Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017
VOL. 104, NO.112 • ONE SECTION
35¢
www.jaxdailyrecord.com
SHAD KHAN NAMED SHIPYARDS DEVELOPER
With plan picked, now the details PHASE 1 OF KHAN’S PLAN Development would start at the area that is now Metro Park: 50-100 multi family rental and or residential units 200-250 room five-star hotel with restaurant Structured parking and amenities 75,000 square feet of office space, restaurant and retail Public Infrastructure and associated public space Relocation of Metro Park further west.
Contract talks next step in development By David Cawton Staff Writer Now that the Downtown Investment Authority has named a master developer for the vacant Shipyards property, the hard part begins. At the DIA board meeting Tuesday, members approved Jaguars owner Shad Khan-backed Iguana Investments of Florida to redevelop the 70-acre property along the Northbank, which includes Metro Park and the former
Shipyards site. The first phase of Iguana’s plan would develop the land that is now Metro Park with rental and private residences, a hotel, office space, and retail and restaurant spaces. Iguana will now enter contract negotiations with the city to develop the land. The process could take up to 18 months. After Tuesday’s meeting, Iguana SHIPYARDS
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Zeus: Making case for 800-job logistics center With city and business leaders tightlipped about the identity of Project Zeus, the facts in evidence indicate the possibilities. What is known through public records between JAXUSA Partnership and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority is that an unidentified major company wants to establish a 1.3 million-squarefoot fulfillment distribution facility in the Southeast U.S. with up to 800 jobs. It has short-listed four sites and two are in Jacksonville.
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And “Imeson” is a potential location, based on an April 6 “Project Zeus Agenda” for a working lunch meeting at The River Club with city and economic development leaders. A JAXUSA email clearly states that it is not Amazon.com, which already plans a large presence in Jacksonville with two fulfillment centers expected to open this fall. JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development division of JAX Chamber, said Tuesday it had no comment. City spokeswoman Tia Ford said by email that “we have no information to provide related to Project Zeus at this time (documents or otherwise).” Florida State College at Jacksonville spokeswoman Jill Johnson said Tuesday that its records show that Cedrick Gib-
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son, Kent Campus/Cecil Center president, attended the lunch and circulated information about the college’s logistics training. Gibson was joined on the agenda by economic development, transportation, utilities, project approval and incentives representatives. All that said, here are some of the expectations. WHO IS IT?
A fulfillment distribution facility these days typically means an e-commerce center, such as Amazon’s. Companies don’t develop big buildings to fulfill and distribute catalog sales anymore. And a 1.3 million-square-foot center is a big commitment, indicating it would be a large company.
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That leads to questions whether WalMart Stores Inc. might be in the market for a fulfillment center in Jacksonville. It might, if it operates like Amazon. According to MWPVL International Inc., a Montreal-based logistics consulting firm, Wal-Mart opened two large e-commerce fulfillment centers in Davenport in Central Florida last year – one at 900,000 square feet and another at 1 million square feet. Would it need another? Consider that Amazon has two large fulfillment centers in Central Florida, too. MWPVL said Wal-Mart typically opens its large centers in pairs around the country with the objective of providing twoday service to 90 percent of the country.
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