Legislation is being introduced to Jacksonville City Council to enable Eagle LNG Partners Jacksonville LLC to turn part of undeveloped liquefied natural gas site in North Jacksonville into an industrial park.
Ordinances 2026-0084 and 0083 are being introduced Feb. 10 to rezone 42.58 acres from Industrial Water to Industrial Light and to change the small-scale land use designation from Water Dependent-Water Related to Light Industrial.
The property is on the south side of Zoo Parkway between Busch Drive North and Eastport Road.
The legislation will be sent to the Council Land Use & Zoning Committee.
The property is in District 2, which is represented by Council member Mike Gay.
Legislation shows lawyer Paul Harden filed the ordinances on behalf of Eagle LNG Partners Jacksonville LLC.
Harden said Jan. 19 that he represented real estate developer Merus in applying to the city Planning and Development Department to start rezoning Houston-based Eagle LNG’s property for light industrial use.
Harden said Jan. 19 that Merus has land under contract.
The site at 1632 Zoo Parkway is 2 miles east of the Jacksonville Zoo and Botanical Gardens and 6 miles west of JaxPort’s Blount Island Marine Terminal.
Eagle LNG owns 227.23 acres among two tracts of land along Zoo Parkway. The acreage that is targeted for rezoning is part of a 194.18-acre site.
Signs of the industrial move started in October.
City utility JEA issued a service availability letter Oct. 30, 2025, to Merus detailing connection points for two industrial buildings totaling 698,880 square feet.
The letter says Building 1 will be 421,120 square feet and Building 2 will be 277,760 square feet.
The JEA request, made Oct, 21, does not mean there is deal. It means only that a project is being explored.
The location’s neighbors include oil terminals, a paper plant and warehousing parks, including more proposed distribution centers.
The JEA request included a planning proposal dated Oct. 20 that identified the site as Zoo Parkway Industrial Park.
Merus is a designer, developer and builder of industrial, medical office, mixed-use, multifamily and office projects. It is based in Cincinnati, with offices in Nashville, Pittsburgh and Raleigh, North Carolina
The master plan by Merus and its Merus Architects in Nashville, Tennessee, shows a three-phase project comprising the proposed 421,120-square-foot Building 1 as Phase I and the 277,760-square-foot Building 2 as Phase II.
A Phase III is shown without a building designation.
The rest of site is labeled as detention and flood plain areas.
The request says the proposal is not a final site layout. “We have the potential to add additional loading bays should it be required by future tenants,” it says.
The CBRE real estate company has listed the site as a 227-acre property for sale, calling it industrial waterfront development.
It says it is zoned for industrial use, offers CSX rail access and deep water with a 40-foot depth on the St. Johns River.
The coronavirus pandemic, inflation, construction costs and supply-chain challenges appear to have sidetracked the proposed $542 million project by Eagle LNG Partners, which 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.
Eagle LNG Partners Jacksonville LLC paid $26 million in May 2022 for 194.18 acres from the Bostwick family. It separately paid $12.2 million to CEFL Inc., affiliated with North Jacksonville land owners William Webb Jr. and Dan Webb, for an adjacent 33.05 acres.