~Food distributor Ben E. Keith, Co. warehouse to serve Florida, southeast, and eastern seaboard~

ALACHUA ‒ Commissioners in the City of Alachua unanimously approved an application for a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from Florida Commerce, formerly the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity that would be used to serve a proposed $100 million food distribution warehouse.

The grant funds would be used to extend Northwest 115^th Avenue and install other public infrastructure improvements necessary to support the proposed 680,810 square-foot distribution center. The grant would be combined with another roughly $1 million from WACO Properties, Inc. for a total of approximately $2.537 million.

In addition to the extension of Northwest 115^th Avenue, the grant project proposes to include the placement of medians on Northwest 115^th Avenue. Finance and Administrative Services Director Robert Bonetti said, “This project will provide increased infrastructure facilities to an undeveloped area including expanded sewer and water service.” The infrastructure improvements are expected to open up properties other than the Ben E. Keith, Co. site for development.

Bonetti said he expects construction on the proposed infrastructure to begin within the next 10 months, “contingent upon the design schedule.” He expects the infrastructure will be completed within one year after it begins.

Ben E. Keith, Co. will bear the approximately $100 million for land, site development, building construction, and other development costs. The current projection is that the warehouse facility will be open by the third quarter of 2026, depending on grant funding and completion of the infrastructure. Bonetti said Ben E. Keith, Co. has committed to begin construction of its facility prior to, or shortly after construction of the grant-funded public infrastructure begins.

As part of the qualifying for the grant, Ben E. Keith, Co., as the owner and manager of this Distribution Center, will create and retain a minimum of 44 full-time equivalent permanent new jobs within the two-year CDBG grant period. Positions created are to include transportation personnel, warehouse associates and other personnel, sanitation associates, forklift operators, non-DOT drivers, and inventory control associates.

According to Bonetti, the 44 new job creation and retention estimates are based on a market analysis and other Ben E. Keith, Co. forecasts and projections. A minimum of 23 full-time equivalent new and retained jobs must be held by individuals from low-to-moderate income households. If more than 60 new full-time positions are created, at least 51 percent of the total new jobs created must be filled by members of low-to-moderate income families to meet the CDBG national objective of benefiting low-to-moderate income households.

All full-time jobs are to be provided with company-sponsored healthcare, Bonetti said. Where necessary, Ben E. Keith, Co. will provide training to persons from low to moderate-income households to ensure they have the necessary skills to obtain and perform the job for which they have been hired.

The breakdown of grant dollars per job created is less than $35,000 of grant funding per job created. “That is an incentive to the state and federal government to give [the City of Alachua] these funds. It is a lot of bang for the buck,” Bonetti said.

In February 2022, Ben E. Keith Company purchased all of the assets of Florida Food Service, which was headquartered in Gainesville and served customers in northern and central Florida and Georgia. Florida Food Service was founded in 1948. According to its website, Ben E. Keith Company was founded in Fort Worth, Texas in 1906 and is a “complete broad line distributor.” The acquisition of Florida Food Service created “the ninth division of Ben E. Keith Foods across 15 states.”

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