The city issued permits Jan. 21 for three of the four speculative warehouses that InLight Real Estate Partners intends to develop at the Eastport Logistics Park it is launching in North Jacksonville at a project cost of almost $32.3 million.
Ponte Vedra Beach-based InLight closed on the deal Dec. 20 to buy about 135 acres from First Zion Holdings LLC for almost $26.75 million.
The site is along Eastport Road south of its intersection with Faye Road.
The first four buildings total 889,086 square feet.
The permits allow The Conlan Co. of Jacksonville to build:
• Building One, 1450 Partners Drive, 312,278 square feet, at a project cost of almost $10.76 million.
• Building Two, 10155 Inlight Way, 312,278 square feet, $10.75 million.
• Building Three, 10135 Inlight Way, 132,265 square feet, almost $10.76 million.
The city continues to review the permit for Building Four at 10175 Inlight Way. The 132,265-square-foot warehouse is shown at a project cost of $5.64 million.
Through Eastport Jacksonville Property Owner LLC, InLight bought the land from three Zion-affiliated entities.
The city issued a permit Dec. 5 for infrastructure contractor Phillips and Jordan Inc., of Knoxville, Tennessee, to clear the land for Zion Jacksonville LLC at a project cost of $20 million. The permit was for clearing, installation of site utilities, roadways and building pads to construct future buildings.
The park
InLight says the park is designed for about 1.79 million square feet of space among two phases.
InLight Real Estate Partners said in December it considered the 135 acres it bought in North Jacksonville as a deal of opportunity and potential.
Partner Charles Margiotta said that as investors and developers rooted in the Southeast, Ponte Vedra Beach-based InLight said the “transformative Eastport project … stands out as the crown jewel of our portfolio.”
The site is in an area of industrial developments that continue to expand.
“Being headquartered in Jacksonville, we take immense pride in our hometown approach to investing,” Margiotta said Dec. 30.
“This project reflects our commitment to driving economic growth by bringing new jobs, attracting employers, increasing JaxPort activity, and advancing Jacksonville’s position as a premier logistics hub,” he said.
“Together, we are working to shape the future of our community and elevate Jacksonville into a leading player on the global logistics stage.”
InLight’s Northeast Florida portfolio includes the 394,250-square-foot Commonwealth Logistics Center in West Jacksonville; a 142,850-square-foot warehouse fully leased to two tenants along Ellis Road in West Jacksonville; industrial outdoor storage yards on Somers Road and on New Berlin Road in North Jacksonville; and land it sold for a 530,000-square-foot build-to-suit for KeHE Distributors along Deerpark Boulevard in Elkton in St. Johns County.
Other Florida properties are near Orlando and in Tampa.
It also has projects in Georgia; South Carolina; Texas; and Virginia.
Eastport marketing
Eastport Logistics Park will start delivering buildings between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 for tenant build-out.
The second phase is designed for another 900,000 square feet. InLight said that plan involves a potential build-to-suit warehouse or two that could change that amount.
The Colliers commercial real estate firm in Jacksonville is marketing the site for lease. Colliers executives Guy Preston, Seda Preston and Jack Heed are the landlord representatives for InLight.
Guy Preston posted Dec. 25 on LinkedIn that the first phase of four buildings range from 132,000 to 312,000 square feet.
The park is “in Jacksonville’s highly sought-after, port adjacent, Northside industrial submarket,” he posted.
The Colliers marketing brochure says flexible suite sizes start at 25,000 square feet.
There also is an option for a build-to-suit up to 800,000 square feet of space on land along a CSX rail line, known as Phase 2 of the InLight Project.
Preston also posted on LinkedIn that within the next year Eastport Road will be improved and widened to three lanes from Pulaski Road to Zoo Parkway “designed to accommodate the increase in truck traffic and further enhance the site’s logistics capabilities.”
Zion land
Yorktown Heights, New York-based Zion Jacksonville LLC owns more than 700 acres in North Jacksonville that it is positioning as a master development of potentially more than 8 million square feet of warehouse use.
It has owned at least 900 acres and has been selling and deeding parcels, especially in the past year.
Property records show that Zion bought the land in 1986.
Zion Jacksonville LLC sold almost 50 acres in November 2023 on the opposite side of Eastport Road to a company affiliated with DHL Supply Chain to develop an almost 600,000-square-foot, $64 million logistics and distribution center with refrigeration and freezer components.
