Target said to be zeroing in on massive warehouse deal in Pasco County
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 20, 2022

Target Corp. is taking aim at an industrial property in Pasco County, where the retail giant could build a massive warehouse, the Tampa Bay Business Journal has learned.

Minneapolis-based Target is considering the I-75 Logistics Center, which is in the northeast quadrant of Interstate 75 and State Road 52. Jacksonville-based Chestnut Hill Investments bought the 165-acre site for $7.25 million in early 2021. As recently as late last week, Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which is marketing the site for Chestnut Hill, sent out an email blast touting the property's availability.

It's rumored in real estate circles, however, that Target is nearing a deal that would give the retailer the entirety of the park or 1.1 million square feet. While Central Florida has seen a trend of building larger warehouses over the last five years, few single tenants occupy 1 million square feet or more. Amazon.com has million-square-foot warehouses in Lakeland and Ruskin; Walmart occupies 2 million square feet in Davenport.

JJ Conners, Chestnut Hill principal, did not respond to a request for comment.

Warehouses of that size create hundreds of jobs and represent millions of dollars in capital investment. If the deal comes to fruition, it would be the second major retail win for Pasco County in 2022. Amazon is building a robotic fulfillment center in Pasco, also off State Road 52.

"At Target, we are continually evaluating potential supply chain facility locations to serve our guests, but I don’t have any news to share at this time," a spokeswoman for the retailer told the Business Journal.

In March, Target (NYSE: TGT) announced a $5 billion investment in scaling operations — including fulfillment capacities. Among its priorities for online ordering are sortation centers, where digital orders packed by stores are organized for neighborhood deliveries. Five new sortation facilities are scheduled to open in 2022, on the heels of sortation facilities in Dallas, Houston, Austin, Atlanta and Philadelphia.

"Sortation centers enable a next-day shipping capability in dense markets and allow the company to further scale its stores-as-hubs strategy," Target said.

Target also said it has four distribution centers under development "to expand supply chain capacity, with plans for several more in the next few years."