Developers of Florida Gateway Logistics Park in Westlake Industrial Park sold Building 3 and expansion property to the neighboring Southeast Toyota Distributors LLC for almost $39.5 million.
DRI/CTR Jax Phase I LLC sold the 416,000-square-foot Building 3 and some additional property March 8 to SET WL QI LLC 2023. SET WL appears to stand for Southeast Toyota Westlake.
Westlake Industrial Park is along Pritchard Road, west of Interstate 295, in far west Jacksonville.
JLL Executive Managing Director Luke Pope and Senior Vice President Ross Crabtree represented the seller in the deal.
Pope and Crabtree represent the owners in leasing Florida Gateway Logistics Park, which is at 9909 Pritchard Road.
Newmark Executive Managing Director Jason Schrago in Orlando represented Southeast Toyota Distributors in the sale.
Southeast Toyota paid $38.27 million for the building and $1.2 million for an expansion parcel of about 4.5 acres that would allow for another 100,000 square feet.
Southeast Toyota owns and operates a Toyota processing and distribution facility on 250 acres at 9985 Pritchard Road next to Florida Gateway Logistics Park.
Southeast Toyota appears to be buying back property that it sold to the developers.
California-based CT Realty in partnership with Diamond Realty Investments LLC bought 251 acres at Westlake on April 29, 2021, from Southeast Toyota Distributors LLC of Deerfield Beach for $19.5 million.
DRI/CTR JAX Phase I LLC bought the vacant land to develop the more than $300 million, 3.2 million-square-foot, eight-building Florida Gateway Logistics Park.
The first phase is 164 acres. The city approved initial site clearing Aug. 24, 2021.
The city issued permits April 18 and April 20, 2022, for Evans General Contractors to build the three buildings in the first phase of Florida Gateway Logistics Park totaling 1.72 million square feet of space.
The costs for the initial three buildings were shown on plans as:
• Building 2 at 300,240 square feet and a construction cost of almost $13.52 million. The foundation is $230,680.
• Building 3 at 416,000 square feet and $15.88 million. The foundation is $285,520.
• Building 8 is 1,000,350 square feet at $34.31 million. The foundation is $668,440.
Counting the construction and foundations, site clearing and electrical work, the costs total $67 million.
JPMorgan Chase financed the first phase at $71.825 million.
The next phases will add more space. The remaining five buildings range from 250,200 to 600,000 square feet.
Pope said Building 3 is completed and Buildings 2 and 8 are near completion.
He said multiple tenants are in discussion for those two buildings.
Southeast Toyota Distributors is part of JM Family Enterprises Inc. of Deerfield Beach.
The jmfamily.com site says JM Family Enterprises is a privately held, diversified company founded in 1968 by automotive pioneer Jim Moran when he partnered with Toyota Motor Sales to help expand the automaker’s presence in the U.S. market.
The site says Southeast Toyota Distributors is the world’s largest independent distributor of Toyotas.
It distributes vehicles, parts and accessories to 177 independent Toyota dealerships in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
It says vehicles manufactured in North America and Japan are processed at the company’s facilities in Jacksonville and in Commerce, Georgia.
Southeast Toyota Distributors also supports dealers through regional sales and marketing, customer service, accessory development and sales, fleet sales, and transportation and logistics.
It says Southeast Toyota Distributors comprises:
• Port Processing on 75 acres at the Jacksonville Port Authority’s Talleyrand Marine Terminal to prepare new vehicles delivered by ship or rail for distribution throughout the Southeast. Associates process vehicles for delivery and install accessories ordered by dealers such as leather seats, spoilers, roof racks, alloy wheels, entertainment systems, security systems and more.
• Westlake Processing, where Southeast Toyota Distributors opened the $53 million vehicle processing facility in 2002 on 250 acres in the Westlake Industrial Park and the additional adjacent 250 acres were purchased in 2005 for expansion. The all-rail facility processes vehicles and includes 12 buildings, 100 acres of pavement, equipment and a 50-car railhead. All of the operations performed at the port also are performed at Westlake.
• Inland Processing in Commerce, Georgia, is a 350,000-square-foot facility that opened in 2020 to process vehicles for distribution primarily to dealers in Northern Alabama, the Carolinas and Northern Georgia. The 300-acre complex includes six buildings, 60 acres of pavement and four rail spurs. Inland Processing services are identical to those performed by Jacksonville’s Port and Westlake facilities.
• Parts Supply and Distribution in Jacksonville. Inside a facility the size of eight football fields, parts needed by Toyota dealers are shipped same day, or referred to Toyota’s automated network for air shipment direct to the dealer to maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
• Southeast Transportation Systems Inc. is an auto-transport company established in July 2000 to serve its dealers. In 2008, a 21,500-square-foot facility was built at Westlake to accommodate its growth and fleet maintenance requirements.
• Southeast Toyota Distributors’ Technical Training Center opened in 2007 at the Westlake vehicle processing facility. The 33,000-square-foot center serves associates of the Toyota dealerships in the company’s five-state region. At full capacity, it can provide 83,000 hours of training annually on topics such as advanced maintenance education, computerized diagnostic equipment and hybrid technology. In addition to training, it houses SET’s Technical Services department, which provides diagnostic assistance and advice to Toyota dealership technicians.