The Lake Mary City Commission approved $75,000 worth of incentives to bring 150 new jobs and another corporate headquarters to International Parkway.
The company, Juenesse LLC, currently has offices in Altamonte Springs and 34 cities worldwide. It plans to centralize it’s management at a corporate headquarters in Lake Mary. The company, also plans to add 150 new employees over the next three years at its new facility. The average salary for the new employees will be $47,000, which is 150% of the Seminole County average.
Lake Mary economic development manager, Tom Tomerlin, said he has been working with Juenesse and Altamonte Springs officials in relocating the company.
“We did coordinate with Altamonte Springs,” said Tomerlin, who stressed this was not a case of Lake Mary poaching a neighboring city’s business.
“Juenesse is experiencing rapid growth, and Altamonte Springs did not have the office space to accommodate them,” said Tomerlin. “We worked together to keep them in Seminole County.”
Juenesse will relocate to the 136,000-square-foot building at 701 International Parkway. A subsidiary of Juenesse, RWR Real Estate Holdings LLC, recently purchased the building for $19.1 million. The company plans to invest another $7.1 million in furniture, fixtures and equipment.
The $75,000 committed by Lake Mary represents 10% of the total $750,000 in Qualified Target Industry (QTI) funds Juenesse is seeking. Under the QTI program, which is administered through the state’s Enterpise Florida organization, companies can receive $5,000 in tax refunds for each new qualifying job created. Local cities and counties agreed to fund 20% of the incentive, while Enterprise Florida funds the rest. Seminole County Commissioners will consider committing $75,000 to Juenesse at a meeting in the near future.
No QTI funds are paid until a state audit confirms the new jobs were created.
Juenesse is a multilevel marketing company that sells skin care and health products.
– by Dan Ping
Sanford, Fla. 