Originally published January 17, 2007

By Steve Liner
DEMOCRAT BUSINESS EDITOR

The St. Joe Co. called it reorganization, but to about 50 Tallahassee employees, it felt like being fired when the office was closed abruptly around mid-day Tuesday.

Even though the reorganization process began in August, local employees were unaware of the terminations until Tuesday's announcement.

Company spokesman Jerry Ray said the staff reductions were "the end of a long road of reorganization" for his company and "absolutely the last" job losses remaining in the company. Ray's office is at the company's headquarters in Jacksonville.

St. Joe Co. projects involving thousands of acres in Northwest Florida have attracted some of the area's most visible business leaders. In addition to Ennis, a former board chair of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, Will Butler, formerly an international engineering executive and Tallahassee real-estate developer, signed on. Butler also became a St. Joe vice president. Both lost those jobs.

They were recruited by Everitt Drew, also a former chamber board chairman and a partner in SouthGroup, a real-estate practice specializing in commercial property. Drew resigned last week and did not return calls from the Tallahassee Democrat on Tuesday.

The company's official filing of the reorganization with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday reported a 5-percent work-force reduction. That would equate to a total reduction of about 60 employees, based on a company profile completed by the Hoover's stock-analysis firm.

Ray would confirm neither the number nor location of the jobs eliminated.

For decades, the company and its predecessor, St. Joe Paper, have been highly visible. The company is developing the 3,300-acre SouthWood mixed-use community in southeast Tallahassee and a number of projects throughout the area, notably in Franklin County.

The terminations will have some impact on different aspects of the company's operations in Tallahassee, Ray said, but would not elaborate.

"Five months ago, St. Joe Co. began an important reorganization of our company to create a strong foundation for the next 10 years of value creation," company CEO Peter S. Rummell said in a prepared statement.

Ray said the reorganization changes company managers from leading offices designed to support particular products or sales efforts to placing all projects in an area under central management.

The St. Joe Land Co., of which Drew was president and Ennis and Butler vice presidents, was originally formed to sell land deemed unsuitable for its developments. Instead, Drew's team changed the business model and vision, beginning to develop larger-acreage home sites. The strategic change gave rise to Rummell's announcement almost two years ago that the company was altering its course to pursue a "new ruralism," a series of planned developments based on The St. Joe Land Co. model.

Taking the helm of Tallahassee operations as vice president and general manager of the company's new Capital Region is Des O'Neill. Rummell said O'Neill will lead business activity in the Tallahassee area, including SouthWood.

"This is an environmentally and culturally great company," Tallahassee Mayor John Marks said when told of the news by the Democrat. "We want them to stay here and thrive."

"I think they overbuilt," he said, referring to the SouthWood development. "If there is any way St. Joe can help us meet our work-force housing needs, we want to encourage that. Whether this fits with their plan, I don't know, but their major development at SouthWood is where thousands of state employees work."

News of the reorganization plan's finalization did not affect company stock prices before markets closed in New York on Tuesday. St. Joe Co. stock, listed as JOE, opened at $56.09 and closed at $57.19.