JACKSONVILLE -- Unilever, an international consumer products manufacturing company, is relocating its Southeast distribution hub to a 772,000-square-foot facility to be built in the Westlake Industrial Park on the Westside.

It's part of the company's decision to consolidate its 12 U.S. distribution facilities housing food or consumer goods into six facilities with both, according to a broker who represented Unilever.

Duke Realty Corp. (NYSE: DRE) will build both the Jacksonville facility at 1220 President's Court and the 822,000-square-foot Southwest distribution center in a Dallas suburb, the last two regions of the company's U.S. distribution center system to be consolidated. CSO Architects Inc. in Indiana-polis designed both the Jacksonville and the Dallas-area facilities.

Site preparation has started on the Jacksonville facility, which should be completed in September 2008. The Dallas facility is expected to be completed a month later.

Neither Duke Realty nor the U.S. headquarters of Unilever (NYSE: UL) in New Jersey would disclose the cost of construction, but Duke Realty paid about $6 million for the 50 acres just north of Interstate 10 and west of Interstate 295, according to Duval County Clerk of the Courts records. Duke bought the land from Norfolk Southern Corp., the railway company that is developing the Westlake Industrial Park.

Commercial Jacksonville Inc., a Cushman and Wakefield Alliance firm, represented Unilever in the transaction. Mark Scott, the senior director of global supply chain solutions at Commercial Jacksonville, said the company spent 18 months searching for the site in Jacksonville.

Duke Realty, based in Indianapolis, is a real estate investment trust that owns, manages or is developing 129 million rentable square feet of mostly industrial and office space in 22 U.S. cities, including 5.7 million square feet of space and 264 acres of land for future development in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.

The Westlake Industrial Park facility is the company's first development project in Jacksonville, said Duke Realty spokesman Joel Reuter.
 
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