Amendment sought in city’s development agreement with Cosentino

The Jacksonville Office of Economic Development is seeking to amend the city's agreement with Cosentino Group to incentivize the Spain-based international company's first manufacturing facility in the U.S.

In a memo scheduled to be presented Sept. 23 to the Mayor's Budget Recommendation Committee, the OED says it is requesting the amendment to allow the city and JEA to jointly bid a road and utility project for the Cosentino facility. The $370 million manufacturing facility is planned at the Cecil Commerce Center megasite in West Jacksonville.

The original agreement, approved by the Jacksonville City Council in 2023, was for a land sale and incentives package for Cosentino that included a sale price of $20.5 million for 330 acres, a $12 million property tax incentive and $5.5 million in debt spending to pay for a $3 million Logistics Land Road extension at Cecil and pay $2.5 million for JEA to make sewer and water infrastructure improvements at the site.

The memo says that the joint bid by the city and JEA for the road and utility project will "result in decreased construction costs and realize efficiencies, while maintaining control of this typical municipal construction project."

"It is anticipated that with the construction of the utilities and roadway being completed by the combined efforts of the City and JEA, Cosentino will be in a position to focus on the construction of their site and project," the memo reads.

Cosentino has asked for an extension of the closing date of the agreement until the end of 2024 "in order to ensure this effort is no longer required of the company," the memo states.

If the OED's request is approved by the MBRC, legislation to amend the agreement would be introduced to Council in its Oct. 8 meeting.

The city's agreement with Cosentino has been amended three times. The most recent amendment came in June 2024, when the closing date was extended to July and other portions of the timeline were also extended due to construction delays brought on by weather and site conditions.

A separate ordinance appropriated $5.5 million awarded by the state in November 2023 from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund to put toward a CSX Corp. rail line extension at the business park.

Cosentino, a maker of sustainable countertops, flooring, facade materials and other surfaces for architecture and building design, initially announced plans to break ground on a $270 million first phase of its Jacksonville production plant in January 2025. That phase includes a 408,000-square-foot production facility and 734,000 square feet of adjacent support areas.

Cosentino said it would hire 180 employees for the site, which could grow to $440 million if future phases are added as planned.