MediterraneanGrocery Wholesalers in Jacksonville, FL

JEA: Contractors were doing renovations to site when pump malfunctioned

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – State regulators and inspectors at Jacksonville’s utility company are investigating a stinky situation that could be an environmental hazard to local waterways.

Approximately 90,000 gallons of raw sewage overflowed into Pottsburg Creek in Jacksonville’s Grove Park Neighborhood, according to a report JEA filed with Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.

Pottsburg Creek is a waterway that runs directly into the St. Johns River.

Video from the Sky4 Drone appears to show some of the leakage into the creek, which is a popular boating and fishing destination.

JEA said a pump at a regional wastewater site failed Sunday afternoon as contractors were working on them. The overflow incident, according to the report, lasted from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The Holiday Road lift station is where wastewater, including sewage from toilets, goes before hitting one of JEA’s treatment centers.

The I-TEAM went to the area after obtaining the report from DEP. The neighborhood near the leak had a stench of feces. A yard sign next to the road notified neighbors of a sewage overflow, urging them to avoid fishing, swimming in or drinking the water.

News4JAX flew the Sky4 drone over the area and noticed brown, cloudy water. Neighbors, who didn’t know what had happened, said it’s not a pleasant sight or scent.

“It’s a surprise,” said resident Mike Best, who lives nearby. “Definitely don’t want sewage in our waterways.”

JEA managers told the I-TEAM contractors were doing renovations on this sewage station, putting in new pipes and valves as well as odor control and an emergency generator. They were still investigating what happened to cause the overflow. They said several contractors were involved and they weren’t sure who, if any, was at fault.

News4JAX has requested the names of the contracting companies from JEA.

“The failure occurred with the bypass system - which helps the lift station with operations - during a construction project designed to improve the system,” JEA’s media relations manager Karen McCallister said. “The impacted ground area was remediated, and hydrated lime was applied to the affected soil to kill bacteria and reduce odors.”

She said as the investigation and remediation continued, the site was back up and running as normal.

“JEA began taking samples of the impacted water area today (Jan. 17),” she wrote. “First results are expected late morning on Jan. 18. JEA notified state regulatory agencies on Jan. 16 and placed sanitary sewer overflow signs in the vicinity of the release advising residents against swimming, fishing or drinking from nearby bodies of water.”

“There needs to be more oversight,” Best said.

He is upset about the situation, especially because in the summer of 2021, he helped the I-TEAM uncover contractors pumping dirty water into the creek just blocks away. They were using a piece of private property along the waterway to swap dirt for a construction site when Best used his drone to discover milky water being pumped into the creek.

DEP investigators found the work was unpermitted and potentially hazardous.

“This is even worse I think,” Best said. “This is raw sewage. Whereas over there it was just dirty water.”

Jacksonville City Council member Kevin Carrico, who represents the area, told the I-TEAM he would work to find out what happened.

“I am upset to hear about yet another impact on Pottsburg Creek yesterday. I’m working with JEA officials to figure out what happened and what’s going to be done about it. Pottsburg is a hidden gem here on the Southside and I’ll do everything I can to preserve and protect it,” Carrico said in a statement to News4JAX.

In 2016, News4JAX reported that 1.1 million gallons of sewage overflowed into Pottsburg Creek during and after Hurricane Matthew came through the area.

Copyright 2022 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Patients interested in receiving monoclonal antibodies were ready and waiting Tuesday morning outside a new treatment center on Jacksonville’s Southside before the doors even opened at 9 a.m.

The site at the Southside Senior Center on Beach Boulevard was one of five additional monoclonal antibody treatment sites the Florida Department of Health opened on Tuesday around the state.

It’s the second state-supported site in the Jacksonville area to offer the Regeneron treatment.

In Jacksonville, free Regeneron treatment is also available at the Joseph Lee Center at 5120 Perry St. That site ,which is also open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, was state-supported and is now being overseen by a vendor. Appointments can be made at: www.patientportalfl.com. For more information, call CDR Health: 850-344-9637. Or call the Duval County Health Department: 904-253-1000.

The new Regeneron site in Jacksonville offers a more convenient option for people on the Southside, Arlington and the Beaches.

If you can’t make it to either site, the department of health has a treatment locator on its website. Each site is labeled with which type of treatment it offers.

The new site isn’t listed yet, but it will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. The treatments are by appointment ONLY and require a positive COVID-19 test. News4JAX is working to learn how patients can make an appointment since the Florida DOH website has not yet been updated.

Dr. Jonathan Kantor with the Penn Center for Global Health said the omicron variant may be more resistant to Regeneron.

“You know, unfortunately, with the rise of omicron, there were early reports when it was first coming out from the laboratories, you know, basically suggesting that omicron -- that all those mutations had made it more resistant to the monoclonal antibodies,” Kantor said.

Kantor said sotrovimab is the only antibody treatment that works in preventing serious infection with the omicron variant, the variant that makes up more than 95% of the COVID infections in the US.

“It’s just that luck of the draw,” Kantor said. “It came out to be the one that retained efficacy against it, while the others, you know, because of all those different mutations in omicron weren’t quite as effective.”

The U.S. ordered 600,000 doses of sotrovimab last week. It’s unclear when states will be getting those doses.

Companies like Regeneron and Eli Lilly say they can quickly develop new omicron-targeting antibodies, but those aren’t expected to launch for at least several months.

Copyright 2022 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.

A neighbor told First Coast News he saw the flames and pulled the fire alarm before knocking on doors to help make sure neighbors were safe.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — No one was hurt in a fire at a Southside apartment complex early Tuesday morning, according to the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department.

JFRD crews were called to the Lake at St. Augustine apartments in the 11000 block of Old St. Augustine Road around 5 a.m. When crews arrived, the fire was showing from the third story of a building in the back of the large apartment complex.

A neighbor told First Coast News he saw the flames and pulled the fire alarm before knocking on doors to help make sure neighbors were safe.

"(A neighbor) was telling me that the apartment was on fire," tenant Neil Christensen said. "I walked over there and there were flames bursting out. So I knocked on doors and set off the fire alarm. It was pretty big at first."

Crews found heavy fire in the building's attic space, according to JFRD Capt. Eric Prosswimmer. The fire went through the roof of the building, he said.

Story continues below.

Neil Christensen ran into the building on fire and started waking people up at St. Augustine at the Lake Apartments before firefighters got there.@THEJFRD says fire impacted 6-7 units, found the fire in the attic. State fire marshal investigating cause @FCN2go pic.twitter.com/cHCa5oZWcu

— Renata Di Gregorio (@RenataFCNews) January 18, 2022

No residents were in the apartments at the time of the fire, and no one was hurt, JFRD said. Around six or seven apartment units were impacted by fire, smoke and water damage, Prosswimmer said.

JFRD's biggest concern is a chimney that was impacted by the fire. Crews are searching for places the fire could rekindle.

The Red Cross was requested to help the tenants affected. The State Fire Marshal was also requested to investigate the cause of the fire.

Crews are responding to the 11000 block of old Saint Augustine Road to an apartment structure fire…E51 is on scene advising Fire showing

— THEJFRD (@THEJFRD) January 18, 2022

Lawmaker proposing plan to help control Florida’s rising rental costs

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – If you’ve recently received notice that your rent is increasing dramatically, you are not alone.

The News4JAX I-TEAM has been getting dozens of emails and calls from tenants who say they are being asked to pay hundreds of dollars more a month.

Right now, Florida renters don’t have any real options to address the amount of a rent increase because there are no limitations. Rent increases are decided solely at a landlord’s discretion.

News4JAX employee Sasha Saliba’s sticker shock came in the form of a letter from management at her Southside apartment complex, which is raising her rent by $398 dollars a month — a 27 percent increase — in order to renew her lease.

“When they first gave this to us the first thing I think I asked was is this even legal? I didn’t know they could just ask for whatever they wanted,” Saliba said. “To ask for that much more and have to decide within two weeks if we are going to go or stay, we were just shocked at the whole situation.”

Tenants all across the state of Florida are also learning that they don’t have any other recourse other than to pay the increase in rent or find another place to live.

Hundreds of News4JAX viewers weighed in on News4JAX.com and on social media after we asked if they were also experiencing rent increases.

“Rent went up 30% from $1050 to $1400 from one year to the next. Nothing significant done to apartment last year to warrant such a steep raise,” said Justin Blocki, who lives on the Southside.

“Initially they wanted 25% more. I negotiated it to 15% and signed a ten month lease. Lease is up in June and they’ll want even more. I’m a disabled veteran on disability trying to work part time and I have my elderly mother on a fixed income with me. We struggle to make it happen now and SS and VA pension increases aren’t enough to make a dent in it. It will be impossible to stay,” Mark Hilton said.

According to the Florida Apartment Association, the average monthly rent in the Jacksonville area went from $1,125 in 2020 to $1,411 in 2022.

The group also says there are fewer vacant apartments in Jacksonville than in the past and that limited supply is driving up prices. And while we’ve seen new apartments go up around the city, the group says, construction isn’t keeping pace with demand.

“Jacksonville was one of 14 cities in the United States that saw a population increase of 100,000 or more from 2010 to 2020. This significant and rapid population growth is fueling the demand for housing in a market with constrained supply. Although Jacksonville’s multifamily market rate inventory has grown by 18 percent in the last five years, construction has still failed to keep pace with growing demand for housing. To put this in perspective, the vacancy rate in the Jacksonville market is currently 5 percent, nearly half the historical average of 9.4 percent. As a result of the limited supply, the average rent in the Jacksonville market area is $1,411,” the group said in a statement.

The association also said demand is an issue in other metro areas including Orlando, Tampa, and Miami, but added that the area remains more affordable when compared to Orlando ($1,658 average rent), Tampa ($1,665 average rent), and Miami ($2,011 average rent).

Democratic state lawmakers are calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency that would make rent hikes over 10% qualify as price gouging.

One Central Florida state senator is trying to tackle the issue through new legislation that would give local governments the authority to determine how much of an increase they can demand.

State Senator Victor Torres said he thinks landlords are taking advantage of our current economy and inflation.

“Some landlords are getting greedy, they are getting out of hand, they don’t see the broader pictures that people are in need,” he said. “We’ve gone through two years of a pandemic debacle and we need to help our people.”

Torres said Senate Bill 580 would give local governments the power to impose rent control measures, forcing landlords to incrementally raise the rent, rather than hiking it up 25 to 35%.

“The reality is how can you afford a four or six hundred dollars increase in rent? You’re putting people out in the street and these are working people, working-class. It’s a shame this is occurring and we have to do something about that,” Torres said.

The I-TEAM reached out to Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry’s office to see if he would support legislation that would create rent control measures and the mayor’s office responded with a statement:

Torres said SB 580 is waiting to be heard by three Senate committees before it can get a vote by the full Senate.

There is also an identical bill in the Florida House.

Copyright 2022 by WJXT News4Jax - All rights reserved.

Apartment sales dominated the top 10 commercial real estate sales for the year, accounting for nine of them, and comprised all of the top 10 sales of the fourth quarter. Three Northeast Florida real estate teams explain why.

By Laura Gonzales • Franklin Street Jacksonville Regional Managing Director

Jacksonville, the largest city in Florida, has experienced positive population changes, increases in wages, strong market fundamentals and has outperformed the U.S. in terms of employment growth.

Jacksonville is no longer a secret.

Many people are moving here and are targeting this market to purchase commercial real estate. This has resulted in increased demand for ownership of multifamily projects.

Over the past two years, Duval County increased its total population by about 24,000 residents. Nassau, St. Johns and Baker counties all increased their populations by 5.27%, 5.06% and 4.92%, respectively.

The migration to Florida primarily has been from New York, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey and Illinois.

Jacksonville sustained higher employment percentage gains in Q3 and Q4 2020 and all of 2021. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate is about 3.5%, which is below Florida and the national unemployment of about 4.2%.

In 2021 Jacksonville saw the largest absorption with more than 1,300 units, and vacancy rates still declined quarter over quarter. We anticipate 2022 to absorb a minimum of 600 units, 2023 about 585 units and 2024 about 400 units.

Jacksonville saw a record increase in 2021 of 22% year over year of rent growth. This was a tremendous growth over 2020 of 4%, 2019 of 3% and 2018 of 4%.

We anticipate rental rates will continue to increase with 2022 at 25% growth, 2023 at 26% and 2024 at 27%.

Rental rates increased quarter over quarter in 2021. Class A rents increased 6.04% to an average $1.58 a square foot. Class B rents increased to an average $1.34 a square foot, a 5.51% increase. Class C property rents increased 1.9% to $1.03 a square foot

We believe rents will continue to rise as they did in 2021.

Sales volume will continue to be high. Multifamily will continue to be the most sought-after asset type followed by industrial.

The sales value of multifamily hit an all-time average high in 2021 (in Class A and B properties). Class A averaged $249,000 per unit and Class B averaged a new high of $168,000 a unit.

If Jacksonville’s economic indicators continue to be on trend with 2021, we expect values to continue to be high and increase moderately in 2022.

Jacksonville has historically been supported by healthy market fundamentals including rent growth, population growth and continuous multifamily value appreciation.

This market is positioned for success and presents a strong opportunity for investors who want to enjoy significant value appreciation as well as increasing cash flows.

Relative to other Florida cities such as Miami, Orlando and Tampa, Jacksonville rents and average price per unit are much lower across multifamily assets. The market’s strength is also supported by low vacancy rates and positive absorption.

By John Rutherford & Luke McCann • NAI Hallmark

The increase in overall deal volume in the multifamily investment sector is rooted in the strong rental fundamentals that the North Florida market has built out over the last decade.

Jacksonville continues to offer a premium quality of life with its coastal location, year-round good weather, favorable tax climate and diverse employment sector. With all of this, it remains one of the most affordable markets in the country.

These factors have led to Jacksonville recently being recognized by LinkedIn as having the second-highest population migration percentage in 2021 at 14.3%.

In addition to the strong increase in population, Jacksonville now boasts a larger labor force than in March of 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, showcasing a healthy recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

All of this has contributed to an uptick in population growth and household formation, furthering the rate at which demand outpaces supply. This has in turn led to increased rental rates and larger than expected returns for multifamily investors.

The ability to capitalize on these strong returns, especially in a low-interest rate environment, has pushed many groups to sell sooner rather than later.

For prospective purchasers, the strong fundamentals of population growth and diverse employment make Jacksonville a safer investment for years to come. With Jacksonville now being known for this, demand from investors has intensified, driving prices even further.

This is causing even long-term multifamily owners to consider taking advantage, too. The onslaught has of course produced this record number of sales over the last 18-24 months.

By Brian Moulder, Dhaval Patel & Bobby Gatling • Walker & Dunlop

We saw a significant demand for multifamily properties in Jacksonville in 2021.

From private capital to large institutions, everyone was looking to acquire or acquired multifamily assets.

There were several first-time buyers that entered this market as well. In fact, about a third of the deals were purchased by first-time buyers last year.

The surge in volume and pricing in Jacksonville is attributed to the robust fundamentals along with a strong economic performance.

From Q2 to Q3 2021, effective rents in Jacksonville increased by 9.1%, which resulted in an annual growth rate of 21%, ranking Jacksonville as the No. 5 city in the country in terms of rent growth.

Job growth is a big catalyst too. More than 30,000 jobs were added during a 12-month period and the forecast for 2022 is about 31,000 new jobs.

Another factor that is driving the sales volume and higher pricing is the abundant liquidity in the debt markets. The access to capital has expanded rapidly in the last two years beyond the traditional sources.

The availability of debt combined with a strong appetite for multifamily pushed the pricing on several deals to a record level in 2021.

As far as the forecast for 2022, we expect multifamily fundamentals and investor appetite to remain extremely strong for Jacksonville, resulting in yet another great year for our industry.

Walker & Dunlop represented the sellers in six of the top 10 sales for all of 2021 and seven of the top 10 sales in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Be the first to know the latest breaking news and information that business leaders rely on in this fast-paced changing Northeast Florida economy. Regional business news, trends and statistics needed to grow your business. Key upcoming events you won’t want to miss and much more. Click Here to Grow your Business NOW!