Mervis Industries Inc., an Illinois-based recycling company that buys and sells materials and operates in four states, bought property in West Jacksonville and has submitted plans for development.
Mervis Industries President Adam Mervis said Monday the company would not be putting its core business, a full-service scrap recycling yard, on the site and instead referred questions to Jason Finley, an owner of GO Auto Recycling in Jacksonville.
"We have a real estate investment portion of our business. This for us is much more of a real estate investment rather than an operating business," Mervis said.
Finley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Plans show family-owned Mervis Industries, founded in the late 1920s, plans a 50-acre commercial development among three phases on property it bought Nov. 5 from Florida Rock Properties Inc.
Property records show Mervis paid $2 million for the land, which is west of Interstate 295 and Pickettville Road on the south side of Commonwealth Avenue.
An application with the St. Johns River Water Management District shows Mervis Industries, based in Danville, Ill., wants to build a surface water management system to serve a 50-acre development. Bueme Engineering Inc. of Green Cove Springs is the project agent.
Site improvement documents show development of the first two phases will use 33.2 acres and the third phase will be 4.3 acres. The conservation area is shown as 12.5 acres for a total of 50 acres.
A closer look at the site improvement plans shows a first phase that includes a 7,650-square-foot building and a second phase with a 19,200-square-foot building. The bulk of the developable land consists of recycling and storage yards.
Documents show Finley and Brian Shell, co-owners at GO Auto Recycling in Northwest Jacksonville at 12270 New Kings Road, as contacts. Neither returned calls for comment.
The New Kings Road site is about 9 miles north of the Commonwealth Avenue property.
The goautorecycling.com website says GO Auto Recycling, which operates on 11 acres, offers recycled original equipment manufacturer auto parts, including engines, transmissions, sheet metal, truck beds, bed liners, wheels, seats, radios and new and used head lights, tail lamps and radiators.
GO Auto Recycling is part of Team PRP, which stands for premium recycled parts, a group of independent auto recyclers.
Shell, Finley, Adam Mervis and Michael Mervis are listed as managers in the articles of organization for Go Pull-It LLC, filed in September with the Florida Department of State. The mailing and street address for the limited liability company is shown as 12270 New Kings Road.
In May, Shell, Finley and manager Michael Stanley added Adam Mervis and Mervis 2006 LLC as managers to Green Oak Investments LLC, which does business as GO Auto Recycling.
Shell and Finley first applied in May 2009 to do business in Florida as Green Oak Investments LLC, listing the original date of organization as 2006 in Delaware. It listed the nature of business in Florida as auto parts and scrap metal.
According to mervis.com, William Mervis and his sons opened scrap yards in the late 1920s in Arcola, Ill., and Veedersburg, Ind. "Since then the scrap business has progressed from basic handling of iron, metals, hides, rags and paper to the total recycling of many industrial byproducts," it said.
Mervis.com said the company has grown into a four-state network of 16 corporate divisions and eight affiliated companies, with operations in 12 cities throughout the Midwest and in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Jacksonville is not shown on the website.
"Throughout the nation the Mervis family has put new life into unused land and abandoned facilities, creating innovative ways to add services and avoid waste," the website says.
"We believe that the wise use of our land and other resources is more important now than ever before, and the almost 400 men and women of Mervis Industries intend to carry that commitment forward," it says.
Mervis.com says the company "specializes in creating complete scrap management programs for our industrial customers."
It says its services range from in-plant training programs to the placement of recycling receptacles. Mervis uses in-plant hoppers, roll-offs, semitrailers and dump trailers to collect and remove scrap.
"Our multiple locations and our extensive fleet of modern trucks ensure prompt and uninterrupted service to your facility. In many areas, our transportation fleet and processing centers operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week," according to mervis.com
"Customers bringing material to our modern and tidy collection centers and processing yards can expect the same professional service provided to our industrial accounts," it says.
"Mervis stands ready as a truly full-service provider for iron, metal, plastics, fiber and all other recyclable products," it says, also saying it works with its large industrial customers to develop customized recycling programs for plastics, metals, electronics, fiber and used machinery and equipment.
"In meeting the specific requests of our industrial partners, we have often built new facilities, expanded into new regions, and reached new heights in state-of-the-art processing," it says.
C-SPAN in town for Rutan
The World Affairs Council of Jacksonville reports C-SPAN will attend its Global Issues Evening event tonight featuring commercial aerospace entrepreneur Burt Rutan.
The event is co-hosted by the University of North Florida. The council said more than 800 people are registered to attend the Global Issues Evening as Rutan addresses "Inspiration for Innovation and the New Race for Space" from 7-8:30 p.m. at the UNF Herbert University Center.
The council cited a Newsweek description of Rutan as "the man responsible for more innovations in modern aviation than any living engineer." He was named "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Inc. magazine and one of "the world's 100 most influential people" by TIME.
For information, visit worldaffairscounciljax.org.
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