WEDNESDAY August 5, 2020
Public
jaxdailyrecord.com • 35 cents
legal notices begin on page 3
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
THE MATHIS REPORT
First Baptist halts plan to sell land Downtown
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
Pattillo, N.G. Wade propose $50M WesJax Trade Center
With offers evaporating amid pandemic, the church instead will renovate the Lindsay Memorial Auditorium.
Daily Record Daily Record JACKSONVILLE PLANNED WAREHOUSE Developers propose a more than $50 million, 1 million-square-foot distribution warehouse at 7379 Commonwealth Ave.
BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
JACKSONVILLE
KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
The 1 million-square-foot distribution warehouse is planned at Commonwealth and Pickettville. Pattillo Industrial Real Estate and N.G. Wade Investment Co. want to develop a more than $50 million, 1 million-square-foot distribution warehouse in West Jacksonville called WesJax Trade Center.
The property is at 7379 Commonwealth Ave., west of Interstate 295 at northwest Commonwealth Avenue and Pickettville Road. “We are just continuing to prepare for development,” said Pattillo Vice President Peter Anderson. “The industrial market has remained firm thus far and appears to be holding steady,” he said. The property is marketed as designbuild, which means construction would depend on a company that intends to use it as a tenant or owner. Anderson said there is not an active tenant or buyer. “Until we commit to building speculatively we are offering it for build-to-suit,” he said by email July 29. He said City Council support of dredging for JaxPort is encouraging to the industrial market. On July 28, Council authorized a $70 million city contribution and $40 million bridge loan toward the Jacksonville SEE MATHIS, PAGE 2
Images special to the Daily Record
WesJax Trade Center is planned at northwest Commonwealth Avenue and Pickettville Road.
Jacksonville’s First Baptist Church will not pursue its plan to sell a majority of its Downtown campus and consolidate to “The Hobson Block” as offers to buy its property dwindled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. First Baptist Senior Pastor Heath Lambert announced the church leadership’s decision Aug. 2 in a town hall meeting with the congregation. “Because of the change of the real estate market brought on by the COVID recession, I want to let you know very Lambert clearly that The Hobson Block plan is over. We’re not talking about that anymore,” Lambert said. Lambert said in January six to eight “large buyers” were interested in the 11.29-acre property listed by CBRE Jacksonville. Those buyers ended communication after the onset of the pandemic in March. “The kind of uncertainly created by the pandemic makes all of these guys go away. We haven’t seen or heard from them in months,” Lambert said. Offers from other buyers within the last 30 days included smaller sections of the church’s Downtown real estate and were about 25% of the value brokers advised First Baptist to accept in January, Lambert said. SEE FIRST BAPTIST, PAGE 2
Wayfair now open at Cecil Commerce Center Wayfair LLC opened its Jacksonville distribution center in AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center and has hired more than 100 people. “We are continuing to grow as a team,” said Corporate Communications Associate Director Susan Frechette in an email July 28. She said the site opened a month ago. Boston-based Wayfair, an online home furnishings retailer, calls the Jacksonville center a Large Parcel Home Delivery Operation. The 1.01 million-square-foot e-commerce fulfillment center occupies about 80 acres at 13483 103rd St. next to an Amazon.com fulfillment center.
VOLUME 107, NO. 184 • ONE SECTION