Johnson & Johnson Vision Care is seeking $12 million in city incentives to construct a packaging distribution facility in Northwest Jacksonville and install new high-tech equipment at its Southside campus.
According to documents from the city Office of Economic Development, the company plans to invest $50 million for construction of the facility plus $500 million in the manufacturing equipment.
The location of the proposed packaging and distribution facility is not listed in the OED documents.
Ed Randolph, city director of economic development, said it was not a site in AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center where city utility JEA has reviewed plans for a manufacturing facility that would use an average of up to 600,000 gallons of water a day.
Randolph said Johnson & Johnson is working with a developer to build up to a 1 million-square-foot packaging and distribution facility in Northwest Jacksonville.
Randolph said the new equipment would be for Johnson & Johnson’s Deerwood Park manufacturing facility for disposable contact lenses. That plant is at 7500 Centurion Parkway.
An OED summary of the project says the facility will add 50 jobs to Johnson & Johnson’s 3,500-employee workforce by the end of 2028.
The summary states that Johnson & Johnson Vision Care manufactures 90% of the U.S. supply of Acuvue contact lenses from its Jacksonville facility.
If approved by Jacksonville City Council, the incentives would be in the form of two Recapture Enhanced Value Grants. One is a five-year, 60% grant of up to $1.5 million for the construction of the facility. The other is a five-year, 40% grant of up to $10.5 million for the equipment.
The summary says the city’s return on investment will be $4.86 for every $1 in incentives. It also says that for Johnson & Johnson, the incentives "are a material factor in its decision to expand its operations here in Jacksonville" after conducting a search for alternative locations.
The incentive request is scheduled to go before the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee on Jan. 26.
With MBRC approval, Randolph and the OED would introduce legislation on the incentives to Council on Feb. 10.
Karen Brune Mathis contributed to this report