FedEx Ground Package System confirmed Monday it will build a 300,000-square-foot distribution center at Cecil Commerce Center and transfer the existing 180 employees from its 2480 Lane Ave. N. facility to the new, larger hub that will service the Jacksonville area.
Employees "will be added to the Jacksonville facility as needed," according to FedEx spokesman Jesse Bull in an email. He would not comment on the number of new jobs the company would create.
The site, at Waterworks Street in the business park, is within an Enterprise Zone and Empowerment Zone and makes the company eligible for incentives from the City and state for the construction and new jobs created.
Bull confirmed FedEx "will be taking advantage of those tax credit programs at the appropriate time."
As of Monday afternoon, no economic development legislation for the company had been filed.
Bull said the site was chosen because of its access to major highways, proximity to customers' distribution centers and a strong local community workforce for recruiting employees.
The facility will serve areas north to St. George, Ga., south to Bunnell, west to Live Oak and east to Jacksonville Beach, Bull said. As reported, Bull said the hub is separate from a proposed hub in Ocala.
As the Daily Record first reported in early May, the company has been interested in Cecil for a logistics project, the same day a City committee reviewed preliminary plans for an unidentified company to build a 300,000-square-foot distribution warehouse, plus additional buildings at the Cecil site where the FedEx hub will be located.
Documents filed with the St. Johns Water Management District and the City later identified FedEx Ground as the company.
As reported, the City documents showed the distribution center will employ at least 250 people and add more for seasonal work. Those documents showed there will be about 150 full-time and 100 part-time employees.
SunCap Property Group of Charlotte, N.C., has been shown as the project developer at the City-owned Cecil site.
The facility should be completed in June 2015.
The existing facility is about 87,200 square feet, City records show.
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