Railex LLC, an expedited train service marketed to the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries, is seeking almost $8.8 million in City and state incentives to acquire undeveloped rail spur property along Philips Highway and construct a multimodal logistics center.
Legislation for the incentives was filed Thursday morning and is scheduled to be introduced to City Council on Tuesday.
The company, based in Riverhead, N.Y. and founded in 2005, currently has 700 full-time employees and will create 310 new full-time jobs as part of the deal.
The 310 jobs will have an estimated annual payroll of $17.3 million and would be created by Dec. 31, 2018, with 200 being created by Dec. 31, 2014, according to the project summary.
Railex proposes to acquire an 18-acre tract of undeveloped rail spur property on the Southside adjacent to the Florida East Coast Railroad marshaling yard for the center. The facility will comprise 252,000 square feet of refrigerated freight consolidation and deconsolidation warehouse and distribution facility. It will be served by 21,000 square linear feet of spur rail and support yard rail to handle the loading and unloading of 40-85 car unit trains within a 24-hour period.
Projected development cost is $105.7 million within a five-year ramp up period. That investment consists of a projected $2.3 million land acquisition, $34.8 million building construction, $1.7 million in manufacturing and packaging equipment, $6.2 million in warehouse equipment and technology infrastructure, $700,000 in furniture and fixtures and $60 million in refrigerated rail cars and intermodal trailers.
The project summary states the company will contribute $45.7 million in real and personal property taxes to Duval County's tax base.
Broken down, the almost $8.8 million in City and state incentives comprise:
• More than $1.7 million from the Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund program. The City's contribution would be $341,000, or 20 percent, with the state paying the remaining almost $1.4 million.
• $1.6 million from the City through a Recapture Enhanced Value grant, paid over five years. The program is used to refund taxes on property and investments made by the company.
• $5 million from the state's Economic Development Transportation Trust Grant. The program is an infrastructure incentive, commonly referred to as the "Road Fund," and is designed to alleviate transportation problems that impact a company's location decision.
• $465,000 from the state's Quick Response Training grant, which are provided by Workforce Florida and provide funding for customized training to new or expanded businesses.
Combined, the City's contribution toward the incentives package is $1.9 million.
According to a project summary, the company also will utilize Jacksonville's port to import and export refrigerated commodities.
According to its railexusa.com website, Railex has three other facilities in Delano, Calif., Wallula, Wash., and Rotterdam, N.Y. The Jacksonville incentives deal also would create 300 jobs at those existing locations, according to the project summary.
The website says the company has "strategically located facilities, providing over 225,000 square feet of separate computer controlled temperature zones and offers five day coast-to-coast rail transit with storage services at each distribution center."
According to the project summary, "The Railex concept was developed to create a streamlined form of distribution — utilizing the US rail network as a backbone that could be sold to the refrigerated product industry."
Company revenues for 2011 totaled $160.6 million, while revenues in 2012 were $182.6 million.
In its "by the numbers" section, since its 2006 inception Railex has initiated 846 train starts, transported 34,689 rail cars coast-to-coast, saved close to 339 million long-haul freight miles, taken 121,117 trucks off the road, reduced carbon emissions by more than 1 million metric tons and decreased fuel usage by more than 53 million gallons.
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