Miami-based USA Express Inc. sold 30.76 vacant acres in North Jacksonville to PSG Group LLC for $1.49 million.
Jacksonville-based PSG Group bought the property Dec. 4. USA Express issued a $1.35 million mortgage.
The property, zoned Commercial Community/General-1, is north of Airport Road between Interstate 95 and Ranch Road.
The site is at northwest Airport Road and I-95, east of Jacksonville International Airport.
The property is north of a stretch of properties from Tru by Hilton Jacksonville Airport I-95 at 1265 Airport Road to the Red Roof Inn Jacksonville Airport at 1063 Airport Road.
It also is north of the Denny’s restaurant at 1071 Airport Road.
Duval County Property Appraiser records show potential property access between two gas stations along Airport Road, and along Ranch Road north of the Wally Park airport parking center.
USA Express Inc. bought the land in 2006 for $202,500 from late Jacksonville businessman and investor Hy W. Kliman, who was active in international trade. The “Florida International Man of the Year” died in 2017 at the age of 90.
The property appraiser’s site shows that USA Express Inc. also owns 30.56 acres north of the land that was sold, but that acreage is used as a conservation easement.
PSG Group LLC is based in Jacksonville and led by WG Pitts Development Inc. of Jacksonville; Jorge Andres Suazo of Jacksonville; and Crea Arquitectura FL LLC of Coral Gables.
The PSG Group corporate filing with the state lists the address of WG Pitts at a Live Oak post office box, but the WG Pitts registration shows its Jacksonville address along Deerwood Park Boulevard.
WG Pitts President William Pitts did not immediately respond to an email for comment. Neither did Suazo.
The wgpitts.com website says WG Pitts is a construction management, professional services and real estate development company.
Projects include master-planned residential communities, Class A office complexes, resort theme park developments and oceanfront residential condominiums.
Area projects listed include the 418-unit residential Treaty Oaks in St. Augustine; the three-building, more than 55,000-square-foot Hampton Professional Park and the 70-room renovation, design and construction of a commercial kitchen, rooftop garden, children’s playroom and boardroom improvements at the Ronald McDonald House of Jacksonville.
“WGPITTS has completed projects for well-respected names in the industry such as: Taylor Woodrow Communities, the Ritz Carlton Company, Amelia Island, Plantation at Ponte Vedra, St. Joe Company, Centex Homes, Pulte Homes, Landmar, DR Horton, Walt Disney Company, Publix, Hines, Omni Hotels, Hyatt/Monarch Alternative Capital and numerous other service-oriented, quality-driven development companies,” says the website.
During the Great Recession, Pitts ended an attempt to develop a theme park in Georgia.
Pitts proposed the Steamboat City theme park in Brunswick Georgia, but Steamboat City Development Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2010.
A Florida Times-Union report in January 2010 said plans for the theme park began in 1998 with Mutual of Omaha’s Jim Fowler envisioned a free-roaming animal park on 2,000 acres along I-95 in Glynn County.
The report said Pitts, operating as Wildlife Realty, took ownership of the property in 2001 and sold half of it.
Renamed Steamboat City in 2003, dropping animals from the project, the project did not break ground.
The Brunswick News reported in June 2010 that Steamboat City Development Co., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court at Savannah.
The news organization quoted city leaders saying the downturn in the economy likely played a role.