Merritt Properties has completed construction of the second phase of the Imeson Landing Business Park, comprising a pair of flex/light industrial facilities totaling 128,400 square feet in Jacksonville, Fla.
Development of the second phase, called Buildings 400 and 500, began last July, concurrent with the announcement that the firm had leased up 88 percent of the space in the first two buildings. In total, the park is planned to span eight buildings totaling 380,700 square feet across roughly 25 acres.
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Buildings 400 and 500 share a truck court, spanning 68,400 and 60,000 square feet, respectively. The facilities include rear-loading bays and 20-foot clear heights. Future tenants in the building will join a mix of tenants in the shipping, clothing, construction supply, printing and marketing sectors.
ARCO/Design Build served as the project’s general contractor, while JLL Senior Vice President Ross Crabtree and Executive Managing Director Luke Pope are overseeing leasing, along with Pat Franklin and Remy Merritt, working in-house as asset manager and finance/leasing professional. Additionally, Merritt offers tenants in-house space design and construction services, as well as building signage opportunities.
Developing Imeson Landing Business Park
The park’s first phase, consisting of Buildings 100, 200 and 300, came online in 2022 and totals 137,800-square feet, with interior spaces offering 18- to 20-foot clear heights. In the first quarter of this year, Merritt signed eight new leases for these spaces, with a mix of wholesalers and service companies, which will occupy a combined 75,000 square feet.
According to Merritt, construction on phase three will begin later this year and will consist of Buildings 600, 700 and 800. This project component will total 114,500 square feet and will comprise a 34,500-square-foot building and two additional structures spanning 40,000 square feet. They will all offer 18-foot clear heights.
Located at 1250 Imeson Park Blvd., the development is part of Imeson Industrial Park. Situated within Northeast Florida’s Foreign Trade Zone Number 64, tenants benefit from reduced import taxes and a roughly 6-mile proximity to Jacksonville International Airport.
The park’s neighbors include Imeson Park South, an under-development, master-planned 215-acre, 3 million-square-foot logistics and distribution park that includes Jacksonville Cold Storage, a recently completed 216,297-square-foot facility. Roughly 1 mile north, Amazon operates two fulfillment centers. Downtown Jacksonville is 6 miles in the opposite direction, accessible via Highway 17.
Jacksonville’s upward trajectory
In the fourth quarter of 2023, a Cushman & Wakefield market update found that Jacksonville’s industrial sector saw a 180-basis-point increase in its vacancy rate, in part due to the sheer volume of new supply coming to market. The metro saw 7.4 million square feet of new space come online in 2023, 43.8 percent higher than the last two years combined. More than half of that space was located in the Northside submarket, home to Imeson Landing.
The Gateway to Florida has continued this momentum in the new year. In January, Foundry Commercial started construction on the IGP 95/Logistics Park, a three-building property in St. Augustine that totals 510,000 square feet. Earlier that month, a joint venture between PCCP and Midwest Industrial Funds added another 337,000 square feet to the pipeline, with the groundbreaking of a new facility within the Westlake Industrial Park.