Eagle LNG Partners Jacksonville LLC is a step closer to turning its undeveloped liquefied natural gas site in North Jacksonville into an industrial park.
On behalf of real estate developer Merus, Jacksonville attorney Paul Harden applied to the city Planning and Development Department to start rezoning Houston-based Eagle LNG’s property for light industrial use. Jacksonville City Council will need to review and vote on the legislation when it is filed.
Harden said Jan. 19 that Merus has land under contract but said the size of that property was not public record.
The 42.58 acres to be rezoned is on the south side of Zoo Parkway east of Busch Drive North.
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 developer 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 location’s neighbors include oil terminals, a paper plant and warehousing parks, including more proposed distribution centers.
The JEA request, made Oct, 21, does not mean there is deal. It means only that a project is being explored.
Zoo Parkway Industrial Park
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
It changed its name in 2025 from AI. Neyer to Merus.
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 had 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.
Eagle LNG’s plans sidetracked
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 has not responded to requests for comment.
The Eagle LNG plant had been in development since mid-2013. Eagle LNG initially had hoped to start construction by mid-2016 and open by late 2018.
Eagle LNG bought the property after City Council approved incentives to build the facility. That followed almost a decade of preparing for it.
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 of the taxes.
Signs of delay emerged soon after the pandemic began in 2020.
Council extended a performance agreement in 2021 for plant completion by year-end 2025, and it has not begun.
The company continued to move forward on the site.
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.
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.
Eagle LNG Partners also was granted a federal extension.
The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory 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 commission that coronavirus pandemic-related supply chain hurdles and higher costs necessitated an extension.
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.