The day after the city confirmed Wayfair Inc. will open a 250-job distribution center in West Jacksonville, developer Hillwood applied for permits to build the 1 million-square-foot shell building and complete a small portion for office space.
The city announced Dec. 3 that Boston-based Wayfair, an online retailer of home furnishings, would lease the building and open the $72 million center on 80 acres in AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center in West Jacksonville.
The site is at 13483 103rd St., next to an Amazon.com fulfillment center.
Dallas-based Hillwood applied for permits Dec. 4 to build the 1,012,567-square-foot Wayfair center at a cost of $49 million and build-out 16,280 square feet of office space at a cost of $3.5 million. That totals $52.5 million.
A city incentives agreement says Wayfair will invest $50 million into real estate and $22 million into machinery, equipment, furniture and fixtures.
The Conlan Co. is the contractor and Prosser Inc. is the engineer.
The city issued a site-clearing permit Oct. 31 for 90.19 acres, more than the area designated, at a cost of $390,000.
AllianceFlorida master developer Hillwood plans to pay the city $9,517 an acre for the property for an estimated total of $757,569, according to legislation approving incentives for the project.
Wayfair, through a lease with Dallas-based Hillwood, would pay for the cost of construction and development of the space.
Building plans indicate 250 parking spaces and future spaces of 240, totaling 490.
The city said the building will be completed by year-end 2020 and the jobs created by the end of 2021.
In previous job postings for leadership jobs, Wayfair referred to the Jacksonville center as a Large Parcel Home Delivery Operation.
Wayfair will start construction on or before Jan. 31, according to the city’s economic development agreement signed Nov. 15 with the company.
Wayfair is posting jobs for part-time and full-time positions available for all shifts at the center, which will serve the Southeast U.S.
The jobs are posted at wayfaircareers.com. Salaries aren’t listed but Wayfair told the city its average salary for the full-time jobs will be $33,000 plus benefits.
City Council approved a $3.3 million city Recapture Enhanced Value grant, payable over 10 years, in October. The grant is based on the additional property taxes generated by the project.
A REV grant requires that a company create at least 10 full-time jobs at or greater than the state’s average wage, which is $46,346. Council waived that, saying the grant was necessary for the project’s feasibility.
The grant payments start the year after construction is completed and the project is on the city tax rolls and end after 10 years.
Wayfair must invest at least $57.6 million in the project by year-end 2020 or the grant will be reduced. The grant will be terminated if the investment falls below $40 million in private funding by that time.
The announcement said Wayfair offers more than 10 million products from more than 10,000 different suppliers. It has more than 10,900 employees throughout North America and Europe.
It generated $6.2 billion in revenue in the year that ended Sept. 30.