AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center developer Hillwood told the city June 29 it spent March working on site layouts for a prospect.
The unidentified company approached Dallas-based Hillwood about developing a 500,000-square-foot distribution center on Parcel F at the West Jacksonville business park.
As the city’s master developer at Cecil Commerce Center, Hillwood is required to file quarterly activity reports.
It made its first-quarter 2020 filing June 29.
Hillwood said in that report that it was approached in early March by a prospect interested in leasing a 500,000-square-foot build-to-suit distribution facility on the site.
During the rest of the reporting period, Hillwood and the prospect exchanged drafts of a site plan and discussions continued.
The report follows Hillwood’s action in May to file civil engineering plans with the city to grade almost 63 acres for a 517,510-square-foot distribution warehouse on Parcel F.
In those plans, Hillwood did not identify a user or tenant for the building, which will be built in two phases.
The property is at southwest POW-MIA Memorial Parkway and Waterworks Street, next to the JinkoSolar solar-panel manufacturing plant. The city owns the land.
Hillwood Senior Vice President Dan Tatsch said June 29 that he had no comment beyond what’s in the report.
The project description said that along with the warehouse, there will be parking, truck storage and associated infrastructure.
Hillwood also told the city that during the first quarter, January-March, it:
• Received and responded in late February to a preliminary inquiry from a broker representing a prospect interested in 350,000 to 450,000 square feet of distribution space. It was not clear if the prospect was focused on leasing a build-to-suit facility or buying land and constructing its own building.
• Received word that a prospect interested in acquiring 5-6 acres on Parcel R to develop a retail facility had decided to suspend its pursuit of the site. The prospect did not indicate if the suspension was permanent or temporary. Parcel R is at southeast POW-MIA Memorial Parkway and Normandy Boulevard.
In the fourth-quarter 2019 report, filed in May, Hillwood said Wayfair Inc.’s AllianceFlorida distribution center was substantially complete in mid-December, as scheduled.
Boston-based Wayfair, an online home furnishings company, said it intends to open the fulfillment facility this summer.
Hillwood executed a long-term lease with Wayfair for a 1,012,567-square-foot building at 13483 103rd St. next to the Amazon.com fulfillment center.
Hillwood won a competitive bid in 2009 to become the master developer of the 4,474-acre Cecil Commerce Center, which is a portion of the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field owned by the city.
