Project Rex land could sell for $15M


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Developer Seefried Industrial Properties Inc. has agreed to buy about 155 acres for $15 million for the expected Amazon.com fulfillment center in North Jacksonville, according to filings with the city.

A real estate contract of sale shows Seefried, based in Atlanta, will buy the property from Broward Signature LLP, led by managing partner Stephen Leggett.

The contract price works out to almost $97,000 an acre.

The undeveloped land is at 12900 Pecan Park Road, where it meets Duval Road north of Interstate 295 and 1 1/2 miles south of Jacksonville International Airport.

The contract says Colliers International represents the seller and Cushman & Wakefield represents the buyer. There is no date on the contract.

Property records show the property’s use to be timberland.

Leggett signed the contract on behalf of the seller and Seefried Chief Development Officer Jim Condon signed on behalf of the purchaser.

Neither was available immediately for comment.

The contract was included in construction plans filed Monday with the city.

Seattle-based Amazon.com, the global e-commerce retailer, is not identified in the plans or the documents, although it is widely believed to be the end user of the project.

No announcement has been made, but the project has been moving through city and regulatory approvals.

Called Project Rex, Project Duval and also the “Broward Distribution Center” in various regulatory filings, the one-phase development is expected to start construction this summer.

Plans show a building footprint for a receiving/distribution warehouse of 855,000 square feet. Parking has ranged on plans from 2,600 to 2,800 spaces for vehicles. There also will be 80 truck bay doors, and a range of trailer parking spaces up to 340.

Pecan Park Road will be realigned for the project. The plans indicate Pecan Park Road at the site will be closed starting July 5.

The construction plans follow a building-permit application submitted in May that showed the structure will be built on almost 148 acres at a cost of $87 million.

Counting the ground floor and three mezzanine levels, the building will be 2.1 million to 2.4 million square feet in size. It will be highly automated.

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 of Project Rex.

Broward Signature is listed as the property owner while Paul Seefried is the project contact. Seefried is senior development manager with Seefried Industrial Properties.

City and state incentives will provide $18.4 million in refunds, grants, road improvements and training.

Legislation and public documents show the company will hire 1,500 people, including 500 that make an average of $50,000 a year. Peak seasonal employment will increase the workforce to 3,500 among two shifts.

The $200 million project is supposed to be completed by year-end 2019.

Amazon.com has been looking at Florida expansion for at least three years, although Jacksonville wasn’t chosen for its first fulfillment centers in the state. Jacksonville later re-emerged as a potential site, strengthened when legislation was filed with City Council in April for incentives for a company whose description matched Amazon.com.

No one involved in the deal or associated with it will confirm Amazon.com, citing a confidentiality agreement. The real estate contract includes a confidentiality clause for the seller.

With building plans, a real estate contract and regulatory approvals in review, approved or organized, all that seems to remain is the public acknowledgement that Amazon.com is the unidentified project.

 

[email protected]

@MathisKb

(904) 356-2466

 

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