JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If CSX Transportation’s parent company relocates its headquarters to Jacksonville as railroad industry analysts have predicted, the move would be largely uneventful, city and industry observers said.
Parent CSX Corp. Inc. is already well-invested in the Jacksonville community, and the move of 50 workers from the CSX home office in Richmond, Va., to Jacksonville would barely deserve notice in light of the 5,100 CSX employees already working on the First Coast.
And CSXT wouldn’t even have to change the sign atop the company’s Water Street building. They already did that in May — one month after heir apparent CSXT President Michael Ward was named to CSX’s board of directors.
The “transportation” portion of the sign was removed ostensibly to save money on maintenance.
Despite company officials’ unwillingness to talk about the subject, railroad industry analysts have been saying CSX is readying itself for consolidation, and Ward is poised to take the company’s top spot after Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Snow retires in 2004.
“My assessment is it’s [Ward’s] job to lose,” said Larry Kaufman, a columnist for Rail Business magazine. “They don’t have any other executive to succeed Snow.”
Ward became a board member three months ago, and this week he was named president of CSX. Yet there’s still no official word from CSX about Ward’s plans or relocating its headquarters.
As long as the railroad stays in Jacksonville, any specific relocation plans may be irrelevant, industry observer and railroad author Rush Loving said.
“I think for all practical purposes the headquarters are in Jacksonville,” he said. “I think it’s sort of moot if they do or they don’t [move to Jacksonville].”
CSX may decide to keep its headquarters in Richmond for political reasons or to continue long-standing banking relationships it has there, Loving said.
Jim Dunn, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, said losing CSX to Jacksonville would be unfortunate for Richmond even though the company has only 50 employees there.
CSX is one of six Richmond-based companies listed on the Fortune 500 — a type of business targeted by city recruiters, Dunn said.
“That’s an important group to us,” he said.
Winn-Dixie Stores — No. 160 on the list — is the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville.
Kirk Wendland, executive director of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, said although he would welcome the relocation of CSX, it wouldn’t have a “dramatic impact” on Jacksonville because the company already has a high profile in the area.
“We treat them and they treat us like they have the headquarters here anyway,” he said.
CSX set up its office in Richmond 22 years ago as a compromise between its two predecessor companies, Cleveland’s Chessie System Inc. and Jacksonville’s Seaboard Coast Line Industries Inc. That strategy may still be valid today.
Loving said Richmond benefits the railroad because it’s close to customers in New York and convenient to Washington, D.C., for lobbying purposes. It’s also near the middle of CSXT’s East Coast line.
“It makes sense to be near your customers and near the center of your system,” Loving said.
Ward has said in published reports that it’s likely that board members would be open to relocating the headquarters to Jacksonville because it would be closer to their Florida homes. However, no decision would be made until Snow retires.
Ward is a bottom-line guy, and there’s little chance that he would maintain a headquarters in Richmond after Snow steps down, Kaufman said.
“There’s no reason to have it in Richmond,” he said. “It costs them money.”