Anticipating demand, Jacksonville’s largest industrial property owner is triggering plans for two large industrial buildings in North Jacksonville.
Based on what the developer is paying to build speculative space at another Jacksonville park, the project could cost almost $22 million.
Stone Mountain Industrial Park Inc., based near Atlanta, is preparing to build two structures, totaling almost 650,000 square feet, at the NorthPoint Industrial Park.
Peter Anderson, vice president of development and sales at Pattillo Industrial Real Estate, said the company is permitting the buildings to prepare for the next year or two. The company will build the project “if the market indicates demand for the space.”
Anderson said both are speculative at this point, meaning no tenants have been signed.
The Pattillo family owns Stone Mountain Industrial Park Inc. and all the other companies under the Pattillo Industrial Real Estate umbrella. Those include NorthPoint and the Westside Industrial Park.
NorthPoint is about 2 miles from the Jacksonville Port Authority’s marine terminals at Blount Island and Dames Point. It is north of the Interstate 295 East Beltway between New Berlin Road and Alta Drive.
The Port of Jacksonville continues to develop those terminals as business increases and it looks forward to corrections in the St. Johns River channel to improve navigation and port access.
While the NorthPoint developer isn’t committing to a timeline or tenants, it is putting its plans in place with regulators.
Pattillo owns more than 7 million square feet of industrial space in Jacksonville, which Anderson said makes it the owner of the largest industrial real estate portfolio in North Florida.
Stone Mountain reserved concurrency for Buildings 9 and 10, which would sit side by side along Port Jacksonville Parkway in NorthPoint.
Building 9 is 165,171 square feet on 14.6 acres and Building 10 is 483,600 square feet on 30.8 acres.
The 350-acre NorthPoint project can accommodate 3 million square feet of space among about 13 buildings.
So far, about 75 acres have been developed with six buildings comprising about 1 million square feet of space.
The second phase is 74.1 acres, planned for seven buildings totaling about 1.27 million square feet of space.
Pattillo has stepped out to build speculative space already.
In the Westside Industrial Park, which is west of the Interstate 295 West Beltway, it has begun construction on an almost $8 million, 237,000-square-foot spec building at the business park, which is at northwest Pritchard Road and Bulls Bay Highway.
Speculative industrial warehouse development dried up during the recession, although developers have wanted to see a market for more. The availability of such space is considered attractive for companies that want to move or expand within the area and need space quickly.
It’s been rebounding to some degree, evident by the Westside project and at least two more.
In February, the developer of Imeson International Industrial Park filed site plans with the city for a potential two-phase 720,000-square-foot distribution center in the North Jacksonville business center.
Developer Dan Webb said he didn’t have a timeline for it, but he wanted to be ready for a company that needed such space.
That building is envisioned on 38.86 acres at Malnove and Cold Storage drives, which is east of Busch Drive, North Main Street and Interstate 95.
In July, developer Bill Spinner landed a permit for a speculative 70,512-square-foot industrial building in North Jacksonville at the Port Jax Trade Center. At the time, he said it was the first speculative industrial building of any significance developed since 2009.
However, space demands in North Jacksonville ended the year lower than in Westside. Both are large markets for warehouse use.
Real estate research shows the industrial and warehouse vacancy rate ended 2014 at under 6 percent in Westside and 16 percent or higher in North Jacksonville.
USNR’s investment topping $7 million
What a difference a year makes.
USNR, the Woodlands, Wash.-based forest products equipment company expanding in the Westside, has applied to start the fourth phase of renovating the warehouse it bought exactly a year ago at 6630 Broadway Ave.
So far, the company’s investment in buying and renovating the former Football Fanatics warehouse is approaching $7.33 million.
The $709,969 fourth phase is the build-out of the third-phase shell office space. Plans show Gulf Tech Construction LLC will renovate the two-story, 21,400 square feet of space. Gulf Tech is the contractor for all four phases.
The $1.39 million third phase was the addition of the two-story office shell inside the existing warehouse to create an entry lobby, men’s and women’s locker rooms, office areas and other space.
The $1.48 million second phase was renovation of 150,000 square feet of space. The project included exterior improvements and tenant improvements in the warehouse of its existing building.
In the first phase, Gulf Tech Construction began interior demolition to remove concrete from the floor slab to prepare to handle future bridge cranes. That project was $100,513.
Including roofing, plumbing, fire protection, sewer and drainage, site work, landscaping and other work, renovations are approaching $4.58 million.
USNR LLC bought the building, developed in 1974, for $2.75 million on April 15, 2014.
USNR has seven divisions in North America, including in Jacksonville at 1220 W. State St., just west of the Kings Road postal facility.
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