Hillwood Investment Properties bought property Monday for its next speculative warehouse at AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center.
Fort Worth-based Hillwood bought 35.43 acres through New World venue Avenue Bldg D-2 LLC.
The city sold the property for $322,530.98, or about $9,103 an acre.
The sale was recorded Tuesday with the Duval County Clerk of Courts.
Senior Vice President Dan Tatsch said Tuesday no tenants have committed to lease the building, which he expects will be completed by mid-September unless there are weather or other delays.
He said there are preliminary inquiries from prospective tenants, but nothing more.
Hillwood will build a 407,435-square-foot building on the site to be completed by September, which meets a deadline from the city. Hillwood is the city’s master developer at Cecil.
Construction work has begun. The city issued a site-clearing permit Nov. 16 for The Conlan Co. to clear the land at a cost of $800,000.
Tatsch said the contractor has set up a construction trailer and has begun staking the site and erecting silt fencing.
The city also has been reviewing a permit application for Conlan to build the structure at a construction cost of $15.72 million at 4660 New World Ave.
So far, the project is adding up to $16.8 million in land, site and construction. Tatsch said Hillwood does not disclose its development costs.
The building is designed to accommodate a single or multiple tenants.
Tatsch said the building can be expanded by about 50,000 square feet if a tenant needs it.
The city owns the Cecil Commerce Center business park, which is a former naval air station. It is south of Interstate 10 at Cecil Commerce Center Parkway and Normandy Boulevard.
Hillwood’s first speculative structure at Cecil was leased to GE Oil & Gas, which set up a manufacturing plant to make valves and regulators.
That building was designed at 400,000 square feet but adjusted to 510,433 square feet when a tenant became involved.
GE Oil & Gas was announced as the tenant in September 2014.
Hillwood also is expected to soon buy an 86-acre site at Cecil Commerce Center for development of a 1 million-square-foot Amazon.com fulfillment center. That site also is being cleared.
Hillwood will pay the city $8,819 an acre, or more than $758,000. That location is at 13333 103rd St.
Conlan also is the contractor for that project at a construction cost of $56.4 million. Amazon.com is expected to officially announce the project by year-end.
The company would hire 1,200 full-time employees by the end of 2019. The center would handle large consumer items.
The first Amazon.com center, to pick, pack and ship small items, is under construction at 12900 Pecan Park Road in Northwest Jacksonville. The 1,500-job facility should be completed by fall 2017.
As master developer, Hillwood has a long-term contract with the city to develop up to 30 million square feet of industrial and retail space at Cecil Commerce Center in West Jacksonville.
Interior demolition OK’d for Aetna
Gramercy Woods' landlord is preparing for the 2017 move by Aetna Inc. from Downtown into the Southside office park.
Brothers Group Construction Co. will perform interior demolition among five floors of the 10-story Building 100 for Aetna at a construction cost of almost $587,000. Build-out would follow under a separate permit.
Gramercy Woods, formerly known as the Bank of America office park, is at 9000 Southside Blvd.
Aetna announced in May it would leave the Downtown Southbank starting in mid-2017 as its lease expires in late summer.
It will move 800 employees from the 22-story Aetna Building at 841 Prudential Drive to the suburban office campus.
Aetna said it will leave 170,000 square feet Downtown for 132,000 square feet of space at Gramercy Woods.
Aetna spokesman Walt Cherniak said Wednesday the company would move in August and occupy 133,503 square feet among five floors — the fourth through the eighth — and a small suite on the first floor.
The company said in a news release it chose Gramercy Woods with potential growth in mind.
Aetna provides health benefits to more than 1.5 million people in Florida. Jacksonville is one of the company’s larger employment sites with a workforce in sales, service, network, medical management and other functions.
The move is a strategic fit for the office park owner, Gramercy Property Trust Inc., which has been rebranding the 10-building, 90-acre park.
Bank of America remains the lead tenant as it consolidates space and makes room for more companies.
Gramercy Property Trust also is building a five-level parking garage to accommodate the potential influx of employees.
Aetna’s lease would take up half of Building 100 and provides naming rights to the building.
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