Dollar General Corp. is leasing an Imeson International Industrial Park warehouse for a distribution center in North Jacksonville.
The Tennessee-based retailer is hiring for the center at 10760 Yeager Road, a recently completed 408,240-square-foot building by Webb International Inc.
A job posting for a receiving checker says the position verifies incoming merchandise by item, SKU (stock keeping unit, quantity and pack for accuracy, among other tasks, and prepares it for storage in the distribution center.
Dollar General says it “has been delivering value to shoppers for more than 80 years … by offering products that are frequently used and replenished, such as food, snacks, health and beauty aids, cleaning supplies, basic apparel, housewares and seasonal items at everyday low prices in convenient neighborhood locations.”
On its website, dollargeneral.com, it says it operates more than 18,000 stores in 47 states.
Dollar General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Imeson International Industrial Park Inc. President Dan Webb said by email Oct. 14 that Dollar General began occupying the warehouse Oct. 1.
He said it will distribute retail goods but did not know how many employees it will hire or what distribution area it will serve.
"We are happy to welcome Dollar General to Imeson," Webb said Oct. 16.
Cushman & Wakefield Managing Directors Tyler Newman and Jacob Horsley represented the landlord.
Webb said Food Properties Group, a California-based real estate brokerage firm, represented Dollar General in the lease transaction.
The foodpropertiesgroup.com site lists a 408,240-square-foot Jacksonville transaction for “ambient distribution.” Ambient means storage at room temperature.
The city issued a permit Aug. 25, 2021, for the warehouse, with no identified tenant, at a construction cost of almost $14.7 million.
Webb Southeast Construction Corp. of Orlando was the contractor for the project on about 25 acres.
Imeson International Industrial Park Inc. filed plans with the city in January 2021 for the warehouse at northeast Main Street and Zoo Parkway.
The developer proposed a building with 74 rear loading docks and 95 trailer parking spaces along with 212 – expandable to 425 – parking spaces.
Plans showed it was being built on a speculative basis for single-tenant storage occupancy.
Webb said by email July 8, 2021, that he anticipated completion in the second quarter of 2022. A Cushman & Wakefield brochure says it was completed in August 2022.
Webb said Aug. 26, 2021, he had interest from tenants, but no signed leases
Dollar General Chief Operating Officer Jeff Owen said Aug. 25, 2022, during an earnings conference call with analysts that the company had recently announced plans to “significantly increase” its supply chain capacity by building three distribution centers in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Aurora, Colorado; and Salem, Oregon.
Each is about 1 million square feet of space. The call did not mention the Jacksonville facility.
Dollar General said in July that Owen will become CEO when Todd Vasos retires from the position Nov. 1.
The Arkansas and Oregon facilities will be combination traditional and fresh distribution centers.
The Colorado facility will be a traditional dry goods distribution center.
Dollar General said the projects will create more than 1,000 jobs.
In Dollar General’s Securities and Exchange Commission report for the second quarter that ended July 29, the company said it is the largest discount retailer in the United States by number of stores, with 18,566 in 47 states as of July 29.
Dollar General is based in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, north of Nashville.
The greatest concentration of stores is in the Southern, Southwestern, Midwestern and Eastern United States.
Statista.com, a market and consumer data site, says Dollar General has 992 stores in Florida and 1,017 in Georgia.
Dollar General says it offers “a broad selection of merchandise, including consumable products such as food, paper and cleaning products, health and beauty products and pet supplies, and non-consumable products such as seasonal merchandise, home decor and domestics, and basic apparel.”
Its merchandise includes national brands from leading manufacturers, as well as its own private brand selections “with prices at substantial discounts to national brands.”
“We offer our customers these national brand and private brand products at everyday low prices (typically $10 or less) in our convenient small-box locations,” it says.
It says the majority of its customers “are value-conscious, and many have low and/or fixed incomes.”
“Our core customers are often among the first to be affected by negative or uncertain economic conditions and among the last to feel the effects of improving economic conditions, particularly when trends are inconsistent and of an uncertain duration.”
It said it continues to grow the footprint of pOpshelf, its retail concept that is focused on seasonal and home décor, health and beauty, home cleaning supplies, and party and entertainment goods.
In the first half of 2022, Dollar General opened 466 stores, remodeled 1,065 stores and relocated 62 stores. New store openings are expected to be 1,010 to 1,060, including planned pOpshelf stores and its first stores in Mexico, in 2022.
It is using two larger format stores of 8,500 and 9,500 square feet. It expects the 8,500-square-foot format to become its base prototype for the majority of new stores, replacing the 7,300-square-foot layout.
Dollar General is continuing to deploy its “Fast Track” initiative, a sorting process in its nonrefrigerated distribution centers, as well as increased shelf-ready packaging, to improve store-level stocking efficiencies.
It also intends to add a self-checkout option in up to 11,000 stores by the end of 2022.
Dollar General said net sales rose 9% to $9.43 billion in the second quarter from the second quarter of 2021. Net income of $678 million was up from $637 million the year before.
