No question remains – Project Crystal is Sam’s Club and is building-out a 1 million-square-foot market distribution center at a project cost estimated at almost $30.86 million.
The city is reviewing a permit application for the first phase of tenant improvements in the 1,003,200-square-foot shell warehouse at 1511 Zoo Parkway, Building 300, in Imeson Park South in North Jacksonville.
No contractor is listed. Harrison French and Associates, known as HFA, of Bentonville, Arkansas, is the architect.
The city issued a permit in September 2022 for Evans General Contractors LLC of Savannah, Georgia, to build the speculative 1 million-square-foot building at a project cost of $51.8 million.
Walmart Inc., the parent company of where Sam’s Club, is based in Bentonville.
VanTrust Real Estate LLC is the developer of Imeson Park South.
While the landlord and Walmart/Sam’s Club had not confirmed the project, several commercial real estate firms listed Sam’s Club as a notable lease transaction during the third quarter of 2023.
Sam’s Club had been widely believed to be the code-named Project Crystal.
Project Crystal matched the description of Sam’s Club, the wholesale membership club division of global merchandiser Walmart.
City Council enacted Ordinance 2023-332-A on June 13, 2023, approving a five-year $1.5 million Recapture Enhanced Value Grant for Project Crystal based on 50% of the increase in real and tangible property taxes for the project.
According to a city memo, summary and fact sheet, the project wants to open a distribution facility in the building under construction at 1400 Zoo Parkway, which is the 1 million-square-foot warehouse at Imeson Park South.
The building is on almost 63 acres.
VanTrust Real Estate LLC already has sold the building to a Coral Gables group for $95 million.
Through JI IPS Building E LLC, Van Trust sold the structure at 1511 Zoo Parkway on Sept. 15, 2023, to AK Imeson LLC, whose registered agent is Interamerican Corporate Services LLC, led by lawyer Rene Murai.
The deed was recorded Sept. 20, 2023, with the Duval County Clerk of Courts.
VanTrust Real Estate said the Imeson Park South master plan totals 3 million square feet of industrial space.
The 214-acre Imeson Park South property is south of VanTrust’s 146-acre Imeson Park, which totals about 2.5 million square feet and includes a 1 million-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center.