Florida-based Benderson Development Co. LLC intends to start work by the end of summer on its 203-acre industrial park in North Jacksonville at northeast Interstate 95 and Pecan Park Road.
Director of Development Todd Mathes said April 16 he is working with prospects for both proposed buildings - the 499,000-square-foot Building 100 and the almost 1.54 million-square-foot Building 200.
Asked if the prospects were e-commerce companies, Mathis said that “is a reasonable perspective.”
While neither company has confirmed interest in Jacksonville, both Walmart Stores Inc. and Lowe’s Companies Inc. have been speculated as prospective tenants for e-commerce projects in Jacksonville for two to three years.
Mathes would not comment on those names.
Mathes did say that the two deals for Benderson’s buildings “seem very serious” about Jacksonville.
“That’s our impression,” he said. “They are just going through the site selection process.”
He said he was hopeful to break ground and “go vertical” on construction at the end of the summer.
If tenants don’t sign for both buildings, Mathes said Benderson would start construction on the smaller building on a speculative basis.
“We’ll see what happens with these deals and the market over the next few months,” he said.
Benderson is a privately held real estate company based in University Park near Sarasota. It says on its website that it owns and manages more than 700 properties totaling more than 40 million square feet in 38 states. Holdings include retail, office, industrial, hotel, residential and land.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is reviewing a permit request for Benderson to develop the industrial warehouse park.
Benderson Development applied April 14 for an environmental resource permit. WRA Engineering of Tampa is the environmental consultant.
WRA wrote in an April environmental report that the 203.27-acre project is a future commercial distribution center northeast of Jacksonville International Airport.
City agencies have been reviewing plans that show more than 2 million square feet of warehouse space.
In 2019, the city calculated mobility fees for two industrial warehouses designed on 46 acres north of Pecan Park Road between I-95 and North Main Street.
Benderson Development’s plans show the 499,000-square-foot Building 100 and the almost 1.54 million-square-foot Building 200. Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. is shown as the civil engineer.
The mobility fees, calculated to mitigate the traffic impact, total $816,445. The applications are for horizontal development and the buildings.
The first phase is part of the almost 850 acres that Benderson bought in 2007. It acquired the bulk of the undeveloped land from Bacardi Bottling Corp. and about 15 acres from an affiliate of Signature Land Co.
The Bacardi Bottling Plant is at 12200 N. Main St., south of Benderson’s land.
The city approved the property’s planned unit development in 2008 as the Pecan Park Regional Activity Center. Benderson sought a minor modification last year to relocate the mix of commercial, office/business park and residential uses to a central location and placed 46 acres of light industrial next to I-95.
That is where the first two buildings are planned.
“This is our first phase. We have a lot of remaining land,” Mathes said.
He said the next phase would involve similar types of development and then transition to more of an office or residential type use to the east.
Mathes said approvals for the first phase are pending in the city’s 10-set review for horizontal construction and the St. Johns River Water Management District. He said the city approved the Regional Activity Center modifications last summer.
