USAA Real Estate Company, through RELP Duval LLC, paid $15 million Thursday for 155 acres in North Jacksonville, setting the stage for what is expected to be an Amazon.com e-commerce fulfillment center, one of the largest single-user economic development projects in the city’s history.
Seller Steve Leggett confirmed the transaction early Friday but declined to say if it was for an Amazon.com fulfillment center. He said site construction has begun.
The project will be built at Duval and Pecan Park roads, just off Interstate 295 a mile and a half south of Jacksonville International Airport.
Seefried Industrial Properties Inc. had the contract to buy the land from Broward Signature LLP, led by Leggett as the managing partner. On city construction documents, Seefried is listed as the developer and USAA Real Estate is listed as the owner.
RELP also paid $700,000 for smaller parcels from CRM Florida Properties LLC of Atlanta along Pecan Park Road and Duval Road.
Deeds were recorded today with the Duval County Clerk of Court.
Seefried and USAA have partnered on other projects, including an Amazon.com fulfillment center announced July 15 for Sacramento.
Seefried Chief Development Officer Jim Condon could not be reached for comment Friday morning. Seefried was listed in a real estate contract of sale as the purchaser of the Jacksonville property.
On June 1, an executive with San Antonio-based USAA registered the name RELP Duval LLC with the state of Florida. That executive, James Hardin, did not immediately return a call or email Friday, nor did a USAA real estate executive.
Spokeswoman Marsha Oliver said the city has “no information to share.” The JAX Chamber had no comment.
No formal announcement has been made, although city and state incentives and public documents outline a $200 million, more than 1,500-job project at 12900 Pecan Park Road.
Of those jobs, 500 will make an average of $50,000 a year. Peak seasonal employment will increase the workforce to 3,500 among two shifts in an area targeted for economic development to provide jobs and capital investment.
Construction was projected to start this summer for completion and job creation by year-end 2019. The site is being cleared.
Leggett said it was 110 usable acres.
City and state incentives will provide $18.4 million in refunds, grants, road improvements and training. City Council approved the city’s $13.4 million share of incentives in April. The state would provide $4.95 million.
Seattle-based Amazon.com is not identified in the plans or the documents. The company has not responded to a call or email Friday.
Seefried, which has developed two Amazon.com centers in Richmond, Va., and Nashville and also will build one in Sacramento, paid about $97,000 an acre for the Leggett property.
The purchase contract for the Leggett property said Colliers International represented the seller and Cushman & Wakefield represented the buyer.
Pecan Park Road is being realigned to ease access to the site and closed July 14 for improvements in the project area.
Permits and plans in city review show a multilevel project of 2.4 million square feet, with a base footprint of 855,000 square feet. A building-permit application submitted in May showed the structure will be built on almost 148 acres at a cost of $87 million.
Plans show a building footprint for a receiving/distribution warehouse of 855,000 square feet. There will be 80 truck bay doors and a range of trailer parking spaces up to 340.
Counting the ground floor and three mezzanine levels, the building will be 2.1 million to 2.4 million square feet in size.
The construction documents say the proposed facility is “to be used as an online order fulfillment center for general product merchandise.”
The city in April approved a permit for horizontal development on the property at a project cost of $1 million. The work includes pine harvesting, a pond, site clearing, tree removal and other work to prepare for development.
No contractor was listed on the permit application. Tetra Tech Inc. is the consultant and the agent’s engineer.
An Office of Economic Development Project Rex summary said the deal will help address high unemployment in the Jacksonville International Airport Community Redevelopment Area, where the rate tops 15 percent in some areas near the site.
The 1,500 jobs will have access to medical benefits upon hire and the opportunity after a year to participate in other benefits, such as tuition assistance and company stock awards, the summary says.
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority and city have discussed transportation options and programs to handle the large influx of employees, such as a dedicated bus stop near the site and bus routes to serve some of the areas with the highest unemployment rates, the summary says.
In recent months, Amazon.com has opened or announced centers in several other states for projects from 500,000 to 1 million square feet.
If the Jacksonville center is like a new Texas fulfillment center announced today or the one in Sacramento announced July 15, it will pick, pack and ship smaller customer items, such as books, electronics and toys.
Amazon.com said the 855,000-square-foot center in Houston will be its seventh in Texas and will create 1,000 full-time positions, boosting employment in the state to more than 10,000 full-time positions. Another center is under construction.
The California center, also at 855,000 square feet, will be its 10th in the state and fourth announced within a span of four months, boosting statewide employment to more than 14,000 people.
Amazon.com had been considered a possible prospect in 2013 when Amazon.com chose two Florida sites for 1 million-square-foot fulfillment centers.
Those opened in 2014 in Lakeland and near Tampa, together employing 2,000 workers. The Orlando Sentinel reported in August the company was adding 2,000 more jobs at the two centers.
Jacksonville did not formally bid on those centers.
The order-filling centers are part of the company’s efforts to provide next-day and same-day delivery for customers.
Amazon.com opened online in 1995 and now employs 230,800 people worldwide.
It does not list the number or locations of its fulfillment centers on its website and its Securities and Exchange Commission filings don’t outline future locations, but it continues to grow.
An industrial real estate blog reported in early 2015 that Amazon.com had at least 50 operational centers in at least 21 states.