Developer Bill Spinner said he is negotiating a long-term lease with a Fortune 500 company to anchor a $6 million building he plans in the Port Jax Trade Center in North Jacksonville.
The building would be used for laboratory and research functions, he said, but declined to identify the company.
“They are excellent corporate citizens,” he said.
The city is reviewing a building permit for the 80,000-square-foot Building 200 at 2635 Port Industrial Drive.
Spinner Construction Inc. is the contractor for the building shell at a job cost of $2.35 million. Build-out would be separately permitted.
“It is a sophisticated job and has a lot of engineering challenges,” Spinner said.
He said the tenant specializes in health and healing and in consumer and cleaning products.
Spinner said he expects to break ground on the project before Christmas, with or without a lease in place, for completion in the third or fourth quarter of 2018.
Without a signed lease, he said the plan still is to proceed “full blast ahead.”
Spinner said in July the structure will be the final bulk-size building in the 500,000-square-foot Port Jax Trade Center, where occupancy is more than 90 percent.
Lead tenants include W&O Supply, Lockheed Martin, Hoegh Autoliners and Grimes Logistics.
Spinner said the Jacksonville industrial market is 5 percent vacant.
In July, Port Jax II LLC bought 8.91 acres for construction of a 120,000-square-foot industrial building. That land is at 10350 Alta Drive near Port Jax Trade Center.
Spinner said Tuesday the project is in the engineering phase. He said he will wait a few months on a build-to-suit possibility.
He said it was a priority to lease its existing space first.
Spinner is the managing member of Spinner Construction LLC and Jax Green Industrial.
Regency Pointe along the Arlington Expressway is poised for a face-lift.
The city issued a permit Friday for Tenant Contractors Inc. to put up a new façade at a project cost of $810,975.
Sandor Development bought the shopping center across from Regency Square Mall in mid-2016 for $4.2 million.
A marketing brochure by American Commercial Realty Corp. states that a full facade renovation will be completed in the fourth quarter this year, which started this month.
Regency Pointe comprises about 6.7 acres at 9402-9450 and 9480 Arlington Expressway and 9465 Atlantic Blvd. It comprises about 67,000 square feet among three buildings, including a rebuilt Olive Garden restaurant.
The main center was built in 1981 and a smaller building in 1989. Olive Garden was rebuilt in 2015 after a fire.
Tenants include a Skechers outlet, Visionworks, Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, Supercuts, T-Mobile and others. The marketing flyer shows eight vacant retail storefronts from 1,125 to 9,700 square feet of space.
Mission BBQ, Domu joining The Strand
A site plan filed with a building permit application for another tenant shows that Mission BBQ and Bento — actually, Domu - will occupy the ends of a four-tenant building at 4852 Town Center Parkway in The Strand at Town Center.
While Bento is on the site plan, a building permit application identifies the space as that for the Domu restaurant, which was confirmed by a property representative.
Domu chef and proprietor Sean Nguyen plans to open the restaurant. Its Orlando location serves ramen, small plates, cocktails and more.
That building also will include Mattress1One. The fourth tenant was not identified.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is reviewing a minor modification for the proposed Hampton Inn at Branan Field Village in Clay County.
The modification is to extend the time to build the four-story hotel and associated sidewalks, parking, drainage system and landscaping on 2 acres of an almost 88-acre site at southeast Branan Field and Old Jennings roads in the Middleburg area.
Duval Realty Trust LLC is the applicant.
Development partner John Kiddy said in August that a committed hotel creates the start of a hotel park similar to those in the Southpoint, Bartram and Chaffee Road areas of Jacksonville.
He said then that site development was launched on 30 acres for Branan Field Village in Clay County, laying the groundwork for a retail, medical, office, restaurant and hotel center.
Of the acreage to be developed, 30 will be for commercial use and 40 for multifamily residential.
Kiddy said several inline retailers and restaurants expressed interest and that several freestanding retailers are working to buy parcels in the development.
St. Vincent’s Medical Center completed an expansion across Branan Field Road, effectively doubling the size of the hospital. Kiddy wants Branan Field Village to attract more medical uses.
Clay County Planning and Zoning also has been reviewing plans for the Hampton Inn across from St. Vincent’s.