A dozen years since the brainstorming began, a North Jacksonville riverfront site for a proposed liquefied natural gas export facility now appears to be available for development as an industrial park.
The coronavirus pandemic, inflation, construction costs and supply-chain challenges appear to have sidetracked the proposed $542 million project by Eagle LNG Partners that would have exported liquefied natural gas from North Jacksonville to the Caribbean.
The plant is delayed, the land is for sale and at least one developer is interested in the site along the St. Johns River, records show.
Houston-based Eagle LNG has not responded to requests for comment.
The project
Eagle LNG bought the roughly 200-acre property along Zoo Parkway in 2022 after City Council approved incentives to build the facility.
And that followed almost a decade of preparing for it.
The site at 1632 Zoo Parkway is 2 miles east of the Jacksonville Zoo and 6 miles west of JaxPort’s Blount Island Marine Terminal, in the thick of industrial uses.
Its newest neighbor across Zoo Parkway is the proposed Holon plant that is designed to make autonomous movers, including for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority.
Signs of delay emerged soon after the pandemic that took hold in 2020.
Jacksonville City Council extended a performance agreement in 2021 for plant completion by year-end 2025, and it has not begun.
In 2024, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave Eagle LNG Partners five more years to build the facility.
And records show that 227 acres where the plant was planned are for sale.
Potential for an industrial park
City utility JEA issued a service availability determination letter Oct. 30 for a request that calls the site Zoo Parkway Industrial Park, shown as two warehouses that total almost 700,000 square feet on 48.15 acres of the site.
A third phase is shown without a building designation.
The applicant, developer Merus with offices in Nashville, has not responded to requests for comment.
The CBRE real estate company has listed the site as a 227-acre property for sale, calling it industrial waterfront development.
Eagle LNG’s plans
Eagle LNG Partners’ endeavor appears to have been about 12 years in planning, starting with approvals, incentives and agreements interrupted by the pandemic and construction challenges.
The plant has been in development since mid-2013. Eagle LNG initially had hoped to start construction by mid-2016 and open by late 2018.
Eagle LNG wanted to ship gas from the site to Puerto Rico and other Caribbean Islands and also provide it for fuel marine customers globally and for U.S. domestic energy consumption.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is responsible for reviewing Eagle LNG import and export facilities, held public hearings as part of the process.
In January 2016, Eagle LNG Partners Jacksonville LLC applied to the Office of Fossil Energy of the Department of Energy to build the plant.
As described, it would occupy about 54 acres within a 194-acre parcel on the St. Johns River that Eagle LNG Partners would own. The company said it had an executed contract to buy it.
In 2019, Eagle LNG Partners LLC sought city incentives for the proposed $542 million liquid natural gas export facility on what was described as 200 acres.
A project summary said Eagle LNG would invest $58 million in facilities and install about $484 million in manufacturing equipment.
City Council authorized an economic development agreement with Eagle LNG Partners to support construction of the liquefied natural gas export facility, and that agreement was made in January 2020.
The agreement included a 10-year Recapture Enhanced Value Grant of $23 million, which is a grant payable after a project is completed and taxes are paid. The grant is a refund of some the taxes.
Then came the pandemic in early 2020, shutting down the economy.
In 2021, Council amended the agreement to extend the performance deadline for completion to Dec. 31, 2025, which extended the REV grant payouts from 2034 to 2035.
The Council amendment said that due to unanticipated construction delays result from the COVID-19 pandemic, the company requested to amend the economic development agreement to extend the construction start date from May 31, 2021, to 2022; completion from Dec. 31, 2024, to 2025; and the grant payout by a year.
Eagle LNG was to create 12 jobs by Dec. 31, 2025. No further job counts were announced.
The company continued to move forward on the site.
Eagle LNG Partners Jacksonville LLC paid $26 million in May 2022 for 194 acres from the Bostwick family.
City building records show that a permit application for an estimated $10.3 million site clearing project was sought but expired in September 2022.
Plans for that showed Eagle LNG facilities on the property where the industrial buildings are now designed.
Extension granted
Eagle LNG Partners also was seeking federal extensions.
The commission’s original order in September 2019 had required Eagle LNG to complete construction of the project and make it available for service within five years, by Sept. 19, 2024.
Eagle LNG Partners told the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, referred to in government uses as FERC, that COVID-related supply chain hurdles and higher costs necessitated an extension.
The Federal Register, which posts regulations, presidential documents, rules, proposed rules and notices, posted at FederalRegister.gov that on July 29, 2024, Eagle LNG Partners Jacksonville LLC requested that the commission grant an extension until Sept. 19, 2029, to construct and place into service its Jacksonville project.
“The COVID-19 pandemic created an extremely challenging environment for the negotiation and execution of contracts. Those impediments continued for some time after the effects of the pandemic had begun to subside in 2022,” the Federal Register said.
It said Eagle LNG affirms that inflation and supply chain issues increased the total installed cost of the Jacksonville project from what was forecast when Eagle LNG first submitted its application to the commission.
“Since many construction companies are focused on larger scale projects, and those willing to take on a more modestly sized project are finding it virtually impossible to hire skilled tradesmen, Eagle LNG has found it difficult to secure the services of a contractor that will devote time to the Jacksonville Project,” the post said.
“Eagle LNG anticipates that the construction of the Jacksonville Project will take 24 to 36 months, with construction commencing following a final investment decision to be made. In order to make that final investment decision, Eagle LNG and its investors must be able to conclude that the project’s FERC authorization provides enough time to complete construction of the Jacksonville Project,” it said.
“This is the reason why Eagle LNG requests that the FERC construction completion deadline be extended to September 19, 2029.”
On Sept. 10, 2024, the commission gave Eagle LNG the five-year extension.
The Oil & Gas Journal reported in September 2024 that Eagle LNG told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it had spent more than $83 million to date for site acquisition, property taxes, facility engineering, technical consulting services, and safety and marine consulting services.
Maxville, Talleyrand
Eagle LNG operates a plant in Maxville with logistics partner Crowley Maritime Corp.
The company held a grand opening of the plant in July 2018.
The facility was built to supply Eagle LNG’s Marine Fuel Depot-Talleyrand at the Jacksonville Port Authority’s Talleyrand Marine Terminal.
At the time of that opening, Eagle LNG said it also was focused on the export plant in North Jacksonville that would have the capacity to produce 1.5 million LNG gallons per day with a 12 million gallon storage tank, a marine jetty and a road tanker loading bay.
The port said Oct. 23 that Eagle LNG operates at the Talleyrand Marine Terminal, where the company conducts fueling operations using LNG from its Maxville facility. Eagle also exports LNG from Maxville as a cargo type through the port.
The port said it does not have an agreement with Eagle LNG regarding the Zoo Parkway property, which is a separate expansion initiative independent of Eagle LNG’s operations at Talleyrand.
“While the Zoo Parkway project is separate, Eagle LNG remains an important JAXPORT partner, supporting Jacksonville’s position as a leader in the use of LNG as a clean marine fuel and cargo type,” said Chelsea Kavanagh, the port’s chief communications officer, by email.