The City of Jacksonville, through the JEDC, issued today a formal request for proposals (RFP) for a developer with the experience, financial capacity and long-term commitment necessary to lead the city's development efforts of the 4,500 acres of city-owned property at Cecil Commerce Center. Cecil Commerce Center is one of the city's greatest assets and is envisioned by the community to be a premier industrial employment center for Northeast Florida.

A private sector developer is needed that has the ability to execute a long-term development strategy at Cecil by utilizing private development talent, capital resources and has the expertise with large-scale industrial land development. The city and its partners have performed extensive site due diligence, permitting and investing more than $180 million in core infrastructure to better position Cecil for development opportunities.

'While we have already seen some recent activity at Cecil Commerce Center, working with a private sector developer will allow the city to become a world-class commerce center. This tremendous asset will help complement the multi-modal infrastructure already in place in our community and the growing economic development opportunities that are occurring with JAXPORT,' said Mayor John Peyton. 'Our goal is to attract a partner in the development community that can bring high-end users to Cecil particularly in the manufacturing, supply-chain logistics and other industrial industries to generate stable, high-wage job opportunities for our residents.'

Cecil Commerce Center has the potential to be the ultimate landside complement to JAXPORT and home to companies dependent on supply chain logistics. Recent activity at Cecil includes: designation of 1,300 acres as a mega-site that certifies its ability to support a major automotive manufacturing facility or activity, expansion of aviation-related industry along the flight line, development of a new FCCJ Westside campus, construction of a one-million square foot Bridgestone Firestone North America distribution center and Alenia North America's declaration of its intent to build C-27J Spartan cargo planes at Cecil.

The Request for Proposals can be found online at the Procurement Division's Web site and responses are due no later than 4 p.m. on Friday, March 13, 2009. Any questions pertaining to the RFP must be submitted to Alex Baker at abaker@coj.net by Feb. 11. After all proposals are received, they will be evaluated and submitted to the JEDC Commission, Mayor and City Council for approval.