New Jersey-based Sudler Cos. is in regulatory reviews to develop a 511,100-square-foot warehouse-distribution center on land it bought in December 2024 in Westlake Industrial Park in West Jacksonville.
Power provider JEA, the city and the St. Johns River Water Management District are reviewing plans for the proposed warehouse on 34.9 acres at 4070 Directors Road.
The site is west of Interstate 295 and south of Pritchard Road. The vacant land is across Directors Road from the BJ’s Wholesale Club distribution center.
Prime AE is the civil engineering consultant.
Sudler Cos., based in Chatham, New Jersey, is pursuing the project through SudJax LLC, which paid $9.96 million for the property. It bought the land from Atlanta-based Pattillo Industrial Real Estate, which owned it through Westlake Land LLC.
Pattillo bought the property in 2016.
The Cushman & Wakefield of Florida LLC commercial real estate firm in Jacksonville is marketing the project as one large building or among options for two buildings, labeling it a “build-to-suit opportunity.” Executive Managing Directors Tyler Newman and Jacob Horsley are the representatives.
Newman referred to the property as being a “great site and ready to build.”
After the purchase, Sudler had been exploring construction of a 345,000-square-foot distribution/manufacturing warehouse that could be expanded to 600,000 square feet in a second phase.
For that, city utility JEA issued a service available determination letter Nov. 7, 2024, to Sudler Cos. JEA now is reviewing a new request submitted this month by engineers Connelly & Wicker and Prime AE.
In January 2025, Sudler Cos. was working on a concept for the almost 35 acres.
“We are currently reviewing several different options for site plans and due diligence at the Westlake site,” said company Principal Daniel Sudler in an email Jan. 6, 2025.
Sudler has not responded to emails or calls about the April filings.
Sudlerco.com says the company offers “the full spectrum of vertically integrated real estate development services to meet all real estate needs from vision to reality.”
Sudler began in 1907 as a general contracting firm. The company says it is under the fourth generation of Sudler family management.
It says it provides land acquisition and investment; real estate development; general contracting and construction management; property management; and legal expertise.
“From ground-up real estate development projects to strategic real estate acquisitions, we look for partnerships that offer long-term value creation potential. With multi-family investments spanning over 30 states in the US, we have a broad geographic footprint and a deep understanding of regional markets,” says the website.
It says its portfolio spans industrial and commercial developments.
That portfolio includes 16 properties in New Jersey as well as in South Carolina and Florida.
Sudler owns Southern Oaks Business Park in Plant City, where Tesla and food distributor Sysco lease space.
It also added a Tesla distribution center in Greenville County, South Carolina.
Through Westlake Land LLC, Atlanta-based Pattillo Industrial Real Estate proposed to build the speculative 503,100-square-foot Westlake II warehouse on the 34.94 acres.
Pattillo Vice President of Development Peter Anderson said Dec. 28, 2022, that permitting was anticipated in time for construction to start by late 2023, but Pattillo sold the land to Sudler.
At the time, the St. Johns River Water Management District was reviewing an application to modify the environmental resource permit for the site from a 46.77-acre project to 34.94 acres.
That project was, and continues to be, labeled in Water Management District records as “BJ’s Warehouse Expansion,” but Anderson said previously that BJ’s was not involved. “This land was originally purchased and mass graded back when BJ’s moved in,” he said.
He said that appears to be the only reason the BJ’s name was referenced.
BJ’s leases a 500,000-square-foot distribution center built in 2003 at 4500 Directors Road.
The SudJax letter to the water management district on March 10, 2026, says it requests a modification from 46.77 acres to 34.94 acres.