The mayor’s office filed legislation May 21 with Jacksonville City Council to seek incentives for Project Rotunda, an unidentified company that wants to expand and move its manufacturing facility within the city and add 120 jobs.
Council will consider Resolution 2025-393 for a Recapture Enhanced Revenue Grant up to $1.1 million to support the project.
The 10-year grant would be based on 50% of the project’s increase in ad valorem taxes on property and tangible personal property.
A REV grant is a refund on the city and county tax revenue generated by a new development. It is paid annually after the city verifies the taxes were paid.
The mayor’s office requests a two-reading passage, which is allowed for some economic development legislation, less than the standard three readings.
It will be introduced May 27 to Council and is assigned to the Finance Committee.
Rotunda would invest $44 million in a capital investment of the location and add 120 employees at an average wage, excluding benefits, of $60,000.
The project is described as an existing manufacturing company that has outgrown its location and wants to almost double in size to 240,000 square feet of production space. It has 150 employees.
The current location includes manufacturing and distribution.
The city Office of Economic Development says in a legislative fact sheet that the incentives are a material factor in Rotunda remaining and expanding in Jacksonville instead of relocating to another Southeastern or Texas location “that has a similar workforce available and lower expansion costs.”
Those locations were not identified. The city says they are near ports or general areas of the products’ use.
The economic development agreement says the company will start construction and improvements by Dec. 31, 2025, and “substantially complete” the work by Dec. 31, 2027.
The jobs would be created by Dec. 21, 2030. If the company does not add 120 jobs, the incentive grant would be reduced in proportion.
The REV grant would end no later than 2037.
The Office of Economic Development would negotiate, executive and administer the agreement and grant after Council approval.
Rotunda resembles Ring Power subsidiary
While the legislation and project summary do not identify the company, Rotunda resembles Ring Power Corp. subsidiary Phoenix Products, which makes generator enclosures in the Talleyrand area near Downtown.
Heavy equipment dealer Ring Power is taking steps to build an industrial warehouse in North Jacksonville for Phoenix Products.
VanTrust Real Estate LLC, through JI IPS Land LLC, sold land at 1511 Zoo Parkway in Imeson Park South on May 8 for $7 million to St. Augustine-based Ring Power.
That LLC is listed as the owner of a 32.3-acre site that the city approved for site clearing Jan. 23. England-Thims & Miller Inc. is the civil engineer.
The site is designated for construction of a more than 230,000-square-foot building called both Building B2 and Building 600.
VanTrust and Ring Power confirm the use for Phoenix Products.
VanTrust Real Estate Executive Vice President Marc Munago said May 11 that Ring Power bought the land for Phoenix Products. He said VanTrust will develop a 231,467-square-foot building for it.
And the city is reviewing permitting plans for construction of a 231,467-square-foot concrete tilt-wall light industrial warehouse on the site at an estimated cost of $24 million.
Ring Power Senior Vice President of Marketing Sue Miller confirmed by email May 12 that the Imeson Park South purchase was the company’s project “to build a new production facility for Phoenix Products.”
Miller, also Ring Power public relations director, has not responded yet to questions about the size of the current Phoenix Products plant, what will happen to that site upon completion in Imeson Park South and whether the new purchase is related to the city’s code-named Project Rotunda.
JLL Executive Managing Director Luke Pope represented Ring Power and subsidiary Phoenix Products in the purchase. VanTrust represented itself.
Ed Randolph, executive director of the city Office of Economic Development, said May 9 he is under a confidentiality agreement regarding the project, so he could not comment when asked if the project was Ring Power or Phoenix Products.
The Zoo Parkway site is about 9 miles north of the current Phoenix Products site.
Phoenix Products
Phoenix Products, which operates in the Talleyrand area of East Jacksonville, manufactures custom generator enclosures, fuel tanks and fueling systems for standby, prime and peak shaving power applications.
It is based at 1544 E. Eighth St. along Eighth, Bennett and Egner streets and Talleyrand Avenue. The site is between Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway and Talleyrand Avenue, just more than a mile from the JaxPort Talleyrand Marine Terminal along the St. Johns River.
Phoenix Products operates among several buildings totaling more than 89,000 square feet of space on 18.44 acres. When it added a new headquarters office in 2021, the existing plant encompassed 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
Ring Power bought Phoenix Products, a former supplier, in 2005.
Phoenix Products describes itself as a “premier manufacturer of generator enclosures, base tanks, aboveground fuel tanks & fuel delivery systems.”
“We continue to serve and satisfy customers in a variety of businesses and industries that include banking, colleges and universities, data centers, grocery stores, federal agencies, hospitals and nursing homes, lift stations, military bases, municipal organizations, retail centers, wastewater treatment plants and more,” says PhoenixProds.com.
Ring Power Corp. traces its history to 1947 when General Motors accountant L.C. Ringhaver came to join Northeast Florida’s shrimp boat industry. He eventually bought out the company he joined, becoming a customer of engines built by Caterpillar Tractor Co.
Caterpillar chose Ring Power as its official engine dealer in 1961 and as a full-line Caterpillar dealer in 1962.
In 2005, Ring Power moved from Jacksonville into corporate headquarters in World Commerce Center in St. Augustine.
Today, Ring Power says it oversees 18 branch locations throughout Florida, including large regional facilities in Tampa and Orlando. A Pompano Beach branch supports air compressor, crane and utility customers in South Florida. Ring Power also has facilities in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas.
Previous incentives
In October 2020, City Council enacted Ordinance 2020-0587-E to provide Phoenix Products LLC a $100,000 Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund Business Infrastructure Grant to build a new administration building at the East Eighth Street site.
Phoenix Products had to buy and demolish an existing building and then reconfigure the site for more manufacturing. It estimated a $2.144 million capital investment.
At the time, it had 85 employees and pledged to create 12 more positions over the subsequent five years.