By Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Hillwood Investment Properties is laying the groundwork for a second large spec building at AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center.
The first one brought in GE Oil & Gas. A second could lead to another big prospect.
While Hillwood doesn’t plan immediate construction, a full-page feature about a second almost 500,000-square-foot spec building at Cecil has sparked expectations that development might be sooner rather than later.
The spec building wasn’t included in Hillwood’s fourth-quarter marketing and development report filed Monday with the city, although it was referenced in the third-quarter summary.
Hillwood is the master developer at Cecil.
Yet that prospective structure, AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Building D, is depicted in some detail in the April 30 NAIOP Bus Tour report. That was four months after the quarter’s end.
It’s shown as a 405,000-square-foot building, expandable by 94,500 square feet, at New World Avenue and Waterworks Street.
Hillwood Senior Vice President Dan Tatsch said the site plan in the tour book was intended to illustrate a likely layout for the 36.3-acre property next to the Saft America Inc. and FedEx Ground Package System Inc. projects.
“We have no immediate plans to start construction on that building (or any other speculative building at AllianceFlorida), but we continue to monitor market conditions and will move forward with our next speculative building when the time is right,” Tatsch said by email.
Immediate plans or not, the tour book information offered a lot of detail for the building, including 100 plus-or-minus 9-by-10-foot dock-high doors, about 124 trailer-parking positions or more with expansion land and about 156 car-parking spaces.
In the third quarter, Hillwood closed out wetland permits and preparation for Parcel D, positioning it for a 400,000- to 500,000-square-foot development/leasing opportunity.
The expectation that Hillwood will develop a second speculative building is based on the success of the first one.
Hillwood began to develop a 400,000-square-foot spec building along Normandy Boulevard that was revised to a more precise 510,433-square-foot structure when GE Oil & Gas was looking for a lease for a new manufacturing plant.
GE did that deal in September and the plant is under construction.
Hillwood sold that 40-acre property in February to an investor for $57.6 million, which indicates it has cash to invest in more development.
Hillwood’s required fourth-quarter report was filed late Monday with the city. Marketing highlights include that Hillwood:
• Responded to initial brokers’ inquiries for undisclosed prospects interested in a build-to-suit 500,000-square-foot distribution center and for a lease of 100,000 square feet of warehouse-distribution space.
• Continued discussions with a developer interested in buying land for a neighborhood retail center and also received a prospective concept development plan for it.
• Continued discussions with the undisclosed “Project Sunshine,” a prospect interested in a build-to-suit manufacturing facility of 850,000 to 1 million square feet of space.
• Responded to a Request for Proposal but later learned Jacksonville had been eliminated from consideration by a confidential prospect interested in a build-to-suit distribution center that could have doubled from 1 million to 2 million square feet of space.
• Received a Request for Proposal from the confidential “Project Viper” for a build-to-suit distribution center of 100,000 to 120,000 square feet of space.
• Signed a lease with GE that allowed it to move forward with design work to complete its interior shop and office requirements. Build-out is expected to run through the fourth quarter.
Hillwood concluded in the overall market assessment that it continues to see improvement in the industrial property market.
It updates the property at hillwoodinvestmentproperties.com.
As master developer, Hillwood has a long-term contract with the city to develop up to 30 million square feet of industrial and retail space at Cecil Commerce Center in West Jacksonville.
@MathisKb
(904) 356-2466