What's being built along I-95 in Daytona Beach? It could mean 1,000 jobs for Volusia

DAYTONA BEACH ― Motorists in the northbound Interstate 95 exit ramp to West International Speedway Boulevard can now see a huge concrete building going up directly behind a billboard advertising Publix's BOGO deals.

No, Publix isn't planning a grocery store there.

It's going to be a cold-storage center for a Naples, Florida-based company called Karis Storage. And the project is expected to create 800 to 1,000 jobs.

Here's what to know:

It's going to be big

The three-building Karis Cold cold-storage center at 1094 S. Williamson Blvd. in Daytona Beach will offer a total of 807,585 square feet of space including a "state-of-the-art temperature-controlled" freezer/cooler and a dry goods warehouse, according to the company's website.

If it were to open today, it would be the largest distribution center in Daytona Beach, bigger than the 625,000-square-foot "World Class Distribution Center" for Trader Joe's that opened along the east side of I-95 just north of Dunn Avenue, in 2015.

It's located across from another major project

The future Karis cold-storage center is going up just south of the Daytona Beach Racing & Card Club, formerly known as the Daytona Kennel Club.

It is directly across the street from the construction entrance to the massive five-story 2.8-million-square-foot Amazon robotics fulfillment center being built as part of developer Hillwood's planned Commerce 500 logistics park. The Karis project is not affiliated with either Amazon or the Commerce 500 project.

Expected to open early next year

The website for Karis states that it expects to open its Daytona Beach cold-storage center in the first quarter of 2024.

The city issued a building permit for the project on June 1. The estimated cost to construct the first of the three buildings is $26 million, confirmed Jared Bonshire, an executive managing director with commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield in Lake Mary. Bonshire is one of three Cushman & Wakefield agents handling leasing for the Karis project.

Bonshire in a phone interview Tuesday explained that the first building will be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2024 with the other two buildings ready in the second and third quarters.

The land was previously owned by the Flea Market folks

According to Volusia County property records, Karis Cold, doing business as KCS Icebox DAB, paid $18 million to acquire the 67.3-acre Daytona Beach site in October 2022.

The seller was the estate of the late Berrien "Hank" Becks Jr., who founded the Daytona Flea & Farmers Market on the other side of I-95, at 1425 Tomoka Farms Road, in 1981.

The Becks family was represented in the sale of the land along Williamson by SVN Alliance Commercial Real Estate Advisors.

Is it a distribution center? Depends on who you ask

When the project was presented to the Daytona Beach Planning Board in May 2022, James Ford of Transportation Real Estate Solutions, speaking on Karis's behalf, said "this project is a warehouse cooler/freezer/dry goods project and not a distribution center."

That's not how it's being marketed to potential users by Cushman & Wakefield.

According to its listing on LoopNet, the future facility is advertised as a distribution center "designed to address bulk demand within Central Florida."

A site map for the project shows one of the three buildings ― a 140,400-square-foot facility ― is already leased. The other two buildings are 450,690 square feet and 216,495 square feet in size, respectively.

The signed lease is with PepsiCo, which will move its local beverage distribution center there next year from the one it is currently using at 860 Bellevue Ave., said Jessica Gow of Cobb Cole Law Firm. Gow is one of the land-use attorneys representing Karis.

Bonshire confirmed the lease with PepsiCo, adding that a portion of the building it will occupy will have freezer/cooler space. He said his team just executed a lease for a second tenant: a building products supplier that will be leasing 250,000 square feet of non-refrigerated space in the roughly 400,000-square-foot Building B. He said he was not at liberty to disclose the name of that second tenant. The third building, known as Building A, will be entirely freezer/cooler space.

Why Daytona Beach?

According to Cushman & Wakefield's flier for the project, "Daytona has continued to emerge as a key distribution market with the increased freight movement along I-95 coupled with Florida's population trends over the past decade. Situated between Orlando and Jacksonville, and within a 4-hour drive-time of 89.7% of the population of Florida, this location provides a unique opportunity to service the state with a variety of requirements.

"Daytona (also) offers an excellent labor pool with competitive wages in relation to other major metros throughout the state, offering a competitive advantage for bulk distribution."

Bonshire said his team has received strong interest from prospective tenants for the Karis project in Daytona Beach. He added that the first two tenants signed so far are expected to create 400 to 500 jobs. "When all three buildings are fully leased, I expect that number (of jobs) will probably be double that amount."

Bonshire did not know the pay range for the jobs that will be created.

Karis is also planning a 264,264-square-foot cold-storage facility in Jacksonville that's expected to open in the first half of 2024, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record.

'It's something we really need'

Daytona Beach City Commissioner Stacy Cantu, who lives in the Pelican Bay community down the street from the future Karis facility on Williamson, said the number of truck trips to and from the cold-storage center will be "very low" and should not impact nearby neighborhoods.

"They're going to store perishable and frozen products for grocery chains and restaurants. It's something we really need," she said.

That means beneficiaries of the future Karis facility will likely include the new Publix grocery store that opened in June less than three miles away at The Shoppes at Beville Road.

No economic incentives were involved in the Karis project, said Cantu.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: What's going up next to the old Daytona Kennel Club? Here's the answer