JEA is soliciting bids to build a substation at Cecil Commerce Center North, another step toward developing a targeted portion of the former Westside Naval Air Station for major economic development.
The city-owned utility published the Invitation for Bid on Nov. 21 and scheduled a mandatory pre-bid meeting for 10:30 a.m. Thursday at its Customer Center Downtown. A mandatory site visit follows.
Bids are due by noon Jan. 6 and will be opened that day at 2 p.m. JEA will award the contract to the bidder that meets or exceeds the qualifications and whose price represents the lowest cost.
JEA spokeswoman Gerri Boyce said the overall budget for the substation and an interconnect is $12.5 million. The total estimated bid for the contractor cost is about $5.2 million.
Technical specifications show a contract award in January and completed construction in November.
Constructing the new substation and transmission circuit will provide a more reliable source of energy at Cecil Commerce Center and the AllianceFlorida business park under development by Texas-based Hillwood Investment Properties.
“It’s huge,” said state Rep. Lake Ray, a Republican representing District 12 and president of the First Coast Manufacturers Association.
He said the substation could help attract manufacturing, logistics and distribution operations.
“Most of the manufacturing operations have a very high power demand, so I think it’s clearly a statement in terms of Cecil Commerce Center. It’s clearly the right direction we need to go,” Ray said.
City spokeswoman Kristen Sell said the Office of Economic Development and Hillwood have continually invested in AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center to ensure the city can compete nationally and internationally for jobs and private capital investment.
She said this was a component of that investment with JEA.
The substation location is in the northwest section of Cecil Commerce Center, between Interstate 10 and Normandy Boulevard, and west of Chaffee Road.
Maps filed with the St. Johns River Water Management District show it is near the FedEx Ground Package System Inc. distribution center and the Saft America Inc. lithium ion battery manufacturing plant.
The park’s newest tenant is GE Oil & Gas, which is leasing a building that Hillwood developed on a speculative basis as part of its agreement with the city as master developer.
The availability of that building is cited as a major reason GE Oil & Gas chose Jacksonville for a 500-job manufacturing plant to make control valves. The plant is opening at 12970 Normandy Blvd.
The substation will be developed at 13701 Waterworks St., less than a mile from the GE Oil & Gas facility and on JEA property near an existing water treatment plant and an existing substation.
JEA’s bid invitation says the contract will include complete construction, from land clearing and grading to complete electrical construction and final rocking, paving and landscaping of the electrical substation.
The transmission work will include installation of two steel poles on concrete pier foundations, the sagging and tensioning of new and existing conductors, and the construction of a patrol road south of the substation site.
The JEA filed a permit application in June with the water management district that it intends to add two new substations to serve Cecil Commerce Center. The district issued a permit Aug. 4 for construction of a stormwater management system for the JEA Cecil Commerce Center North Electric Substation.
An executive summary from engineer Frank Wilson III states the project is to build a JEA electric substation to better connect Florida Power & Light Co. to the Jacksonville power grid and provide power to the developing businesses at Cecil Commerce Center. Florida Power & Light is an investor-owned utility and is the largest electric utility in the state.
Meanwhile, JEA spokeswoman Jane Upton previously said an anticipated Cecil Commerce Center South Substation will be south of 103rd Street, west of Chaffee Road and east of the JAA runway.
She said the timing of developing that substation is dependent on the development in the south part of Cecil Commerce Center. The south part initially will be served by the Cecil Commerce Center North Substation.
$14.5M mortgage issued for Creekside center
Thackeray Partners, the Texas-based investor that bought Creekside Distribution Center in September, was issued a $14.5 million mortgage on the property Nov. 25 by 40/86 Mortgage Capital Inc., based in Indiana.
Thackeray took out the mortgage through TPRF III/Creekside Distribution LLC. It covers the three-building center at 13845, 13903 and 13949 Alvarez Road.
Dallas-based Jackson-Shaw Co. sold Creekside Distribution Center and four vacant property parcels at Jacksonville International Tradeport to Thackeray Partners for almost $23 million.
Records show Jackson-Shaw sold the 25-acre, three-building, 336,000-square-foot Creekside warehouse and distribution center for $20.8 million.
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