log4j - not writing to file when using executable jar - spring-boot

Question

I'm using Spring Boot and creating an executable jar file. We have log4j2 configured. When the app starts, it creates the log file as designated in the log4j2-spring.xml file but never writes to it. Hot changes to the log level in the config file also does not work...expected I guess since it's not writing to the file anyway. My config is below. All paths have been double and triple checked and appear proper.
It should be noted that spring apparently has some log configured. In the jar file, I have removed the xml config to ensure it's not reading from anything in the jar file...yet logging is happening to the console but never in the file...and, again, changing the level has no effect.
FILE: log4j2-spring.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration status="WARN" monitorInterval="30">
<Properties>
<Property name="PID">????</Property>
<property name="name">AddressValidation</property>
<Property name="log.file.path">/opt/java/logs</Property>
<Property name="log.file.archive.path">/opt/java/logs/archive</Property>
<Property name="log.file">AddressValidation</Property>
<Property name="log.file.size">500MB</Property>
<Property name="log.file.max-files">10</Property>
<Property name="log.level">ERROR</Property>
<Property name="LOG_PATTERN">%d{yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ} %p %m%n</Property>
</Properties>
<Appenders>
<RollingFile name="file" fileName="${log.file.path}/${log.file}.log" filePattern="${log.file.archive.path}/${log.file}-%d{yyyy-MM-dd}-%i.log.gz">
<PatternLayout pattern="%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS} %5p ${sys:PID} --- [%t] %c{1}(%M:%L) : %m%n%wEx" />
<Policies>
<TimeBasedTriggeringPolicy /><!-- Rotated everyday -->
<SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy size="${log.file.size}" /> <!-- Or every 100 MB -->
</Policies>
<DefaultRolloverStrategy max="${log.file.max-files}"/>
</RollingFile>
<Console name="Console" target="SYSTEM_OUT" follow="true">
<PatternLayout pattern="%clr{%d{yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS}}{faint} %clr{%5p} %clr{${sys:PID}}{magenta} %clr{---}{faint} %clr{[%t]}{faint} %clr{%c{1}(%M:%L)}{cyan} %clr{:}{faint} %m%n%wEx" />
</Console>
</Appenders>
<Loggers>
<AsyncLogger name="org.hibernate.validator.internal.util.Version" level="warn" additivity="false" />
<AsyncLogger name="org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11NioProtocol" level="warn" additivity="false" />
<AsyncLogger name="org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioSelectorPool" level="warn" additivity="false" />
<AsyncLogger name="org.apache.catalina.startup.DigesterFactory" level="error" additivity="false" />
<AsyncLogger name="org.springframework.web" level="error" />
<AsyncLogger name="com.netflix" level="error" additivity="false" />
<AsyncLogger name="org.springframework.cloud" level="error" additivity="false" />
<AsyncLogger name="com.abc.addressvalidation" level="ERROR">
<AppenderRef ref="file"/>
</AsyncLogger>
<Root level="ERROR">
<AppenderRef ref="Console"/>
<AppenderRef ref="file" />
</Root>
</Loggers>
</Configuration>
I call it as follows:
java -Dlog4j.configurationFile=C:\test\config\log4j2-spring.xml -jar AddressValidation-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar
I'm running out of ideas here. I find lots of info here on StackOverflow on this. It's all pretty much the same advice that I think I'm following.