Council committee advances plans for Benderson’s 1,000 acre-plus North Jacksonville multiuse project

Plans call for industrial, commercial and residential development on the property at Pecan Park Road and Interstate 95.

  • By Ric Anderson
  • | 12:07 a.m. February 5, 2025
  • | 5 Free Articles Remaining!
Benderson Development Co. site is at Interstate 95 and Pecan Park Road. The project comprises 1.539 million square feet of industrial space, 67,725 square feet of retail space and a 53,402-square-foot grocery store.
Benderson Development Co. site is at Interstate 95 and Pecan Park Road. The project comprises 1.539 million square feet of industrial space, 67,725 square feet of retail space and a 53,402-square-foot grocery store.
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Legislation to allow commercial, industrial and residential uses on more than 1,000 acres of property at Pecan Park Road, Interstate 95 and North Main Street is headed to the Jacksonville City Council for final action after being approved by the Council Land Use and Zoning Committee on Feb. 4. 

The LUZ Committee voted 7-0 on ordinances to provide a land-use amendment and rezone the property, which is bordered to the west by Interstate 95 and CSX rail tracks to the east near North Main Street.

Benderson Development Co. LLC of University Park, near Sarasota, owns the timberland property. Benderson, a privately held real estate company, bought the majority of it in 2007 from Bacardi Bottling Corp., which operates a rum-bottling plant at 12200  N. Main St.

The more than 1,000-acre Benderson industrial, warehouse, retail and grocery project north along Pecan Park Road east of Interstate 95
Photo by Monty Zickuhr

With approval by the full Council, Ordinance 2024-0970 would adopt a Large-Scale Amendment to the Future Land Use Map of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan for the 1,003-acre property. 

The current land use is multi-use and light industrial. The new land use would be conservation on 28.74 acres, light industrial on 289.79 acres, community general commercial on 22.52 acres, medium density residential on 206.04 acres and low density residential on 413.82 acres. 

Rezoning would be from two previous Planned Unit Developments to a new PUD.

The four Benderson Development Co. properties comprise 1,012.07 acres between Interstate 95 and North Main Street north of Pecan Park Road.

The rezoning came with conditions to require a traffic study for the entire development and additional traffic studies for individual developments inside the property footprint as requested by the city Traffic Engineering Division and the Planning and Development Department. 

The project, Bacardi Mixed-Use PUD, has been in review for years. As of June 2019, Benderson Development Co. LLC continued to submit construction plans with the city for a proposed almost 2.04 million square feet of warehouse space at the site.

Benderson previously applied to the St. Johns River Water Management District in April 2019 for an environmental resource permit. WRA Engineering of Tampa was the environmental consultant. 

The Jacksonville Planning Commission unanimously approved the rezoning in January 2025. 

 

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