Regional
per spectives
JAXPORT ADDITIONS FUEL INDUSTRIAL MARKET
for the RECORD
Jacksonville’s industrial market received another fuel-injected boost late last year as
South Korean shipping carrier Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd. agreed to join Mitsui O.S.K.
Lines Ltd. at JaxPort.
The swell of port activity promises an explosion of jobs in the area, both direct and
indirect, along with housing and retail demand. There is also intense interest by supply
chain logistics companies to expand in Jacksonville, along with increasing demand for
industrial land at the port and within local business parks.
“The magnitude of these deals is large, but the average person doesn’t realize it yet,” says
Hobart Joost Jr., SVP and a principal with Colliers Dickinson in Jacksonville. “We’ll see all
the new buildings coming out of the ground in 2008, and those are being built in response
to the demand created by Mitsui alone. When you factor in Hanjin, whose terminal will
be completed in 2011, it adds further depth and demand in our market.”
And developers are buying tracts bigger than a few hundred acres, says Joost, who brokered four transactions totaling $52 million in the past six months. The largest was 995
acres at I-95 and Pecan Park Road to Benderson Development, which plans to build in-
dustrial facilities on 319 acres. “Jacksonville has never before in its history seen a million-sf
distribution building and four build-to-
suits all averaging 800,000 sf,” he says.
That includes a $35-million distribution
center under way on 38 acres at Imeson
International Industrial Park for luggage
maker Samsonite Corp., which will relo-
cate from Westside Industrial Park.
Officials estimate the port will move
more than 2. 5 million 20-foot container
units by 2011, tripling the city’s current
cargo traffic and ranking Jacksonville
among the nation’s top 10 ports. The Han-
jin and Mitsui deals are expected to have an initial $1.9-billion impact on Jacksonville and
may bring other large shipping lines to JaxPort. This prospect looks likely as the East Coast
benefits from a rebalancing of major gateways away from clogged California megaports.
“The port activity is the biggest driver for our industrial market right now and is fueling
sales of industrial land,” says John Richardson, president of Grubb & Ellis/Phoenix Realty
Group. “Land that would have sold for $40,000 an acre five years ago is now selling for
$170,000 an acre and the asking price for some areas is as much as $250,000 an acre.”
Richardson and Bryan Bartlett, VP of industrial, recently helped broker a 66-acre deal
for Alta Lakes Commerce Center, an 870,000-sf industrial park developed by Cabot Properties. the new complex is within two miled of the new TracPac/Mitsui Port Terminal and
the existing Blount Island Port Terminal. Other deals linked to JaxPort’s growth include
international consumer products giant Unilever relocating its Southeast distribution hub
to a 772,000-sf facility in the Westlake Industrial Park, as well as ICS Logistics Inc.’s plans
to build an industrial warehouse complex and transportation terminal this month on 44
acres near Samsonite’s site at Imeson.—Priscilla Goudreau-Santos
COHEN GIVES $36M SUPPLEMENT
TO EMERALD GRANDE PROJECT
Destin—Cohen Financial has secured more
than $36 million in supplemental construction financing for Emerald Grande, a mixed-use waterfront development in Destin. The
second phase of development totals 48,467
sf of retail space. Howard Taft, Cohen’s managing director in Miami, previously arranged
$162 million in financing for development of
Emerald Grande’s 13-story double-tower
condominium hotelm totaling 280 units. Legendary Inc. is developer of the project.
Samsonite’s new distribution center
$22.3M FLIPS 550 WATER ST.
Jacksonville—Graham & Co./Corfac International completed the $22.3-million sale late
last year of 550 Water St., a 14-story, 220,000-
sf class A office
building Downtown.
BP Graham LLC, a
Birmingham, AL-based private equity
group, is the new
owner. The building
is located along the
St. John’s River and 550 Water St.
is 75% vacant.
GROCERY CENTER SELLS FOR $6M
Jacksonville—Cushman & Wakefield’s
capital markets group has completed the
$6-million sale of Monument Pointe Shopping Center here. Equity One of Miami
Beach sold the 76,628-sf, grocery-an-chored center to Hallandale-based Isram
Realty & Management.
GVA ADVANTIS RELOCATES OFFICES
Jacksonville—GVA Advantis has relocated its local office to 7400 Baymeadows
Way. The full-service commercial real estate firm also offers construction and project management services.
