Anderson-DuBose breaks ground for new distribution facility (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — On a barren patch of land off Cisco Drive West among a sea of trees and warehouses in West Jacksonville, workers are gearing up to begin work on a 160,000-square-foot, rail-served ambient and cold-storage distribution facility for food service distribution firm The Anderson-DuBose Company Inc.
Anderson-DuBose is investing $60 million into the facility, which will support McDonald’s restaurants across the Southeast.
As the company has explored other markets for expansion, Jacksonville stood out as a place with the right support, its president said.
“We’re expanding into other markets,” said Mike Boddy, president of Anderson-DuBose. “But it’s different here in Jacksonville.”
Boddy said working with JAXUSA Partnership President Aundra Wallace and Senior Director of Business Development John Freeman was particularly important in linking the company with the city and moving the project forward.
“… they couldn’t have been better (in) just getting things done, removing barriers and really finding solutions to keep our project working.”
The facility is set to be a three-temperature zone distribution center with ambient dry, cooler and frozen space, and is being built on a 33-acre site known as Westlake Site 34B purchased from Norfolk Southern Railway. The project is expected to create 109 jobs at the new facility.
Construction is scheduled to finish around September 2025, Boddy said.
Anderson-DuBose serves McDonald’s and Chipotle restaurants, and the Jacksonville location is the company’s first expansion into the Southeast.
“We have two great customers and continue to grow as a company,” Boddy said. “But as they grow and their markets change, they’re looking for opportunities to build with their partners, and that’s what’s brought us here to Jacksonville.
“So this is the most important site. It was the biggest need for one of our customers. That’s what brought us here.”
Wallace said VanTrust Real Estate put the project onto his radar and that it was exactly the type of project that should be in Jacksonville. Along with incentives, highway and railroad access for the site, building a connection with Warren Anderson, the owner of Anderson-DuBose, was key in bringing the new distribution center to Jacksonville.
“… All of this is really based upon relationships,” Wallace said. “So as I said in my presentation, understanding Warren’s story, he’s a person born in Detroit. I worked in Detroit. It was just really that ability to connect that allowed the conversation to proceed towards OK. I can now feel like I have a connectivity to the Jacksonville area, because this person kind of understands me. And so it was from there that led us to being able to then work with VanTrust.”
Ensuring that JEA was meeting and taking note of questions from VanTrust and other companies involved in the construction of the project was also key in gaining confidence from Anderson-DuBose.
“So, it was that ability to connect everyone in the room that really, in my opinion, showed Anderson-DuBose, we have a handle on all of the players and economic development in our region, and they can trust us,” Wallace said.
Jacksonville is competing with other cities such as Dallas and Houston for companies moving headquarters to Florida but also regional distribution facilities as well, Wallace said.
Creating relationships is what distinguishes Jacksonville as a destination, he said.
“This is just another testament that we have the infrastructure, we have the site,” Wallace said. “But more importantly, we have the relationships at our utilities, at local government to make things move expeditiously, which allows companies to make a decision about where they’re going to place their business.”
Photo courtesy of the Anderson-DuBose Company