Amazon set to build 2.3 million-square-foot Jacksonville center

An affiliate of online retail giant Amazon paid $15 million for 155 acres in Jacksonville, where the company plans to build a major distribution and fulfillment center.

The development will bring  1,500 Amazon jobs to the Northside area of Jacksonville, culminating years of quiet negotiations to convince the online retailer to build the distribution center in Jacksonville.

The city government, which code-named the Amazon campaign “Project Rex,” offered $13.4 million to attract the distribution center, mostly $10 million of property tax rebates over 12 years.

Amazon’s distribution center will measure 2.4 million square feet, Jerry Mallot, executive vice president of JAX Chamber, told the St. Augustine Record.

Mallot also told the newspaper that contractors have started preparing the site of the distribution center for construction and may finish it by late 2017.

He said the effort to attract the jumbo-sized Amazon fulfillment center spanned seven years and included officials of the chamber, city and state.

USAA Real Estate, which builds and manages fulfillment centers for Amazon, bought the 155-acre site for the Jacksonville distribution center.

USAA Real Estate also paid $700,000 to SunTrust Bank for another 20 acres. [St. Augustine Record] — Mike Seemuth