Inside the deal: Why Cosentino picked Jacksonville for its first North American plant (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — In a massive complex in Almeria, Spain, the Cosentino Group has been producing stone products for decades, building on the area’s long history in the quarrying business.
Although its products are shipped around the world, the company’s operations have mainly been in Spain — but that’s about to change: In January 2025, the family-owned company plans to begin work on its first North American production facility, bringing a $270 million capital investment and 180 jobs to Jacksonville’s Cecil Commerce Center.
Jacksonville won the development — only the second plant for the company outside of Spain — due to a mixture of the area’s transportation assets and the composition of its workforce, CEO of Cosentino Americas Eduardo Cosentino said during a recent conversation with the Business Journal.
The workforce component of that is crucial, said the CEO: “We studied what will be the talent and what we can find locally in the city — and we were very happy with the results,” he said.
Ramping up that employee base will be a focus as the factory is being built, with worker training being put into place.
“That is something that worked very well in our hometown in Spain, and we want to replicate that here,” he said. “Investing in the young people, investing in technical training for them — that will be something nice for the city of Jacksonville, and at the same time will be great for us.”
Cosentino, who is based in Miami, is no stranger to Jacksonville, he said, visiting the area to meet with customers two or three times a year.
This time, he was in Jacksonville to visit with the port and with officials from the city, which is incentivizing the development with a $12 million property tax rebate, a $3 million road extension and $2.5 million in infrastructure improvements. Another $2.5 million in city money and $5.5 million in state money will be used to extend a CSX rail line to the site.
The company is paying $20.5 million for the 330-acre site at Cecil Commerce Center upon which it intends to build a 408,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and 734,000 square feet of support area.
The rail access at the site was a major part of the site selection, Cosentino said, allowing the company to ship its products throughout North America, which represents more than half of its global sales.
Also key: access to the port of Jacksonville, which is about 20 miles away, and which the company will use to import products while the factory is ramping up.
“What we are trying to do is build the basis for the future,” he said, “because we are in a process right now to continue investing in the different business channels that we have at present, with new applications and new products.”
If things go according to plan, that future in Jacksonville might be even bigger than what the company has now committed.
Cosentino said he’d like to see work on the plant begin sooner than 2025, which could set the stage for a second phase: The company has the right to buy another 150 acres at Cecil for an expansion, putting at least $100 million into the second phase — eventually setting up a factory that could rival what the company has in Spain.
“Like I said, we are all the time thinking of the future,” Cosentino said. “Not only did we have to find good land for phase one, but also what happens later.
“We are very optimistic about the future.”