St. Johns County issued a permit March 7 for KeHE Distributors to build a 532,613-square-foot industrial building and offices at 3800 Deerpark Blvd. in Elkton.
Stotan Industrial of Chicago bought the 40.38-acre property Aug. 9 for $7.25 million from InLight Real Estate Properties of Ponte Vedra Beach.
Stotan Industrial is developing the build-to-suit warehouse for KeHE. Evans General Contractors of Alpharetta, Georgia, is the contractor.
KeHE distributes natural, organic, specialty and fresh products to more than 31,000 natural food stores, chain and independent grocery stores, e-commerce retailers, and other specialty product retailers throughout North America. It has 16 distribution centers in the United States and Canada.
It is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.
The new facility is less than a mile from the company’s facility at 4055 Deerpark Blvd. When completed, it will double KeHE’s St. Johns County footprint. The current warehouse opened in 2008.
On Nov. 16, it broke ground on the $88.5 million project. It is expected to open in the summer of 2025 and be used as one of its Southeast distribution centers.
It will have 29,887 square feet of office space, 390,000 square feet of dry storage and another 105,000 square feet for cold and frozen goods.
The company employs 380 workers in St. Johns and expects to add another 100 jobs when the facility opens.
The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners agreed to issue an economic development grant of $1,341,410 that will begin in 2027.
Because of the expected increase in truck traffic, the county will install a traffic light at Florida 207 and Deerpark Boulevard.
In 2010, KeHE bought Tree of Life for $190 million. Its U.S. operations were based in St. Johns. The deal included Tree of Life’s Canada facilities.