Many area residents are not aware that one of the biggest development projects in Volusia County has been in the works since 2014.
It’s coming to the corner of U.S. 92 and Tomoka Farms Road in Daytona Beach. It’s going to be big, 893,000 square feet of warehousing, cold storage and retail space big.
It is the Midwest Transit Planned Master Development.
There also will be a combined 400 apartments and townhouses included in this monster of a project.
The company behind 65 acres of this development is Atlanta-based Taylor & Mathis, represented by an amiable gentleman and president of the company, Andrew M. Taylor. Taylor & Mathis is new to Volusia County, but they are not new to Florida, having done work in Miami, Miramar and Tampa.
Mr. Taylor was standing in front of a sparse gathering of locals who came to the Holiday Inn Daytona Beach on LPGA Boulevard for a Tuesday, June 21, neighborhood meeting. He was explaining Taylor & Mathis is going through a rezoning process with the City of Daytona Beach to bring two distribution buildings to the Midwest Transit PMD Project.
Mr. Taylor said the advantage of the location is, “this site is a is a great distribution site just because of its proximity to the nexus of I-4 and I-95.”
The distribution center will be designated as a Class A facility. Meaning it will be of the newest and highest quality and one of the best looking, on par with the new Amazon and Trader Joe’s Daytona Beach locations. Taylor & Mathis is focused solely on the 65-acre distribution center.
“The existing multi-tenant products in this market is what we call Class B,” he said.
Class B is viewed as a little bit older, but has maintained its quality.
He expects a “very well landscaped” area with the front looking like any other office building, and the distribution functions will be more towards the back.
The entire rezoning request was submitted by Cobb Cole for 228 acres on behalf of Midwest Transit Inc., a Florida corporation. In a 2014 letter to the city requesting the rezoning, a lawyer for Cobb Cole, Robert Merrill stated, “The mixed-use development will direct economic growth” by complimenting “the existing restaurants and accommodations in the vicinity of the property.”
It isn’t unusual at this early stage, but it should be noted at the present time, there is no company looking to grab the space once it is built.
It is expected the Daytona Beach Planning Board will approve the rezoning in July. After the planning board, the request goes before the City Commission for two votes. If all those votes are yea and not nay, Taylor & Mathis will turn its attention to environmental-wetlands permitting.
Mr. Taylor replied via email that the “best case” scenario is “we could break ground sometime in first quarter 2023.”
