Another Amazon facility is in review for Jacksonville, and the code name does not confirm but does hint that it might be a same-day delivery center.
The city is reviewing horizontal development plans for what is coded as SJA1, also called Project Teapot.
The 272,190-square-foot building is at 1700 Imeson Road, which is Building 2 in the 39.13-acre Commonwealth Logistics Center in West Jacksonville.
Building 1, at 230,060 square feet, is at 7489 Commonwealth Ave.
The park is at southwest Imeson Road and Commonwealth Avenue. The site is near Interstates 10 and 295, which both connect to Interstate 95.
Amazon uses codes for its properties. SJA1 means it is the first of its variety in Jacksonville.
S matches the code used for one of Amazon’s newest same-day sites in Sacramento, California — known as SCA5
There’s no explanation why it is called Project Teapot.
The property owner is listed as AIREIT Commonwealth Logistics Center LLC of Los Angeles.
The builder is Bryan Builders LLC of Longwood. Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. is the civil engineer.
The project information refers to the interior build-out of an existing warehouse for a distribution center. The permit application is for site work at a project cost of $100,000.
A real estate brochure says the property is owned by Ares Industrial Management and developed by InLight Real Estate Partners.
With 8,000 area employees, Amazon.com is one of the region’s largest employers. It has 10 facilities with an 11th in development at Craig Airport.
The Commonwealth facility would be the 12th.
The Seattle-based online retailer opened its first two fulfillment centers in September 2017 in Northwest Jacksonville and October 2017 in AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center in West Jacksonville, with the help of $26.7 million in city and state incentives for creating 2,700 jobs.
Since then, it opened another fulfillment center, two sortation centers, a heavy bulk freight center and several delivery stations, with one under construction for fall completion at Craig Airport.
None of those subsequent facilities received incentives.
The Jacksonville Aviation Authority board voted to approve a ground lease agreement with Amazon Services LLC in July 2023 to build a 181,000-square-foot warehouse on 79 acres on industrial land for lease at Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport, which is in East Arlington.
JAXUSA Partnership President Aundra Wallace said June 4 at a NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association meeting that Jacksonville is a gateway for Amazon.
“... in the state of Florida, we have more Amazon distribution facilities in this entire Northeast Florida region than anywhere else in the entire state of Florida,” Wallace said.
Globest.com, a commercial real estate site, reported April 16, 2024, that Amazon is doubling down on the strategy it introduced last year to regionalize its retail distribution network and run the whole logistics network with AI-driven inventory control by rapidly expanding its same-day delivery capacity.
The site said the online retailer is focused on speed - it can assemble and ship customer orders at same-day facilities in as little as 11 minutes - and increasing its share of the growing market for same-day delivery of perishable food and medicine.
It reported that in his annual letter to shareholders in April, CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon will double the number of same-day fulfillment centers it has opened from the current total of 58 to more than 100 and expand its capacity to delivery “everyday essentials,” a market segment that grew 20% in a year-over-year comparison in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Forbes.com reported Aug. 4, 2023, that according to Marc Wulfraat, president of the supply chain consulting firm MWPVL International, Amazon operated 48 sub-same-day (SSD) facilities that cover 100,000 to 330,000 square feet and fulfill orders in fewer than five hours. Wulfraat noted that four additional fulfillment centers were under construction and Amazon could scale up to 150 locations in the following three years.
The city issued permits in October 2022 for the two shell warehouses for the Commonwealth Logistics Center at a construction project cost of $26.8 million.
Dana B. Kenyon Co. was the contractor for the warehouses, totaling 502,250 square feet.
Counting property purchase and preparation costs, the center was an investment of more than $39 million.
The city issued permits in June 2022 for the foundations for the warehouses at a combined cost of $3.4 million. It issued a permit for site clearing and site work in May 2022 at construction cost of $4.88 million.
Building 1 is a traditional single-load warehouse, meaning there are dock doors on one side.
Building 2 is a cross-dock center. Cross-docking is a logistics practice of unloading products from an incoming truck and immediately reloading into outbound trucks or trailers.
Ponte Vedra Beach-based developer InLight Real Estate Partners bought the Commonwealth and Imeson property in April 2022 from N.G. Wade Investment Co. for $3.95 million.
InLight Real Estate Partners later deeded the property under development to Denver investment company Ares Management Corp.
Through AIREIT Commonwealth Logistics Center LLC, Ares Management LLC paid $8.9 million for the land in June 2022.
Cushman & Wakefield Managing Directors Tyler Newman and Jacob Horsley are representing Commonwealth Logistics Center, which was scheduled for delivery for tenant build-out in the second quarter of 2023.