AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center’s proposed 1 million-square-foot warehouse-distribution facility, if developed, would serve as a regional package facility for a national company, according to a zoning request.
It would operate around-the-clock every day of the year with about 1,000 employees. Some shifts would overlap, which increases parking demand.
The unidentified company also would operate a truck/van terminal and accommodate drivers and operators in addition to warehouse and office workers.
During peak seasons, such as holidays, the package warehouse will staff up with additional temporary employees to meet peak shipping demand, says the zoning application.
Cecil Commerce Center is in West Jacksonville and the proposed 1,016,080-square-foot center is designed on 86.05 acres at 13333 103rd St.
The city owns the property and Hillwood Industrial Properties Inc. of Dallas is the business park’s master developer.
The city, as the owner, and Prosser Inc., as the agent and engineer, applied for an administrative deviation to the city’s zoning code to increase the maximum number of off-site parking spaces from 632 to 1,159 and to reduce minimum landscape requirements.
The deviation would be granted in Hillwood’s name.
Hillwood Senior Vice President Dan Tatsch said Monday by email that consistent with his policy, he cannot comment on the zoning application.
City spokeswoman Tia Ford said she was advised by the Office of Economic Development there is no information to provide at this time.
A zoning-code maximum of 632 parking spaces is an inadequate number of off-street parking spaces for the proposed facility, the application says. “The strict interpretation of the Zoning Code makes it impractical and impedes the Developer’s ability to operate the property for the intended uses,” it says.
The vacant property is remote from other parcels. That and the facility’s security requirements mean parking on nearby tracts of land for employees is impractical, according to the application.
“This deviation is necessary to allow for the successful development of a new regional package warehouse and to increase the economic viability of the property to support private investment within an emerging industrial/commerce center,” says the application.
Requested landscape deviations include elimination of some requirements for the radius and percent of shade trees behind the building where the truck court is planned, the elimination of the number of required terminal islands and trees in that rear truck court, and the elimination of the requirement for perimeter trees along the public right-of-way so they can be farther apart to accommodate the main eastern driveway.
The application says safe and efficient ingress/egress and maneuvering of vehicles on the site is a higher priority than landscape requirements of the code. The application also says it would not be possible to provide an adequate truck court area and vehicle circulation without relief from the requirements.
It states the developer would meet code for the tree and shrub landscape requirements on the property and adjacent perimeter along 103rd Street. The areas needing a deviation are along the perimeter and internal to the site.
While no company is identified, the property is undergoing design development for the proposed use and specific site development requirements.
Site plans show the project on Parcel C, north along 103rd Street between Chaffee Road South and New World Avenue.
The facility would comprise about 977,000 square feet of warehouse space and 40,000 square feet for offices.
Its floorplate would be larger than that for the major distribution center under development in North Jacksonville for Amazon.com. The global e-commerce retailer is building a fulfillment center with a footprint of 855,000 square feet, although its multilevel construction boosts its total size to about 2.4 million square feet.
Seattle-based Amazon.com is developing a center, expected to open in fall 2017 that will employ 1,500 full-time employees and add more for seasonal work.
After Amazon.com announced in July it would open the center, JAXUSA Partnership President Jerry Mallot said the JAX Chamber and the partnership, its economic development arm, would continue to encourage Amazon.com to consider the region for more projects.
The JAX Chamber said it could not comment.
The company also operates fulfillment centers for large items, such as furniture and sporting goods, as well as sortation centers, which sort packages heading to consumers for the “last-mile” delivery.
At the time of the Jacksonville announcement, Amazon.com operated more than 50 fulfillment centers and 23 sortation centers in the U.S.
Several cities in the country have more than one Amazon.com center. In central Florida, for example, the company operates a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Lakeland for large items and another 1.1 million-square-foot center for smaller items in Ruskin, 46 miles away.
The Westside Cecil Commerce Center location would be at least 23 miles from the North Jacksonville property at 12900 Pecan Park Road, depending on the route taken.
Amazon.com spokeswoman DeAnn Baxter said by email Monday the company “has a longstanding practice of not commenting on our future roadmap.”
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