City approves build-out at Saxum cold-storage center in North Jacksonville (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Daily Record) — Partners broke ground April 18, 2023, on the almost $87 million cold-storage center.
“We are bullish on this site,” said Chris Hughes, president and CEO of Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics, before the event in Imeson International Industrial Park.
The partners developed the food distribution center on 32.37 acres at North Main Street and Van Dyck Road.
Arcadia will lease the center from Saxum Real Estate, which is developing the project.
The city approved a construction permit April 6, 2023, for Primus Builders Inc. of Woodstock, Georgia, to build the center at a project cost of $60.77 million.
Hughes and Saxum Acquisitions Principal Sean Gilbert said at the groundbreaking that the building should be completed by April 2024.
Saxum Real Estate, Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics and Primus Builders Inc. hosted the groundbreaking.
Arcadia had planned to lease about two-thirds of the building with the remaining third available for lease, but now will take the rest of the space.
Hughes said Arcadia would hire 65 to 70 full-time employees when operations begin.
Hughes said the project would be Arcadia’s first port-located project and plans to have 20-25 of the facilities across the country in the next six or seven years. The center is 8 miles from JaxPort’s Blount Island Marine Terminal.
Photo courtesy of Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics