WESTSIDE — Republic Property Co. of Atlanta is planning a $43 million industrial project on Pritchard Road that will include at least 650,000 square feet of distribution space.
The Crossroads Distribution Center will consist of four buildings ranging in size from 100,000 square feet to 300,000 square feet. The first is expected to start construction late this year and to be completed by the third quarter of 2009.
It’s the company’s first speculative space project in the Jacksonville area after completing one smaller, build-to-suit facility off University Boulevard last month.
Republic Property Co. President Jerry Daws said he hopes to have a long-term impact on Jacksonville and is already looking for other development opportunities in the area.
“It’s a terrific market,” Daws said. “There’s a tremendous amount of activity — growing markets like Jacksonville are outpacing large markets.”
Daws said he doesn’t expect the Port of Jacksonville to provide tenants to the Crossroads Distribution Center directly, but he expects business from logistics, consumer goods warehouse and other companies moving to Jacksonville due to the port expansion.
Each building in the Crossroads Distribution Center will have a height clearance of no less than 30 feet, which will give tenants the ability to stack products higher than in the traditional Jacksonville distribution center space of 18 to 24 feet.
Republic Property builds mostly in the Atlanta area. Its first project in Jacksonville was a 60,000-square-foot build-to-suit building for Restaurant Depot Inc. off University Boulevard that was completed in July.
Terry Quarterman and Jeff Nelson of CB Richard Ellis represented the seller of the 129 acres on Pritchard Road, Pritchard Partners Ltd. They also will broker the leases for the property.
Nelson said the developer has a great location that will have great access to the Jacksonville port facilities.
“Obviously developers are anticipating more distribution coming to Jacksonville because of the port expansion,” he said.
Arco Design Build Corp. of St. Louis is the contractor for the project.
Republic Property is a full-service industrial development company with projects in the Southeast, the Midwest and New Jersey. It has built projects totaling more than 10 million square feet.
The Crossroads Distribution Center is one of at least 10 new construction or industrial expansion projects totaling more than 6 million square feet announced for Northeast Florida so far in 2008.