Mayor Andrew Gillum and the Mystery of 311 East Jennings Street-——
a morass of addresses, interconnections, swaps and deals raising questions about Mayor Gillum’s alliances.
(And how many Gillum voters are registered at that address AND at other addresses?)
Gillum was elected to the city commission in 2003 and became mayor in 2014; insists he has been told he is not the target of the FBI inquiry.
<><>local businessman J.T. Burnette, a major Gillum backer who in 2014 received $883,000 in city subsidies for developing a downtown hotel. He declined to comment for this story. Burnette, in fact, has become a major political player supporting candidates of both parties – by taking advantage of what’s known as the LLC loophole. Florida is one of several states that allows limited liability corporations – even if they have the same ownership — to contribute as separate individuals, permitting donors to give the maximum amount of $1,000 from each of their subsidiaries.
<><> 52 LLCs list the Jennings Street address, many of which have donated to state and local campaigns. Those businesses include Sunnyland Solar, connected to a city-subsidized liberal-loving clean energy project now under FBI scrutiny. Mayor Gillum voted in 2011 to give Sunnyland Solar up to $5.4 million in subsidies.
<><>The Jennings Street address also houses KaiserKane, a national security contractor with millions of dollars in federal contracts, including multimillion-dollar deals with the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.
<><>KaiserKane, named in the FBI subpoena, actually bought the Jennings Street property in 2013 for $1.15 million, records show. The building was sold in 2016 to 311 Jennings LLC, a company that lists Burnette’s home as its corporate address. The Jennings building was sold again in March 2017 to the PACE Center for Girls, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit. KaiserKane still uses the address for its Tallahassee office on its website “contact” page. Cynthia Montgomery, a lawyer representing PACE, said her client is the lone occupant of the 12,000-square-foot building. KaiserKane President Melissa Oglesby did not return a call.
<><> Mayor Gillum’s actions have prompted other questions. Until last month, his campaign was operating out of 1550 Melvin, owned by longtime confidante Sharon Lettman-Hicks. It’s the same building he has worked out of in his side gigs, first as director of youth leadership for the advocacy group People for the American Way, then for Lettman-Hicks’ P & P Communications, where Gillum was vice president. Just what he did for P & P, though, is not known. The company has no website, no dedicated phone line and has not formally disclosed its clients.
<><> The building was bought with funding from the Northwest Florida Black Business Investment Corporation, a tax-exempt group that provides investment funding. Two of the investment corporation directors are part of a group that in July received $281,000 in Tallahassee community development money for exclusive rights to a development project in the city.
(hat tip RealClearInvestigations)
KaiserKane, named in the FBI subpoena, actually bought the Jennings Street property in 2013 for $1.15 million, records show. The building was sold in 2016 to 311 Jennings LLC, a company that lists Burnette’s home as its corporate address.
The Jennings building was sold again in March 2017 to the PACE Center for Girls, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit.
KaiserKane still uses the address for its Tallahassee office on its website “contact” page.
Cynthia Montgomery, a lawyer representing PACE, said her client is the lone occupant of the 12,000-square-foot building.
KaiserKane President Melissa Oglesby did not return a call.
Nice, quiet little one-story office building.
Hard to believe that it's teeming with 52 LLCs and 15 hustling business offices pursuing the American Dream.
