JEA is starting due diligence on its St. Johns River Power Park property in North Jacksonville to prepare some or all of it for sale.
The utility’s engineering firm, Jacksonville-based England-Thims & Miller Inc., applied to JEA on Jan. 7 to determine the utility availability on 54.1 acres of the 2,000-acre park.
JEA issued service availability determination letters Jan. 16.
The conceptual site plan shows four warehouses along with a gas station and what appears to be car wash at north Heckscher Drive and New Berlin Road.
That plan shows 275,000 square feet of warehouse space comprising buildings of 117,000-, 78,000- and two of 40,000 square feet.
There is total conservation area of 20.8 acres and a 4.7-acre pond area. The gas station site is 3 acres.
The parcels are referred to as pods 16, 17, 18 and 19.
“There are no development plans in place for parcels 16-19, but the intent is for JEA to sell all or some of the parcels,” said JEA Director of Content and Media Relations Karen McAllister in a Jan. 18 email.
“JEA’s engineering firm, England, Thims and Miller, submitted the availability requests as a due diligence task in order to determine what utilities are present and the location of the closest connection points for those parcels. The concept drawing that was submitted with the availability request is an internal planning tool,” she said.
JEA CEO Jay Stowe said in a Dec. 15 interview that the city-owned utility is moving forward on plans to redevelop the power park for industrial use.
Stowe said JEA is preparing to issue an invitation for companies to negotiate with the utility toward helping develop the 2,000-acre property, with the aim of being able to enter into an agreement in June.
“The invitation to negotiate will be open enough for people to give us some of their ideas on how it might be best used,” Stowe said.
“One idea is that we hire and partner with a master developer that has developed things in other places and would be able to help build the facilities and the roads and the infrastructure and the elements that need to be put in place,” he said.
“Another idea is that we would sell pieces of property sections at a time. There’s a bunch of different options. But between now and June, we should be able to develop the full plan.”
Stowe said he expects it could take up to 12 years to fully develop the property.
He said much of the site work needed for redevelopment of the property has been completed.
The property once was home to a coal-fired power plant, the St. Johns River Coal Terminal and other parcels. It is northwest of JaxPort’s Blount Island Marine Terminal and near the St. Johns River.
Demolition of the 1,264-megawatt plant was completed in 2019.
The property has a berth on the Jacksonville harbor channel as well as 6.2 miles of private on-site rail track with access to CSX Corp. Class I and Class II railroads.
“It’s a very strong economic development piece of property that can support the community,” Stowe said.
“It’s close to the port, it’s got rail access and interstate access, so we believe ultimately it can be something that has some sort of manufacturing or warehousing type activities on that property.”
In 2021, JEA halted a search for a master developer for the park in favor of reengaging JaxPort officials and other community leaders about redeveloping it.
The decision to reengage came after JEA and JaxPort stopped coordination on the property in September 2020, when JaxPort revealed it was interested in acquiring the property but not in a proposal to engage with JEA in a joint venture to find a company to determine the best use of the property.
JEA said that in September 2023, Stowe and members of the JEA real estate and economic development team met with JaxPort to discuss a redevelopment strategy.
No formal agreement was discussed, JEA reported, but JEA agreed to keep JaxPort updated on the issue.
This report includes content from Staff Writer Ric Anderson.