Massy Distribution Properties LLC, a Miami-area company that is part of the Caribbean group that bought Jacksonville-based Rowe’s Supermarkets Inc. in December 2022, wants to build-out the second phase of the warehouse it bought in October in Imeson International Industrial Park.
Massy is using 102,192 square feet of the 172,136-square-foot building at 10775 Yeager Road.
In February, the city issued a permit for Jacksonville-based Auld & White Constructors LLC to build-out office and dry storage space for Massy Distribution within the space at a project cost of $696,300.
Massy now wants Auld & White to complete the cold storage portion of the space at an estimated cost of $999,700. The city is reviewing that permit application.
Studio9 Architecture of Jacksonville is the architect.
Plans also show another part of the east side of the building will be for a future warehouse tenant.
Massy Distribution bought the warehouse Oct. 16, 2023, for $24.5 million from IPI-10775 Inc., part of Orlando-based Webb Southeast Inc.
JPMorgan Chase of Miami issued a $9.65 million mortgage.
The city issued a permit in October 2022 for the warehouse construction at a cost of $12.3 million at Yeager and Cold Storage roads.
The Massy Group of Companies is starting to expand distribution in the U.S. from that distribution center.
Massy, which operates and services supermarkets among its other investments, says its Jacksonville warehouse “will facilitate the growth of our US Distribution business.”
The Massy Group of Companies, based in Trinidad and Tobago, says in its 2023 annual report that it sold its Medley warehouse in the Miami area and bought the Jacksonville building, which is three times the space used by Massy Distribution in Medley, providing opportunities for growth.
“In Distribution, we have added new lines in every territory and opened new warehousing space” in Barbados, Guyana and Florida to support the growth, it said.
Jacksonville-based NAI Hallmark said Vice President and Industrial Specialist Jason Purdy and Senior Associate Camden Padgett brokered the warehouse transaction on behalf of Massy Distribution USA, based in Medley.
Massy Distribution (USA) was long established, but in the last two years Massy has registered several companies with the state of Florida, including Massy Stores (USA) LLC on Nov. 30, 2022; Massy Integrated Retail (USA) LLC on April 27, 2023; Massy (USA) Inc. on May 3, 2023; and Massy Distribution Properties LLC on July 26, 2023.
• Massy Distribution (USA) Inc. and Massy Distribution Properties are based in Medley/Miami, while the others are based in Trinidad with mailing addresses at the Medley office.
• Massy Distribution services supermarkets, groceries, pharmacies, hospitals, variety stores, wholesalers, hardware stores, agricultural shops and industries, hotels, restaurants and duty-free outlets across the major markets of the English-speaking Caribbean.
• Massy Holdings Ltd., a Trinidad and Tobago-based holding company, said it paid $47 million for Rowe’s IGA Supermarkets on Dec. 12, 2022.
Massy Group says in its 2023 annual report that the seven Jacksonville Rowe’s IGA stores added more than 400 associates to the group and contributed revenue of $118.4 million in U.S. dollars in the 9½ months after the acquisition.
The 2023 annual report calls Rowe’s “an excellent beachhead for further niche supermarket acquisitions in the United States, while providing strength in hard currency cash generation.”