GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The county’s business community never sleeps.

At Tuesday night’s county commission meeting, Economic Development Corporation President Crawford Powell briefed officials on the growth in the area and gave an overview of what’s going on.

Middleburg will see a Niagara water bottling facility near Challenger Drive. The plant is in phase II of construction and seeks to have 800,000 square feet building and eventually expand to about 200 jobs, though it will begin with around 50 employees, Powell said.

Mobro Marine is making a $12 million investment for new headquarters in Green Cove Springs.

“We have a number of local, regional and now national developers looking into Clay County for sites to build spec buildings,” he said.

To assist potential newcomers to the county, the EDC is in the process of a Strategic Site Inventory. Another project focuses on creating a database for sites.

“We’re making sure due diligence is done on the sites and they are ready to move forward to market,” Powell said.

The county’s commercial and industrial growth was a matter of intrigue Tuesday. The county has 3.7 million square feet of commercial office space and 5.4 million square feet of industrial space at the moment. However, vacancy is extremely limited with 5.1% and 0.2% of the space available for commercial and industrial space respectively.

The county is very competitive, Powell said,

“That shows you the need for industrial growth in the county,” Powell said. “We are still being pushed by being such a competitive environment for land for available sites, which is what we run into in 90% of conversations we have, so we’re working to increase that opportunity for the community.”

Powell also relayed Clay County’s 2.2% unemployment rate is less than Jacksonville, the state and the country. Jacksonville’s unemployment rate is 2.3% and the state’s rate is 2.5%. The U.S. sits at 3.4% unemployment rate, far below pandemic levels. The county’s labor force, essentially the pool of people able to work, stands at 112,308.

“Those are pretty interesting data points as we talk projects and opportunities,” Powell said.

He concluded with housing. Presenting the June 2022 median sales price figures, he showed the following median sales price data by area:

• Fleming Island- $437,500

• Middleburg- $373,500 

• Green Cove Springs- $355,000

• Orange Park- $340,000

• Keystone Heights- $265,000

Compared to 2021, Fleming Island’s sales prices jumped 7.2% and Middleburg’s sales prices increased by 36.8%. The other three areas’ sales prices grew around 20% in the past year and the overall increase in prices for the county from 2021 to 2022 was 28%.

Powell said the median sales price for the county is $352,077.

“Note it’s a 28% increase year-to-date and that’s indicative of the entire region,” he said.