At InLight, our strategy in Jacksonville starts with being hyperlocal.
We believe the developers who win long term are the ones who know this market at a granular level: What’s moving through JaxPort, what CSX is doing, what JAXUSA is working on, which tenants are active, what’s under construction and which submarkets are positioned for the next wave of demand.
That local intelligence is how we make better development decisions and stay ahead of where the market is going rather than reacting to where it’s been.
Jacksonville is a genuine focus for us, and not just because of the convenience of living here.
Compared with Tampa, Orlando or Southeast Florida, Jacksonville is simply the easiest major market in Florida to develop industrial real estate. The entitlement process is more predictable, the cost to build is lower and timelines are shorter.
The other markets have their strengths, but their barriers to entry also make them difficult for large industrial users to commit to. Timelines and entitlement risks are too difficult to underwrite.
Jacksonville typically doesn’t have that problem. You combine that with a business-friendly environment and strong population growth and companies take notice. It’s not so much speed to market as it is certainty of execution that’s more important than ever and Jacksonville competes strongly on that.
Jacksonville also excels in its infrastructure offering. We have JaxPort, the largest container port by volume in Florida, which continues to attract ocean freight shippers who want a faster, less congested gateway than Savannah or Port Everglades. We have major CSX rail operations. We have Jacksonville International Airport.
We have Interstate 95, I-10 and the broader interstate network that puts Jacksonville within one day’s drive of Atlanta, Tampa and Miami.
And you have a deep labor pool built in part on a strong military presence, experienced, disciplined workers who are well-suited for logistics and distribution operations.
When you stack all of that up, Jacksonville has every component a major logistics hub needs.
We’re building for that reality and for what the future holds for our city. We’ve just completed our largest speculative project ever here in Jacksonville called Eastport Exchange.
It includes 900,000 square feet of Class A industrial buildings and a large shovel-ready Phase 2 pad that can fit almost 1 million square feet in a single building.
In short, we have Jacksonville covered.