City Council approves $4.3M incentives package for Project Mountain


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  • | 12:00 p.m. November 10, 2016
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City Council provided the go-ahead Tuesday on a $4.3 million incentives package for an unidentified Northwest Jacksonville company to invest $196 million toward expansion and upgrade of its facilities.

The global logistics solutions company in Project Mountain would create 10 new jobs each paying a little more than $50,000 by the end of 2020 as part of the deal.

The incentives deal coincides with plans filed by United Parcel Service Inc. that would expand its 532,000-square-foot regional package distribution center by almost 264,000 square feet.

UPS has long had a presence in Jacksonville and the zoning application for the company’s project would increase parking spaces from 954 to 1,661.

The unidentified company in Project Mountain already employs 965 people.

Project Mountain calls for $4.3 million of city funding through a Recapture Enhanced Value grant.

The grant would provide a refund of 50 percent over five years of the increase in real and personal property taxes generated at the site from the expansion.

According to city documents, the deal retains and supports the company, which is evaluating four other cities in the U.S. for this type of expansion.

In other action Tuesday, council approved transferring $175,000 in additional funding for environmental cleanup at the Shipyards.

The project was established in 2014 following a $13.4 million settlement with a former developer who went bankrupt when trying to establish a project on the site.

Earlier this year, $750,000 was moved from that toward the environmental assessment and remediation of the site.

The $175,000 is for potential assessment or remediation activities that may be needed beyond what the Florida Department of Environmental Protection report required for semi-annual monitoring and maintenance of the site.

The Downtown riverfront site has long been thought to be a prime opportunity for redevelopment, but the environmental issues have been a roadblock.

Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan in February 2015 unveiled a vision for the site, but some of those elements such as an outdoor flex-field and amphitheater, have moved more east toward the stadium.

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