Two federal agencies that help to enforce port security should move into a new $21 million office center in North Jacksonville in early 2016.
The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will use the building for offices and related services in support of security at the Port of Jacksonville and its surrounding waters, according to the General Services Administration.
General Capital Acquisitions LLC of Milwaukee, Wis., won a GSA contract July 31 to develop the two-story, 55,034-square-foot structure at 10416 Alta Drive, near the St. Johns River and the Blount Island and Dames Point marine terminals.
The new offices also will increase the efficiency of interagency operations and relations as well as allow the sharing of resources and spaces that are common to both agencies, the GSA said.
Steve Sirkis, vice president of General Capital, said Wednesday his group also developed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Flagler Center in 2012.
Sirkis said construction should start in February for completion a year later.
The building will yield 46,014 square feet of rentable space. The Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection should take occupancy March 15, 2016, under a 15-year lease term.
According to the GSA, the contract amount is $20,925,000.
Plans filed with the St. Johns River Water Management District show an address of 10350 Alta Drive, which is near the GSA address.
The 5.6-acre site is along the Interstate 295 East Beltway, north of Zoo Parkway/Heckscher Drive.
Sirkis said Duke Realty Corp., an Indianapolis-based company that built the Flagler Center site, will also build the new one.
The Arcus Group Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, is the architect and Jacksonville-based Prosser Inc. is the civil engineer.
The Water Management District application shows the property owner as JCLA Development II LLC. Sirkis said the land is under contract.
The GSA was soliciting responses for sites in an area involving North Jacksonville and Arlington. Solicitation information showed the administration wanted a 46,014-square-foot, two-story office building with 254 parking spaces, including 162 inside a security perimeter.
Customs and Border Protection assists the port by inspecting incoming shipments and the Coast Guard patrols the surrounding waterways.
Campers Inn invests in West Jacksonville
Campers Inn just completed the second phase of its move into Jacksonville, paying $3.5 million to buy the West Jacksonville property it has occupied for almost a year.
Campers Inn bought Rivers RV in January and operates there as Campers Inn of Jacksonville Inc. It sells new and used RVs, parts, accessories and service. It also provides financing.
General Sales Manager Mike Waggoner said Tuesday the property purchase was “stage two” of the deal.
Waggoner and the Rivers RV team stayed with Campers Inn, he said.
Waggoner said the dealership employs 28 people and wants to hire more parts, service and sales workers.
He said Rivers RV President Lawrence Schaffer and Campers Inn CEO Jeff Hirsch were friends. When Schaffer decided to retire, he sold the business to Hirsch.
Rivers RV had operated at the site since January 1978.
Through ABM Realty LLC, Hirsch bought the property Nov. 20 in two purchases. ABM Realty paid $1.94 million to SLS Properties Inc. and $1.56 million to Lawrence and Carolyn Schaffer. Lawrence Schaffer is president of SLS Properties.
ABM Realty also took out a $600,000 mortgage from Bank of America.
The properties comprise almost 22 acres at 10626 General Ave. The site is north of Interstate 10 and west of Interstate 295, accessible by the Chaffee Road exit.
ABM Realty and Campers Inn are based in Kingston, N.H.
The campersinn.com site says Hirsch’s parents, Art and Fran Hirsch, started the company in 1966. The family enjoyed camping. Wanting to move from a tent to a camper, they visited a dealership, but no one would serve them, possibly because Art Hirsch was wearing his machinist’s uniform and wasn’t considered a big sale.
Deciding they could provide better service, the Hirsches invested all their savings into a camper business. Within a few years, Hirsch gave up his full-time job and ran the RV venture full-time.
Campers Inn has grown to nine locations comprising two in New Hampshire, two in North Carolina, one each in Maine, Connecticut and Georgia and two in Florida — Jacksonville and Leesburg.
The Rivers RV Facebook page says the company was founded in 1919 and had been selling and servicing RVs, buses and motorhomes for more than 30 years.
Davis Development buys more Atlantic North land
Georgia-based Davis Development bought more property from Sleiman Enterprises at northwest Kernan and Atlantic boulevards, where it already is building the 290-unit Sorrel apartment complex.
DD Jax Partners Inc. paid $3.18 million Nov. 20 for 14.6 acres, according to a deed filed with the Duval County Clerk of Court.
The $14 million Sorrel apartments are under development just north of the shopping center anchored by LA Fitness, Academy Fitness, Earth Fare and, soon, Belk.
Davis Development sister company Morrow Construction Co. Inc. of Stockbridge, Ga., is the contractor. DD Jax-Kernan Partners LLC paid $3.48 million for that 14.5-acre site.
Both purchases were made from Atlantic North LLC, a Sleiman Enterprises company.
Davis Development did not return a call Monday, but earlier plans filed with the St. Johns River Water Management district said a second phase to be developed on the remaining portion of the 35-acre site would consist of another 300 units.
The davisdevelopment.info website describes the company as a multifamily housing developer based in Atlanta. With Morrow, it develops, builds and manages upscale apartment communities in the Southeast, Midwest and Southwest U.S.
Gate adding Clay store
Gate Petroleum Co. is pursuing plans to develop a gas station and convenience store at northwest Blanding Boulevard and Filmore Street in Clay County.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is reviewing an application for Jacksonville-based Gate to demolish an existing fast-food building and parking lot and construct a new building and lot on the 1.43-acre site.
Plans show a 5,800-square-foot convenience store and 16 fueling stations.
Gate is on an expansion track — building stores, expanding others and selling underperforming sites.
Its newer stores are near the St. Johns Town Center; in East Baymeadows; a replacement store along Emerson Street; and at the World Commerce Center along International Golf Parkway in St. Johns County.
Development should start in the spring at a site along Philips Highway in Bayard. In late September, it bought property at River City Marketplace in North Jacksonville for a store.
Gate also is expanding its Busch Drive location in North Jacksonville, while it sold smaller stores along University Boulevard North in Arlington and at 319 S. Third St. in Jacksonville Beach.
Gate owns and operates about 80 locations in the Southeastern U.S. — Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and North and South Carolina — and also has about 200 dealer accounts.
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