Now under construction, online retailer Amazon.com Inc.’s new Imeson Park fulfillment center is at least a $106.1 million project.
Approved and pending building and related permits show the almost 1.1 million-square-foot e-commerce facility will cost that amount and there likely will be further investment as conveyors and other equipment are installed.
Seattle-based Amazon announced Sept. 2 that it will open a 500-job Jacksonville fulfillment center in fall 2021 at 10501 Cold Storage Road in the North Jacksonville industrial center.
Construction plans call it a Softlines fulfillment center. Amazon said the center will pick, pack and ship small items, including apparel, accessories and footwear.
“Building this site in Jacksonville gives us the opportunity to better serve our customers in the region,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon vice president of global customer fulfillment, in the news release.
JAX Chamber confirmed no economic incentives are involved for the new center. The city and state approved almost $27 million in assistance for the first two Jacksonville fulfillment facilities that opened in 2017.
In addition to full-time associate positions, the online retailer will hire for roles in human resources, operations management, safety, security, finance and information technology.
JPMorgan Chase Bank of Los Angeles made a construction mortgage and a fixture filing financing statement to developer JI Imeson Industrial Building E LLC for $55,496,000 on July 29.
JI Imeson Industrial Building E LLC is part of VanTrust Real Estate LLC of Kansas City, Missouri. It has a regional office in Jacksonville.
VanTrust Real Estate is developing the building for Amazon on about 51 acres in Imeson Park, at northeast North Main Street and Zoo Parkway.
VanTrust owns Imeson Park. JLL Executive Vice President Luke Pope represented VanTrust in the lease negotiations with Amazon.
Permits issued so far include site work, foundation, electrical, plumbing, fire system and shell construction.
The city now is reviewing an application for a $58 million tenant build-out. Evans General Contractors LLC of Savannah is the contractor.
England-Thims & Miller Inc. is the civil engineer. Atlas Collaborative near Atlanta is the architect.
As the eighth Northeast Florida project in three years, the softlines center boosts Amazon’s opened or planned area presence to more than 4 million square feet of space.
Amazon has not said how many employees it has in Jacksonville, but a fulfillment center manager said previously it would be at least 5,000.
The first fulfillment center, to handle smaller items and electronics, opened in September 2017 in Northwest Jacksonville.
The second, for larger goods, opened the following month in AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center in West Jacksonville.
Amazon opened a sortation center in Westside Industrial Park and a last-mile delivery station in North Jacksonville. It also launched a fulfillment center in West Jacksonville for heavy bulk items.
More last-mile delivery stations are on the way to a former Kmart on Blanding Boulevard in West Jacksonville and to St. Augustine.
Amazon said that since 2010, it has created more than 30,000 jobs in Florida and invested more than $9.5 billion across the state, including infrastructure and compensation.
