It really shouldn’t be long before Amazon.com confirms its second Jacksonville fulfillment center.
Plans filed with the city Tuesday show the proposed Amazon.com project at Cecil Commerce Center will be a non-sort fulfillment center, meaning it would handle large consumer items.
The Seattle-based e-commerce retailer’s name is not on the plans for the West Jacksonville location, although a document filed with the city identifies it as Amazon.com.
That document includes a construction cost of $56.5 million.
The company has not responded to requests for comment.
Its first center, under construction in Northwest Jacksonville, will pick, pack and ship smaller items such as books, toys and consumer electronics.
The second center has been expected since the first was announced in July and plans began circulating for a similar one at AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center.
Together, the two centers will employ 2,700 employees, based on approved legislation for taxpayer incentives.
While plans say the Cecil Commerce Center warehouse will be one story, the building height of 47 feet provides for multiple levels within it to store the TVs, kayaks, treadmills and other large items that would be shipped from the center.
By comparison, the Amazon.com fulfillment center in North Jacksonville will be a four-level facility at 49 feet in height. The 855,000-square-foot center is at 12900 Pecan Park Road north of Interstate 295.
Work already has begun. The Conlan Co. received a permit in October to clear the 86-acre site at 13333 103rd St. as the city now reviews the construction permit and plans.
Details tell the story
Those plans show more details about the center.
The 1,016,041-square-foot building would comprise 980,103 square feet of warehouse space, 24,025 square feet of office space, 10,039 square feet for break room space and 1,874 square feet for training.
Total allowable occupancy is 2,962 people, although the center is expected to employ 1,200 full-time workers plus more during the holidays.
Hillwood Investment Properties is the developer of AllianceFlorida; Prosser is the civil engineer; Macgregor Associates Architects Inc. is the architect; JSE is the mechanical engineer; Schaefer is the structural engineer; and Harrington Group is the fire protection engineer.
The plan and data table show 33 warehouse bays, 98 shipping and receiving doors, 1,137 parking spaces for cars, 242 spaces for trailer parking and 108 future trailer parking spaces.
Developer Hillwood Investment Properties has not commented, nor have the city Office of Economic Development or the JAXUSA Partnership economic development division of JAX Chamber.
The 1,500-job Northwest Jacksonville center should open in fall 2017, while the 1,200-employee Cecil center will open by year-end 2019, according to taxpayer incentives legislation.
Total city and state incentives would be $26.7 million - $18.4 million for Northwest Jacksonville and $8.3 million for Cecil.
To qualify, 500 of the Northwest Jacksonville workers will be paid $50,000 a year, while 325 of the Cecil employees will make an average of $50,675.
Together, the two centers represent a promised investment of $315 million — $200 million for Northwest Jacksonville and $115 for Cecil.
Hillwood intends to buy the 86 acres from the city at a cost of $8,819 an acre, or more than $758,000. The city owns Cecil Commerce Center, a former Naval Air Station, and Fort Worth-based Hillwood is the master developer.
Company announces 19th center this year
It may not be a long wait for confirmation because Project Velo, as the West Jacksonville project has been called, told the city it would make a decision about the site by year-end.
Plus, Amazon.com has resumed announcing new centers. Through August, the company announced 18 fulfillment centers, including Jacksonville’s first in July.
On Tuesday, it announced its third center for Nevada, one that will create more than 1,000 jobs in North Las Vegas.
Amazon.com employees at that new 800,000-square-foot center will handle larger customer items, such as big-screen televisions, kayaks and patio furniture.
The company said Tuesday it employs more than 1,500 full-time hourly workers at its centers in Reno and North Las Vegas.
As the company said in announcing the first Jacksonville center in July, full-time employees receive competitive hourly wages and a comprehensive benefits package, including health care, 401(k) and company stock awards, starting on the first day.
When Amazon.com announces the second Jacksonville center, it also might say more about the new delivery station it plans in North Jacksonville.
The company filed a permit application in early November to build-out a 63,000-square-foot delivery station at Alta Lakes Commerce Center in North Jacksonville, nine miles east of the Pecan Park Road center.
Delivery stations sort packages for last-mile delivery to customers in a tightly defined area. Often deliveries are performed by multiple local courier companies contracted by Amazon.com.
As of July, Amazon.com operated more than 50 fulfillment centers in the U.S. with more than 90,000 full-time employees.
In Central Florida, the company operates a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Lakeland for large items and another 1.1 million-square-foot center for smaller items in Ruskin.
Amazon.com reports that as of the third quarter, it had about 7,000 employees in Florida, not counting the thousands of seasonal jobs hired each holiday season.
As of July, it operated 23 sortation centers in the country, which generally are smaller — 200,000 to 300,000 square feet — to sort packages for “last mile” final delivery. The company said there were two in Central and South Florida.
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