Fulfillment Shipping and Handling Inc. is moving ahead with its proposed expansion in Southside.
The company, which focuses on small-business customers’ Internet sales, has applied to the city to add 40,250 square feet of industrial space to a building it owns at 4011 Morton St.
Preferred Builders is shown as the contractor for the $875,000 project.
Fulfillment Shipping and Handling is a 5-year-old organization. Two of its owners are partners in Priority Transportation Group Inc., a courier service they bought 25 years ago.
Together, the two companies occupy four buildings, comprising 110,000 square feet of warehouse space and 18,000 square feet of office space. The addition at Morton Street isn’t far from the headquarters at 4344 Philips Highway.
In January, Chris Flowers, a partner in both businesses, estimated a $1.5 million investment in the expansion.
Most of the space is used by Fulfillment Shipping and Handling.
Fulfillment Shipping and Handling markets itself as shipping-and-handling.com.
Sales have grown 40 percent annually the past two years and Flowers projects similar growth this year. “Or we wouldn’t be building this warehouse,” he said in January.
JLL credits Prominence office park’s investment for NGA move
JLL, formerly known as Jones Lang LaSalle, represents the Prominence office park where NGA Human Resources will move its U.S. headquarters and credits the park’s owner for the upgrades that attracted the deal.
“Our JLL team worked closely with NGA Human Resources to find a sophisticated facility that would permit the company’s expansion at favorable leasing rates,” said Jesse Shimp, vice president at JLL.
Crocker Partners of Boca Raton bought the 54-acre office park, then called Freedom Commerce Centre, in December 2012 for $27.8 million.
It rebranded the park as Prominence.
Crocker Partners said it would make a multimillion-dollar capital improvement to the property, comprising seven buildings totaling 752,154 square feet of office space, and has invested in renovating some of the buildings as well as for new and expanding tenants.
Kaycee Gardner, vice president at JLL, said with demand increasing for quality space, the park is positioned to lure corporate users that want to relocate to Jacksonville.
Prominence sits at Baymeadows Road and Interstate 95 and initially was developed from 1988-98 by Koger Equity Inc.
Shimp represented Crocker Partners in the lease deal and Gardner represented NGA Human Resources, which will lease about 2.5 floors in Building 400 and gain signage on the building.
NGA Human Resources will lease about 70,000 square feet in Prominence and move from space it leases in the Convergys building at 8000 Baymeadows Way.
The move starts this fall and will be completed by March 2016, when its lease expires at the Convergys building.
NGA Human Resources spokeswoman Shannon Karl said 450 employees will move from the offices leased in the Convergys building. There also are about 100 work-from-home employees who occasionally work at or from the office, she said.
3 responses to Renew Arlington RFP
Three groups responded to the city’s Request for Proposals to provide consulting services to help create the Renew Arlington community redevelopment area.
Diettrich Planning of Jacksonville, Strategic Planning Group of Ponte Vedra and Community Solutions Group responded.
City spokeswoman Kristen Sell said the next step is to evaluate and score the proposals. She said the chief of procurement anticipates having them back this week for the Professional Services Evaluation Committee meeting Thursday but said they might take another week.
The consultants would provide professional services to create a “Finding of Necessity Study” and a comprehensive Community Redevelopment Area Plan for the University Boulevard/Merrill Road Corridor that has been expanded to include Arlington Road from University Boulevard to Rogero Road.
The area’s main corridors are from Jacksonville University, at 2800 University Blvd. N., east to Interstate 295 and south to the Arlington Expressway, as well as the Arlington Road addition.
Mayor Alvin Brown wants to create a Community Redevelopment Area and Tax Increment Financing District to boost jobs and investment in the Arlington area. He has allocated more than $200,000 for the CRA study and plan that will need City Council approval.
If approved, the city would determine a baseline value of taxable properties within the district boundaries. Starting in 2016, all of the additional property tax revenues would be redirected to revitalize the CRA.
Jeremiah’s Italian Ice plans Mandarin site
Jeremiah’s Italian Ice intends to open in San Jose Village in Mandarin.
The first store opened in 1996 in Winter Park by Jeremy Litwack. He has since opened eight, including in Orange Park.
Litwack filed Jeremiah’s Italian Ice of Mandarin LLC in January for the 9891 San Jose Blvd. shop. The company is based in Maitland.
Jeremiah’s offers Italian ices and gelatis. Including Jacksonville, the company has at least nine shops in the state.
The city is reviewing a permit for a $125,000 remodel of 1,383 square feet of space at the shopping center for Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.
Food bites
• Super Food & Brew is renovating the former Starbucks space at 11 E. Forsyth St. Downtown. All Weather Contractors Inc. has the job.
• Bonefish Grill is remodeling its Mandarin restaurant at 10950 San Jose Blvd.
• Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza will remodel at 4372 Southside Blvd. and 842 Dunn Ave. Papa Murphy’s Holdings of Vancouver, Wash., said last week it will strengthen and grow its presence in the Southeast with the acquisitions of existing Papa Murphy’s franchise stores in Jacksonville as a springboard for further expansion throughout the Southeast.
• Krystal and O’Reilly Auto Parts are shown as possible developments on 2.51 acres south of Normandy Boulevard, just east of Chateau Road.
• Hero’s Eatery is planned for build-out at 12276 San Jose Blvd., No. 709.
• Starbucks wants to remodel at 9940 Southside Blvd.
@MathisKb
(904) 356-2466