VanTrust Real Estate paid almost $22.83 million for 196 acres in North Jacksonville to develop almost 2.83 million square feet of warehouse space, including a speculative 1 million-square-foot facility.
Marc Munago, VanTrust executive vice president, said Oct. 8 the project will be called Imeson Park South. It is at 1400 Zoo Parkway, also called Heckscher Drive.
The property is south of VanTrust’s Imeson Park, a four-building industrial center that is being completed with its last building.
Munago said VanTrust bought 136 acres from the Charles W. Bostwick Trust and 60 acres from CEFL Inc., an entity of the Webb group, a large Imeson International Industrial Park developer and landowner.
“We have been working on this for quite some time and plan to start clearing as soon as possible,” Munago said by email.
The city is reviewing civil engineering plans submitted Oct. 8 for mass grading of the site. England-Thims & Miller Inc. is the civil engineer.
VanTrust is working on plans for three buildings of 1 million, 547,000 and about 200,000 square feet, he said.
Plans show an eventual six buildings comprising the 1,003,200-square-foot Building E; the two 547,200-square-foot Buildings C and D; the two 216,320-square-foot Buildings B1 and B2; and a 297,440-square-foot Building A.
Munago said the project will “continue upon the success of Imeson Park,” which was approved for development of 3 million square feet of building space.
Luke Pope, managing director of JLL in Jacksonville, and Steve Grable, JLL senior managing director of JLL in Atlanta, represented the Charles W. Bostwick Trust in the deal. Pope also represents VanTrust in leasing Imeson Park and will do the same for Imeson Park South.
“This is a great opportunity for VanTrust to expand at Imeson Industrial Park where they had so much success with Imeson Park,” Pope said Oct. 8.
Pope said VanTrust bought the land Oct. 7.
He said Imeson Park South will be similar with development of speculative space, including one of the area’s first 1 million-square-foot speculative buildings.
Industry professionals said that e-commerce companies look for large buildings so that they can complete them and set up quickly.
The 156-acre Imeson Park totals about 2.5 million square feet of space among four buildings, including a 1 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center.
VanTrust Real Estate LLC bought the Imeson Park property in September 2018 from Imeson International Industrial Park Inc., a Webb group. VanTrust paid $18.44 million for that.