Building Up Jax, 7/30: Amazon confirms expansion, Everbank up for sale

Wikipedia/Leonard DeFrancisci

This week in Building Up Jax: “Project Rex” is confirmed as an Amazon.com fulfillment center, locally-based Everbank is up for sale, and a few other notes.

Hello, Amazon!

Back in April, we talked about Project Rex, a massive Northside development that would bring 1,500 jobs to the Jacksonville area. At the time, it was widely speculated that Amazon was behind the project.

This past week, Amazon confirmed that Project Rex will be their new Jacksonville fulfillment center. The massive facility will span 800,000 square feet and is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.

“This is a huge win for our city and citizens,” Mayor Lenny Curry is quoted as saying in Amazon’s press release.

The project will bring a massive influx of jobs to an area of the city where unemployment is disproportionately high. Its location near River City Marketplace, the airport, and I-295, along with the amount of jobs it will create, means we could see some housing developments start to pop up in the area as well.

Everbank for sale

This past Monday, Bloomberg reported that Jacksonville-based Everbank was in negotiations to be sold. The following day, Everbank confirmed this news while announcing a revenue dip during the previous quarter.

While no deal has been reached yet, this is still concerning news for the city of Jacksonville. Everbank is one of the city’s largest home-grown businesses. It has a massive presence within the city, including naming rights to the stadium.

While the potential buyer was not named, they were reported as being a big-name financial company. A big-name company may be more inclined to merge the Everbank brand into its own, and also may be inclined to move the company out of Jacksonville.

We’ll keep you posted on the latest information about the potential sale.

Noted projects

A group operating as Edgewood 911 LLC filed a permit for a $65,000 restaurant build-out at 911 Edgewood Ave. S.
The Mandarin South renovation project is officially underway, with future tenants Earth Fare and Petsmart officially confirmed.
The Stein Mart building downtown was purchased by Lingerfelt CommonWealth Realty Partners LLC for $23.7 million, according to Jax Daily Record. Lingerfelt also owns Riverplace Tower across the street.