An upsized incentives package for Public Super Markets Inc.’s expanded plans to build a regional frozen foods warehouse in West Jacksonville has cleared the Jacksonville City Council.
On Oct. 8, Council members voted 15-0 to provide up to $5.6 million in incentives for Lakeland-based Publix to build a nearly 370,000-square-foot facility on land it owns along General Avenue between Interstate 10 and West Beaver Street. The incentives were contained in Resolution 2024-0762, which Council passed on an emergency, two-reading passage as opposed to the usual six-week process.
Council members Ju’Coby Pittman and Rory Diamond were excused from the meeting and members Joe Carlucci and President Randy White were not present for the vote.
In November 2023, Council approved a Recapture Enhanced Value Grant up to $3.5 million for an earlier version of the expansion. The city Office of Economic Development requested the additional $2.1 million in incentives based on subsequent plans by Publix to increase the expansion by 70,000 square feet to a total of 370,000 square feet of new construction.
The OED reported that under the revised plan, the grocer’s investment in the project grew by $150 million to a total of $264 million.
The additional $2.1 million also will be provided as a REV Grant, which is a refund on ad valorem tax revenue generated by a new development. The grant for Publix is based on 50% of the increase in real and personal property taxes generated at the project site over five years.
City documents say the new facility will create 175 jobs, up from 150 in the original version, and will generate an annual payroll of $8.5 million. The project has a return on investment of $4.15 for every $1 of public incentive funding, the Office of Economic Development calculated.
In April 2024, the city issued a concurrency reservation certificate for the proposed warehouse on 42.4 acres in West Jacksonville.
Dyer & Associates LLC of Richmond, Kentucky, was listed as the civil engineer.
The certificate, signed Feb. 16, states the proposed project has sufficient water, sanitary sewer, solid waste and drainage capacity.