Boca Raton-based USA Quartz LLC paid $1.8 million for property at 10 Van Dyck Road where it plans to make quartz slabs for commercial and residential customers.
S&K Investments of Champaign, based in Illinois, sold the 7.39-acre site, which it bought in November 2017 from General Electric Co. for $1.8 million.
GE built the almost 62,000-square-foot plant in 1972 in Imeson International Industrial Park.
The city approved incentives for USA Quartz to bring 70 jobs to North Jacksonville by Dec. 31, 2020, at an average annual salary of $49,920.
The facility also will serve as a regional headquarters. The jobs would include IT and finance positions and generate an annual payroll of $3.49 million in what the project summary defines as a “state-designated high crime area.”
A performance schedule calls for USA Quartz LLC to create 30 jobs by year-end 2018, another 20 by year-end 2019 and the remaining 20 by year-end 2020.
In addition to buying the nearly 63,000-square-foot building, USA Quartz estimates it will spend $5.6 million on renovations and the purchase of manufacturing equipment.
The city and state will provide a Qualified Targeted Industry Tax Refund grant up to $210,000, or $3,000 for each new job.
The city would be responsible for 20 percent of the award, at $42,000, with the state paying for the remaining $168,000, which is 80 percent of the incentive.
The QTI award would be payable after the jobs are created and verified by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity over a four-year period beginning in 2020.
City Council adopted the resolution Dec. 12.
The city issued permits last week for Danis Construction LLC to renovate space at 417 Magnolia St. in Brooklyn for the Burlock and Barrel whiskey distillery.
Danis will renovate the 6,942-square-foot space at a cost of $800,000 and build a dumpster enclosure for $4,000.
The building is owned by BAM Commercial Holdings, led by Alexandria Klempf.
Plans were filed in May for BAM to redevelop the site at 417 Magnolia St. and 476 May St. A 3,500-square-foot space will house the distillery, and a 3,400-square-foot area will be used for a point-of-sale and tasting room.
BAM Investments includes Forking Amazing Restaurants and other commercial projects. Its newest opening is the Cowford Chophouse Downtown at 101 E. Bay St.
Property records show the 476 May St. structure was built in 1925 and the 417 Magnolia St. building was developed in 1939.
The Burlock & Barrel Distillery Facebook page explains that since the Roaring ’20s, Jacksonville has been an integral part of spirits distribution in America but there was not an established distillery to call Jacksonville home.
It says friends Ian Haensly and Colin Edwards “founded Burlock & Barrel in 2013 with a belief that great whiskey can be made outside the Scottish Highlands or the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee.”
Ameris Bancorp applied for a Certificate of Use to expand into the 27th floor of Riverplace Tower. The company, which leases the 26th floor, will expand into 14,200 square feet of space on the floor above.
Ameris is building out the former University Club space on the top full floor of the 28-story tower. The 28th floor contains a small space that housed a men’s athletic facility for the club.
The University Club closed in December 2016.
Ameris anchors the building. Based in Moultrie, Georgia, Ameris moved its executive team, along with key division leaders, into the tower at 1301 Riverplace Blvd. on the Downtown Southbank in April 2016.
The bank said when it signed the initial lease that its total space will reach about 35,000 square feet, starting with 15,000 square feet on the 26th floor and about 4,000 square feet for a branch on the first floor.
The 27th floor takes it near that level.
The city issued permits for Batson-Cook Co. to build $3.2 million Ascension St. Vincent’s Health Centers at 858 Monument Road in the Regency area and at 6488 103rd St. in the Westside.
Ascension St. Vincent’s plans to open 10 Health Centers in the area.
The Jacksonville-based health system submitted plans to the city for a Regency health center of 11,519 square feet on almost 1.6 acres at the Monument Road and Lantern Street site, near a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Supercenter and opposite a Gate Petroleum Co. station.
The Westside center will be 15,184 square feet on 5.82 acres at 103rd Street and Jammes Road.
Media Relations Coordinator Kyle Sieg said the Monument Road center is scheduled to open in August and the Westside location in September.
Centers opened in St. Johns County and Mandarin and sites have been identified for Gate Parkway and North Jacksonville.
Reminder: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is changing its legal name Feb. 1 to Walmart Inc.
The company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, said the name change demonstrates its growing emphasis on serving customers in stores, online, on their mobile devices or through pickup and delivery.
Walmart will continue to trade on the NYSE as WMT and the company name should be referenced as Walmart, it said.
Walmart’s formal legal name was Wal-Mart Inc. when it incorporated on Oct. 31, 1969, and changed to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Jan. 9, 1970.
The St. Johns River Water Management District said it will issue an environmental resource permit to Chance Philips Owner LLC for the 17.5-acre San Marco Promenade.
The project, as shown for its first phase, a 17.5-acre, three-building, 510-unit apartment community at 2600 Philips Highway.
It also contains a commercial outparcel.
A Chevrolet dealership previously operated on the site.
Chance Philips Owner LLC is the developer. Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. is the civil engineer.
When the Jacksonville Planning Commission approved a minor modification to site plans in June, Chance Philips Owner Principal Jeff Rosen said he expected to break ground in the first quarter of 2018 with a target opening date of summer 2019.