The city issued a permit Aug. 4 for Publix Super Markets Inc. to build a frozen foods warehouse at its West Jacksonville distribution complex along Interstate 10 at a project cost of almost $136 million.
Gray Construction Inc. of Lexington, Kentucky, is the contractor. Gray AES of Lexington is the architect. Dyer & Associates LLC, of Richmond, Kentucky, is the civil engineer.
Lakeland-based Publix is building the 370,000-square-foot freezer building on 42.4 acres that the supermarket company owns at 10132 General Ave.
Publix plans to develop the warehouse next to its distribution center on the company’s 127 acres between I-10 and West Beaver Street. General Avenue runs by the complex.
The company began developing the West Beaver Street site in 1971. Buildings were added since then and now total more than 950,000 square feet.
The structures include warehousing, distribution, refrigerated warehouses, offices and other functions.
That size increases to about 1.35 million square feet with the new warehouse.
The city signed off on incentives in November 2023. City Council unanimously approved a Recapture Enhanced Value Grant up to $3.5 million for the warehouse, code-named Project Willow.
The grant represents 50% of the new city ad valorem tax anticipated to be generated by the project over a term of five years.
Publix said in April 2024 that the new frozen foods warehouse was targeted to open in late 2027 and hire about 150 people.
“It will add capacity to our distribution network and primarily serve Central and North Florida, and southern Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina,” said Publix Media Relations Manager Hannah Herring.
Herring’s comments come after the city had issued a concurrency reservation certificate that stated the proposed project had sufficient water, sanitary sewer, solid waste and drainage capacity.
While not identified as Publix, the city incentives legislation said the recipient of the property tax refund is a locally established regional food retailer that wishes to expand its distribution support operations to accommodate continued growth to serve customers in the Southeastern U.S., according to documents filed by the city Office of Economic Development.
The expansion outlined in the ordinance included development of a 300,000-square-foot cold-storage facility with a capital investment of about $150 million for construction and equipment.
The ordinance said the company will maintain its current level of jobs and add 150 jobs with a $7.5 million annual payroll combined with “offering substantial benefits” by Dec. 31, 2027.
A report presented with the proposal by the Council Auditor’s Office indicated the JEA issued a service availability letter Aug. 28, 2023, for Publix to build a 400,000-square-foot warehouse for frozen foods storage on 37.15 acres along General Avenue.
The city continues to review three permits for accessory structures, comprising a pump house at $275,000; a security post at $185,000; and an employee turnstile building into the storage freezer at a cost of $95,000.