Pattillo Industrial Real Estate expects to start construction on a $10 million speculative warehouse and also resume development on the $30 million BMW regional parts distribution center in the coming weeks.
Both projects are planned along Imeson Road north of Forshee Drive at Westside Industrial Park. The park is west of Interstate 295 and north of Pritchard Road.
Senior Vice President Peter Anderson said BMW’s site is in preparation and work will proceed in the next 30-45 days. BMW now leases space within the park for its regional parts distribution center.
While the project was announced in 2016, Anderson said BMW wanted to change some details.
“We are about through with the final decision on that and will be hard and fast under construction shortly,” he said.
The city issued a site-clearing permit in September 2016 for almost 28 acres at 5560 Imeson Road for the estimated $30 million project.
The city also has been reviewing a building permit application for the nearly 445,000-square-foot warehouse. More specifically, the plans show warehouse space of 432,058 square feet and office space of 16,600, as well as a future expansion.
Clearing and construction costs total $10 million. A notice of commencement was issued April 7. The Conlan Co. was listed as the contractor on the initial permit application.
The property owner is IM500 LLC of Atlanta, led by Stone Mountain Industrial Park and affiliated with Pattillo Industrial Real Estate.
BMW of North America LLC announced in March 2016 that it would develop the new parts center to replace a smaller location it leases at Westside Industrial Park.
Sparks said in March 2016 the company planned to occupy the new site in April 2017 and bring it to full operations the following October, which would be now.
As for the other project, the speculative warehouse is designed at 272,468 square feet at 6282 Imeson Road. Plans initially were approved in August 2016 but no permits were sought.
Pattillo enlarged the structure. Anderson wants to start work on the project when permits are issued for the latest plans, “hopefully within the next 60 days.”
Anderson said Pattillo needs the project for inventory. He said that less than 5 percent of space is vacant in the company’s 7 million square feet of industrial projects in Westside Industrial Park and at the NorthPoint Industrial Park in North Jacksonville.
“We are kind of overdue in getting this building delivered,” Anderson said.
He is targeting tenants of at least 100,000 square feet for the building, which is designed for no more than two tenants.
The market has been good, he said, “as healthy as it’s been in 10 years since the downturn.”
“We have absorbed all of the space from the recession that was vacated and filled back up, including the vacant space. We are finally back to 2007 again,” Anderson said.