The JEA board of directors unanimously approved two real estate deals May 26, selling the former Coggin Pontiac site at 9201 Atlantic Blvd. to Circle K Stores Inc. and buying nearly 6 acres for a new technical training facility in Northeast Jacksonville.
Circle K
The board voted to sell the former car dealership for $3.15 million after JEA procurement staff negotiated directly with the Phoenix-based international convenience store chain.
JEA bought the parcel for $3.24 million in 2011, according to Duval County Property Appraiser records, for construction and pipeline installation, part of the utility’s Total Water Management Plan.
JEA will keep about 1 acre of the 5.08-acre property as a utility easement to operate and maintain a waterline and a sewer force main.
Jacksonville-based commercial real estate development firm Grunthal & Schueth Properties Inc. submitted the high bid of $3.21 million for the site in July but did not close on the property purchase, according to a May 19 internal memorandum from interim CEO Paul McElroy.
Circle K did not immediately return an email and phone call May 26 for comment on plans for the property.
Steve McInall, JEA vice president of energy and water planning, told the utility board May 26 that although the negotiated sale price came in under JEA’s $3.23 million appraisal price, the offer was more than the $2.38 million market value from the Duval County Property Appraiser’s office.
McInall said the Grunthal & Schueth bid was made on behalf of another fuel station chain that has since altered its real estate strategy because of the coronavirus pandemic. McInall did not give the identity of the chain.
“As far as it being below the appraisal, that’s just where the market is right now. The buyer that fell through was a gas station whose capital plan changed as COVID(-19) developed,” McInall said. “This buyer is a gas station chain whose capital plan, apparently, was not affected by COVID(-19).”
Another bidder, Southside Development LLC, offered $2.5 million for the site in July, but McInall said the company would not increase its previous bid amount.
JEA board Chair John Baker II, who is executive chairman and CEO of real estate firm FRP Holdings Inc., said the utility is “lucky” to sell the property for $3.15 million given market conditions.
The city-owned utility received two bids for the property June 18 that failed to reach the appraisal value at that time of $4,033,750. JEA officials would not accept anything below the appraisal price in June.
JEA procurement policy allows the utility to sell property below the appraisal price, but would have required City Council approval if the bid had come in below fair market value.
McInall said the structures on the site are in disrepair and likely will be demolished. Property records show the three buildings on the site, totaling almost 50,000 square feet, were developed in 1969.
Training facility
JEA will spend $3 million to buy the site of its next employee training facility from Industrial Cleaning Technology Property Inc., according to the sales contract approved by the board.
The two parcels are along New Berlin Road, near Interstate 295 and adjacent to JEA’s Northside Generating Station.
McElroy said the new facility will replace JEA’s former training center that was part of the St. Johns River Power Park, which was imploded in April 2019. He said the facility serves a critical function in training JEA operations and maintenance employees.
“That’s been used to justify this, at this point in time,” McElroy said.
JEA plans to invest $1.5 million in capital improvements to an existing building on the site to make it operational, according to McElroy.
The parcel at 10855 New Berlin Road has an enclosed warehouse facility and a detached canopied storage structure built in 1999 with a total 19,350 square feet, according to online property records.
Industrial Cleaning Technology bought the parcels in 1998 and 1999 for $240,700. Both parcels are zoned for heavy industrial use.
