What the owner calls one of the last available tracts of heavy-industrial zoned land in Southside could soon have a buyer and a development.
Jody O’Donnell, director of LMI East Inc., said Wednesday he has a contract to sell a 12.9-acre site off Greenland Road to a Jacksonville material handling company.
He declined to identify the prospective buyer or purchase price. The land near Greenland Industrial Park can accommodate up to 100,000 square feet of warehousing space.
He said the prospective buyer wants to expand on the property.
O’Donnell owns and is president of LMI Landscapes in Carrollton, Texas, near Dallas, with additional operations in Austin and Denver. He operated a commercial landscaping company on the Southside property but closed it about 2008 as the recession took hold.
He wasn’t marketing the Jacksonville land, which is largely undeveloped except for some small buildings used in his former venture.
Instead, he said prospective buyers sought him out, which is an indication of the market’s activity.
“It’s certainly picking up and more encouraging than it’s been,” he said.
He continues to follow the Jacksonville market, “keeping a pulse of what’s going on.”
O’Donnell bought the Southside property, at 11901 Fayal Drive, for $262,500 in February 1999 and invested in it to create the landscape operation. It is assessed at $845,458 by the Duval County Property Appraiser.
He also owns 8 acres in St. Johns County with frontage on County Road 210. He is considering either developing it in a joint venture for retail use or selling it.
Clothes Mentor considers Jacksonville a multistore market
The Clothes Mentor women’s clothing re-sale chain could open up to four stores in Jacksonville.
Jenny Mann, director of marketing for NTY Franchise Co., said a lease was signed for a second store, this one at 9922 Old Baymeadows Road in Deerwood Village Mall.
Mann expects an early spring opening and referred questions to franchise owner Guy Hanna. He has not responded to emailed questions.
The first Clothes Mentor announced for Jacksonville is in the Claire Lane Center in Mandarin at 11112 San Jose Blvd. Franchise owner Dayna Cerullo said in December the 3,207-square-foot store should open in the spring.
Mann said franchises haven’t been sold for the next one or two Jacksonville stores.
Clothes Mentor stores buy and resell designer and name-brand women’s clothing and accessories. The stores buy used clothing outright, paying cash immediately to sellers.
Mann, at NTY’s headquarters near Minneapolis, said in December there are about 140 Clothes Mentor stores in 29 states, with 52 more on track to open.
Clothes Mentor seeks clothing sizes 0-26, for petites, misses and plus sizes, including maternity wear. Clothes must be current, defined as having been sold in malls within the past two years; they must be laundered or cleaned; and they must be in good condition.
The stores also seek handbags, shoes and accessories in current styles and good condition.
Millennium Center sells for $4.7 million
An Ormond Beach investor paid $4.7 million Tuesday for the fully occupied Millennium Business Center in Southside and took out a $3.76 million loan from Reunion Bank of Florida.
Millennium Business Center LLC, led by Indravadan Shah, bought the center from Beach Center LLC of Irvine, Calif.
Beach Center LLC bought it for $3 million in 2003, property records show.
The almost 35,000-square-foot structure was built about 2001 on 2.13 acres at 11744 Beach Blvd. It is assessed at $2.67 million by the Duval County Property Appraiser’s Office.
Prime Realty represented the seller and the buyer, said CEO Tyler Saldutti.
Saldutti said the center’s tenants include MCCI Medical Group, European Leather Gallery and Mattress One.
He said the property was 50 percent vacant when the market was soft in 2009-10 and that Prime Realty worked with the landlord to lease the space.
He said the property sale represents the higher occupancy and the rising lease rates in the Southside retail market, specifically along Beach Boulevard east of I-295.
Seacoast Academy
expanding in Arlington
Seacoast Christian Academy wants to renovate the business building it owns nearby at 8049 Arlington Expressway into 12 classrooms for kindergarten through the fifth grade.
A pending permit application shows HCMC Inc. is the contractor for the $120,000 project to renovate 13,312 square feet of space in what has been used for professional offices.
Seacoast is a private Christian school that serves the greater Arlington area.
The seacoastchristianacademy.com site says Seacoast began in 1991 as a home-school program housed at a church at 8057 Arlington Expressway.
Growth led it to move to another location in 1996 behind Regency Square Mall, and it opened a preschool in 1998.
In 2004, the middle and high school program moved to a building along Regency Square Boulevard North. In mid-2007, the upper school returned to the original Arlington Expressway building.
Seacoast Christian Academy has not responded to two calls seeking comment.
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