port continued to decline from the 1970s until it came to a standstill in 1996. Company development focused on real estate and land development and sold the subsidiaries that did not fit into this concept. In April 1996 the telecommunications company and in May 1996 the paper and board mill St. Joe Forest Products Co. and the St. Joe Container Company were sold. Immediately thereafter, the company's name was changed to St. Joe Company.

From January 1997 the former Walt Disney Imagineering manager Peter S. Rummell could be won over to the company management. Rummell began developing new construction projects in the residential, commercial / industrial, holiday resorts and theme parks sectors. For the development of commercial and industrial companies there was a collaboration with the CNL Group and the Codina Group.

Florida East Coast Industries' real estate along the railway line was to be marketed for office and commercial buildings. In 1997, a 74% stake in the residential real estate industry, Arvida Company, was acquired. As part of this realignment, the sugar factory was also sold at the end of 1997. In the following years the aggressive development of the real estate sector continued. The sale of a large part of the forest area planned in 1997 was abandoned in 1999 due to fluctuating demand.

In 2000 Florida East Coast Industries including the railway company was separated from the company and became independent.

The economic development of St. Joe became increasingly dependent on the development of the real estate industry in Florida and the United States. This led to an economic slump in the second half of the 2000s.

In early 2011, investment fund manager Bruce R. Berkowitz (Fairholme Capital) took control of the company and appointed new management. At that time, Fairholme owned 28.9% of the shares. Other larger shareholders were BlackRock Inc with 17.7%, Janus Capital Management with 13.2% and T. Rowe Price Associates Inc. with 11.2%.

Corporate management

president

  • May 25, 1936-31. May 1940: Sidney Ferguson
  • June 1, 1940–1968: Edward Ball
  • 1968 – June 1984: Jacob C. Belin
  • June 1984 – January 1997: Winfred L. Thornton (CEO from June 1991)
  • January 1997-13. May 2008: Peter S. Rummell ( CEO )
  • October 2007 – February 2011: William Britton Greene (CEO from May 13, 2008)
  • October 2011–14. August 2014: L. Park Brady Jr. (CEO)
  • 2014 – November 2015: Jeffrey C. Keil (Interim CEO)
  • since November 2015: Jorge Gonzalez (CEO)

Chairman

  • May 25, 1936-31. May 1940: George H. Mead
  • June 1, 1940–1981: Edward Bell (CEO)
  • 1982 – June 1991: Jacob C. Belin (CEO)
  • June 1991 – January 1997: Winfred L. Thornton (CEO)
  • January 1997 – August 2008: Peter S. Rummell (CEO)
  • August 2008 – February 2011: Hugh M. Durden
  • since March 2011: Bruce R. Berkowitz

Company headquarters

From 1936 to 2011 the company was based in Jacksonville (Florida) . Until 1988 the same objects were used as the Alfred I. duPont Testamentary Trust. Then they moved into rented business premises.

In 2011, Watersound moved into business premises in the self-developed area.

subsidiary company

Web links

literature

  • Gerald Colby: Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain . Lyle Stuart, 1984, ISBN 978-0-8184-0352-1 .
  • Kathryn Ziewitz, June Wiaz: Green Empire: The St. Joe Company and the Remaking of Florida's Panhandle . University Press of Florida, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8130-2951-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ 16 May 1996, Page 4 - Tallahassee Democrat at Newspapers.com. Accessed January 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ 25 May 1936, Page 1 - Tallahassee Democrat at Newspapers.com. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
  3. ↑ 31 May 1940, Page 31 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
  4. ^ History - Port of Port St. Joe, Florida. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Reuters: Company News; st. Joe Paper Sells Its Pulp and Paper Mill . In: The New York Times . May 31, 1996, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed March 7, 2019]).
  6. ↑ SEC Filing | The St. Joe Company May 30, 1996. Retrieved March 8, 2019 .
  7. ↑ 22 Feb 2011, 43 - South Florida Sun Sentinel at Newspapers.com. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Feb 20, 2008, 29 - Tampa Bay Times at Newspapers.com. Retrieved January 29, 2019 .