Titan Florida LLC submitted civil engineering plans to the city May 24 for its proposed $18.37 million ready-mix concrete plant at 1712 McDuff Ave. N. in Northwest Jacksonville.
Trusa Realty LLC and Titan Florida LLC, both based in Deerfield Beach, are the owners of the 14.93-acre site. Randy Dunlap is president of both.
The site is west of McDuff Avenue, north of the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. The site is north of West Fifth Street.
Through Trusa Realty, Titan Florida paid $3.75 million for the property in June 2007.
The proposed drainage design report with the civil plans says the plant is proposed on the southern portion of the property with a concrete block facility, material storage areas, a paved concrete yard and a portable restroom facility.
The property now has a vacant warehouse and office facility with a paved parking lot. The report says those facilities are not intended to be improved.
The south portion that is proposed for improvement consists of an open field with remnants of asphalt pavement.
Also shown are a future batch office and a second batch plant and a proposed temporary batch plant.
Plans indicate existing structures will remain and partially refurbished and a future 33,451-square-foot double block plant will be built.
Alan Gerwig & Associates Inc., a GM2 Company, in Wellington is the civil engineer.
City Chief Communications Officer Phil Perry said April 18 that construction had not begun as Titan Florida requested a six-month extension from the city for construction of the project.
“The company has been working through some site plan approvals with the city. They very recently requested a 6-month extension, which we were happy to grant,” Perry said in April.
Titan Florida, which operates two ready-mix concrete plants in Duval County, proposes adding a third.
City Council adopted Resolution 2023-0860-A on Jan. 10 after two committees recommended approval of grant funding that would cover a portion of the project.
The Rules and Finance committees voted unanimously Jan. 2 and Jan. 3, respectively, in support of providing a $100,000 Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund Business Infrastructure Grant to the company.
City documents show Titan asked for the grant to offset a portion of the site development costs to make the project competitive with other Titan plants that are competing for development funding from Titan’s parent company, Titan Cement International SA. It is based in Athens, Greece.
Titan Florida is a subsidiary of Titan America, which operates as the U.S. arm of the international company.
The city Office of Economic Development reported that the plant would create 24 full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $54,708, which equates to 163% of the median household income in the site’s census tract. The annual payroll would be $1.3 million.
According to a city auditor’s report, the proposed grant agreement would require Titan to begin construction before March 1, 2024, and complete the plant by the end of 2027. That start date was extended.
The agreement includes several clawback clauses in which the city can withhold disbursement of the grant. Among them, the company would be required to repay the city $4,166 per job if it creates fewer than 24 new jobs within 36 months of the grant disbursement.
The grant would be terminated under the agreement if Titan fails to invest at least $3 million by the end of 2027.
On its website, titanamerica.com, Titan says it operates in nine U.S. states and Canada.
Its Duval County operations comprise a ready-mix plant and terminal at 7330 Philips Highway and a ready-mix plant at 1220 Eastport Road.
In addition to ready-mix, Titan produces aggregates, concrete block, cement and fly ash.
Titan Florida LLC requested a JEA service-availability determination for the water needed for a concrete ready-mix batch plant and a future block manufacturing plant on 15.4 acres.
JEA issued an availability letter April 16 to Titan Florida LLC, in Parkland, to detail the connections, availability and further steps.