JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A building and the parking lot around it on Blanding Boulevard used to be full of families shopping.
It was a bustling K-Mart when Shaun Jackrel opened Jaguar Power Sports across the street.
“The day we closed on the building, they actually announced they were closing the store,” he said. “It was one of the busiest K-Marts and then bam, shut down. Now it’s a desolate wasteland over there.”
Documents filed with the City of Jacksonville show new life could be coming to the lot after almost 7 years.
A rezoning application lists Amazon as the project developer. The document says they want to open an e-commerce distribution, fulfillment and delivery center at 4645 Blanding Boulevard.
The lot is 11 acres with 111,718 square feet taken up by the existing building.
The documents say the distribution facility would receive truck deliveries of packages, which would then be sorted and loaded into delivery vans.
Jackrel believes it could be one of the best things to happen to the stretch of Blanding Blvd. in years.
“Anything that can put more jobs in Jacksonville, bring some business to the Westside. Just get this area back and booming again, I think it’s huge,” Jackrel said.
The area needs to be rezoned in order for the facility to go in. Action News Jax reached out to Amazon for confirmation of the plans and to ask how many new jobs a new center would create. We’re still waiting to hear back.
City leaders are set to talk about the rezoning application for the lot in January.
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