Before he spearheaded the development of the 1.6 million-square-foot Wildlight Commerce Center in Nassau County, Peter Anderson had a long-established record as a big-project deliverer.
Since joining Pattillo Industrial Real Estate in 1992, Anderson has coordinated the development and leasing of more than 10 million square feet of projects involving such businesses as Boeing, BMW, Volvo Truck Parks and GE Aviation.
Pattillo Industrial owns the largest portfolio of industrial buildings in Northeast Florida, which Cushman & Wakefield reports to be almost 7.85 million square feet of space.
As Pattillo’s vice president of new development, Anderson is responsible for new investments including acquisitions, speculative developments and build-to-suit deals in coastal markets.
In June 2025, Pattillo broke ground on the first phase of the Wildlight center, launching construction on 149,000- and 68,000-square-foot buildings. The commerce park is along Florida A1A in Yulee, about 1.5 miles east of Interstate 95.
It will be part of the larger Wildlight master-planned mixed-use community.
“To be kicking off this park and having the medical and the restaurants and the shopping and the housing already there is a huge advantage,” Anderson said during the groundbreaking of the commerce park buildings.
Anderson’s leadership ability emerged before he began his career in development.
As a former starting center for the University of Georgia football team in the early 1980s, he became the first player coached by Vince Dooley to be named the team’s permanent captain at midseason.
Dooley referred to him as a “bell cow,” an endearing term referring to the practice of hanging a bell on the cow that leads a herd.
In a 2013 profile, the Daily Record called him one of Jacksonville’s “best-known and highly respected, as well as competitive, developers.” He recounted lessons he still applied from Dooley, including the need to bring full effort to his work.
“As soon as you take a situation for granted, you get kicked in the teeth,” he said.