Site plans were filed Thursday for a South Carolina company to develop a warehouse project in Westlake Industrial Park.
Johnson Development Associates Inc. of Spartanburg proposes the 232,488-square-foot Westlake II project at 9779 Pritchard Road in West Jacksonville.
Adkinson Engineering Inc. is the civil engineer.
The St. Johns River Water Management District issued a permit Dec. 28 to Johnson Development Associates and its affiliated Jacksonville Industrial Properties 80 LLC.
Johnson Development owns the property through Jacksonville Industrial Properties 80 LLC.
That permit was for a minor modification to authorize construction of the project on 18.1 acres.
In January, Josh Jones, director of real estate, said Johnson Development was working on designs and seeking permits so it can evaluate whether it wants to proceed with construction.
Jones could not be reached Thursday afternoon.
He said in January he was “not certain that the numbers work to justify it yet.”
“The recent market activity in Jacksonville has indicated that it’s at least worth considering speculative development,” Jones said then.
He anticipated it would take 30 to 60 days for that analysis, a window occurring now. “After that we will have a better feel for whether or not we will move forward,” he said.
He said Johnson Development would like a single tenant but the building could be used for multiple tenants.
The site is next to the 546,000-square-foot Westlake Industrial Park I that Johnson Development built in 2008-09 and sold in 2013 to Exeter Property Group of Pennsylvania for almost $26.5 million. It is leased to Georgia-Pacific.
ITEL Laboratories Inc., a Jacksonville-based company that works with insurers and homeowners to analyze damage to flooring, roofing and siding for claims settlement, is shown as the tenant to lease almost 25,000 square feet of space at 6676 Corporate Center Parkway.
The city is reviewing a permit application and plans for Emerald C’s Development Inc. to renovate the space at a cost of $1.6 million. JAA Architecture is the architect.
ITEL’s CEO could not be reached for comment.
Plans show space for office, laboratory, sales, IT, research and development and warehouse space. Offices will include those for the CEO, CFO and other executives.
ITEL says on its website that it “has helped insurers fairly, quickly, and accurately settle over 5 million claims to date.”
ITEL leases space at 6745 Phillips Industrial Blvd., 10 miles south of the new offices. The company was founded and began analyzing flooring samples in 1993. Robert Logan is the CEO.
Bloomberg’s company overview of ITEL Laboratories describes it as a testing laboratory that analyzes damaged materials for adjusters, contractors and policyholders to settle flooring, roofing and siding claims in the United States.
Bloomberg says ITEL tests carpet, rugs, asbestos, vinyl, wood, laminate, ceramic, porcelain and stone tiles, as well as roofing and siding. It offers material pricing, material matching, turnaround time testing, laboratory reports, asbestos analysis and training services; and fiber-only testing, pad-only testing, concierge testing, and flooring quality assurance services.
It serves property insurance companies, contractors, vendors, and property owners.
Site plans were filed with the city for Fields Jaguar Land Rover at 11211 Atlantic Blvd. Plans call for construction of a 31,668-square-foot dealership on 12.08 acres to replace the existing facility, which will be redeveloped for Fields’ Porsche dealership that will relocate from another site along Atlantic Boulevard.
The Orange Park Walmart Supercenter at 1505 County Road 220 is offering the company’s new Scan & Go service, which allows customers to scan as they shop and avoid the checkout line. The store also installed a Pickup Tower.
For Scan & Go, customers download the app onto a mobile phone and open the app inside Walmart, or use devices available in store.
They scan the barcode of each item to be purchased and put it in the shopping cart, and they check out and pay in the app. They show a receipt from the phone to an associate on the way out.
The 16-foot-tall Pickup Towers function like high-tech vending machines, Walmart says, and are capable of fulfilling a customer’s online order in less than a minute.
Customers choose the pickup function when ordering from Walmart.com. The bar code will be sent to their smartphone and they can scan it at the tower to receive their orders.
Walmart said it was expanding the technology rollout to select stores across Florida, which includes the Orange Park location.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe North Florida announced the grand opening of its store at 5895 Roosevelt Blvd. will be 7 a.m. Feb. 23.
It is owned and operated by DYNE Hospitality Group. The first 50 customers in line will receive free smoothies for a year.
The café will be open 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.
It also will offer drive-thru service, an in-store pickup option, delivery and catering.
Matt Entriken and Robert Selton of Colliers International Northeast Florida represented the landlord in a lease agreement for 14,400 square feet of retail space at Five Points Plaza at 814 Sadler Road in Fernandina Beach for Dollar Tree.
The retailer will relocate its Amelia Island store to Five Points Plaza this year, expanding its space by about 5,000 square feet to sell grocery items in addition to its retail inventory.
The junior anchor space at Five Points Plaza has been vacant since Stein Mart closed in February 2014.
