JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – City officials are looking to secure an expansion from a manufacturing company that could bring at least $10 million in new investment and roughly 100 to 120 full‑time jobs to Northwest Jacksonville.
Working under the name “Project Underground”, the company, which already employs more than 140 people in Jacksonville and operates facilities in Tennessee and western U.S., is considering a local expansion to support existing and new product lines. Most of the projected jobs would be production roles with average wages above $40,000 a year.
Recommended Videos
According to project documents, the potential investment would go toward an existing industrial facility in a “Level 1 Economically Distressed Area,” where the unemployment rate is about 12.8% and more than twice the county average.
“Those are the types of neighborhood where you’d love to see companies go,” Ed Randolph, executive director at the Office of Economic Development, said. “We’ve worked with them on various sites in Jacksonville and we told them that would be the site in which we would be willing to offer some incentive just because of the high unemployment rate.”
City staff said the project would help increase job opportunities and boost the tax base. Staff reports estimate a 3.8‑to‑1 return on investment from the deal.
But the company proposing the project has other options. Officials said it is weighing other sites in Georgia and Tennessee where real estate costs are lower and competing incentives may be larger. City documents said the firm is willing to pay more in freight to ship from Jacksonville, but could consolidate production in the areas it does not select, which would risk job losses locally.
To keep the expansion in Jacksonville, the Office of Economic Development is asking to propose a five‑year Recaptured Enhanced Value grant. The REV grant would cover 50% of the city’s millage rate up to $275,000.
“We’re trying to stay competitive, and in this case, there are at least two other states and municipalities that are courting them with similar incentives,” Randolph said. “The properties that they are looking at there are cheaper, so I think we’ve got the hometown benefit in this particular case.”
The Mayor’s Budget Review Committee accepted the proposal unanimously on Monday.
It now heads to city council for approval and could be introduced in December.