Sysco Corp. is renovating a warehouse at 3100 Hilton St. in Northwest Jacksonville to accommodate an expansion of its International Food Group exports operation, a move expected to create 60 jobs by early summer.
Sisco is spending $325,000 for interior demolition at the warehouse, according to a building permit.
Charley Wilson, vice president of corporate communications, said the International Food Group distributes and exports products to Sysco customers outside the United States.
Houston-based Sysco has two distribution centers in Jacksonville – the new International Food Group center and its food-service operation at 1501 Lewis Industrial Drive, which is three miles southwest. Together, the two are expected to have more than 300 jobs in Jacksonville.
Sysco operates 193 locations in the U.S., Bahamas, Canada, Ireland and Northern Ireland. The sysco.com website says the company has grown to $44 billion in sales and serves about 425,000 customers in the foodservice industry, delivering food and food-related products to restaurants, health care and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Products include equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries.
Gate Lands reviewing status of 200 acres
Gate Lands Co., the property division of Jacksonville-based Gate Petroleum Co., sees an improving real estate market and is determining what it might do with almost 200 acres in St. Johns County.
"The market is picking up so we are reviewing some of our smaller property holdings and assessing their potential value," said Ken Wilson, president of GL National Inc., the real estate division of Gate Petroleum.
Gate has filed petitions with the St. Johns River Water Management District for a formal wetland and surface water determination for two parcels — the 104.7-acre parcel called The Outpost and an 82.1-acre site called "Parcel I" south of Race Track Road referred to on maps as the "Veterans Parkway Site."
Environmental Resource Solutions Inc. is the agent.
"We have an environmental consultant working for us to determine what are uplands and what will be determined as wetlands," Wilson said.
He said Gate is asking the district to sign off on the wetland line, which Gate can then survey for district confirmation. That process helps to define the property and identify areas to be preserved and restricted from development.
"There is definitely a chance somebody will acquire one or both of these properties in the future," he said.
Wilson said the Veterans Parkway Site was part of an acquisition in 2004 from The Cummer Land Trust and sits between the Julington Creek development to the north and the Aberdeen and Durbin Crossing developments to the south and west. It has no road frontage, he said.
He said the Outpost is part of Gate's Ponte Vedra Inn & Club operations and is used as a corporate-retreat setting in the woods. He said the club was phasing out of that part of the operation by midsummer.
He said both sites most likely would be appealing for low-density single-family residential uses.
Regency announces $15M Riverside project
Regency Centers Corp. formally announced it will develop the Shoppes on Riverside, a 49,870-square-foot retail project along Riverside Avenue in the Brooklyn area of Downtown.
It is a joint development with Fuqua Development of Atlanta.
Regency also confirmed what the Daily Record reported Oct. 8: The Fresh Market grocer will anchor the project.
Regency expects to invest about $14.7 million in development and construction, with the 20,400-square-foot Fresh Market to open in October 2014. It will be the grocer's fourth location in Jacksonville.
Shoppes on Riverside will bring the number of centers Regency operates in the area to 15, with a total square footage of 1.3 million.
The project follows a recent announcement about the East San Marco development by Whitehall Realty Partners and East San Marco LLC, of which Regency is a partner.
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