The city issued a permit Sept. 23 for construction of the Amazon.com fulfillment center in North Jacksonville at a cost of almost $41.2 million.
Evans General Contractors of Savannah is the contractor for the 1,011,900-square-foot warehouse on about 52 acres at 10501 Cold Storage Road, No. 500, in Imeson Park at northeast North Main Street and Zoo Parkway.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. announced Sept. 2 that it will open the 500-job Jacksonville fulfillment center in fall 2021 to pick, pack and ship small items, including apparel, accessories and footwear.
“The expansion of Amazon’s footprint in Jacksonville illustrates increased confidence in our economy and reputation as a center for logistics in the southeastern United States,” Mayor Lenny Curry said in a news release Sept. 2.
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.
“Building this site in Jacksonville gives us the opportunity to better serve our customers in the region,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfillment, in the Sept. 2 release.
Amazon said it will pay a minimum wage of $15 an hour. Full-time employees receive comprehensive benefits, including full medical, vision, and dental insurance as well as a 401(k) with a 50% company match, starting on the first day.
Called a Softlines fulfillment center on plans, the facility appears to be at least a $55.5 million development project.
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 owns Imeson Park.
JLL Executive Vice President Luke Pope represented VanTrust in the lease negotiations with Amazon.
The city approved a permit July 31 for the $5.7 million warehouse foundation after issuing a related foundation permit in November for $100,000.
As the eighth Northeast Florida project in three years, the center boosts Amazon’s opened or planned area presence to more than 4 million square feet of space.
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.
