Atlanta-based United Parcel Service Inc. continues with the $196 million expansion of its Westside package-delivery hub, applying for a $6 million permit to add exterior doors and make interior improvements.
Kajima Building & Design Group Inc. is the contractor for the project at the 908,067-square-foot building at 4420 Imeson Road in West Jacksonville.
In November 2016, UPS said the Imeson Road facility would be expanded and retrofitted by fall 2019 with advanced technology and operations automation.
UPS Media Relations Manager Kim Krebs said last week the Jacksonville hub expansion is part of the company’s multiyear capital investment program “to renovate facilities with higher levels of automation, acquire new aircraft and ground fleet vehicles, and enhance information technology platforms.”
She said the hub expansion project timeline shifted and the first phase is expected in the third quarter of 2020.
UPS said previously the Jacksonville facility will include the company’s latest sorting and processing technology with advanced automation.
The UPS center at Westside Industrial Park was developed in 1989 and it is almost doubling its size.
Incentives legislation approved by the city in November 2016 specified that the expansion would include $150 million in equipment, furniture and fixtures.
The incentives call for $4.3 million of city funding through a Recapture Enhanced Value grant that 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.
UPS told the city that more than 1,650 full- and part-time UPS employees work at the hub and its four adjacent package centers.
As that hub is being expanded, UPS retrofitted a 400,000-square-foot warehouse not far away in Westlake Industrial Park to handle additional package processing.
UPS also landed permits in August to create a distribution facility in Southside.
Haskew Company & Associates is the contractor for the $2.7 million project to renovate 244,000 square feet and build a mezzanine foundation at 9431 Florida Mining Blvd. E.
Known as Project Danville in City Council legislation adopted in January, the $50 million investment comprises $5 million for real estate improvements and $45 million for machinery, equipment, furniture and fixtures.
UPS proposes to hire 87 employees at an average annual salary of $57,540 by year-end 2022 at the Florida Mining Boulevard site.
The city and UPS signed the agreement Feb. 15 in which the city agreed to pay up to $52,200 as its part of a $261,000 Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund — $3,000 per job of which $600 is from the city. The state pays the rest.
The 87-job proposal doesn’t mean UPS won’t hire more employees at lower wages. A St. Johns River Water Management District permit application calls for a parking expansion to 340 spaces and truck parking for UPS on the 18-acre site.
That building formerly housed Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals and is owned by Dubow/Shad Road Limited Partnership.