The University of Florida has selected Edgemoor Infrastructure & Real Estate to advance the initial $287.5 million phase of construction on UF’s Jacksonville graduate campus. 

The selection follows a competitive process. Edgemoor is teaming up with partners such as Clark Construction, Auld & White Constructors, OJB Landscape Architecture, HOK, PQH Group Design, England-Thims Miller, Coastal Connections Group and more.

The first new building will anchor the campus in the historic LaVilla neighborhood, where UF is developing a graduate campus. Jacksonville has committed land and significant funding to support the project, including more than 20 acres for campus development and tens of millions of dollars toward construction. 

UF’s Jacksonville campus is expected to open initial programs in existing facilities in 2026, with new construction to follow as the campus expands. The broader vision includes advanced graduate programs in areas such as business, health care and emerging technologies.

A new battery manufacturing plant is set to open at the Kingsboro megasite in Edgecombe County. Natron Energy, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, plans to invest $1.4 billion in the operation, which is expected to create up to 1,000 new jobs nine miles east of downtown Rocky Mount.

The site will produce sodium-ion carbide batteries, an alternative to lithium-ion technology. They are designed for medium—and low-speed electric vehicles, such as bicycles, and are viable options for large-scale energy storage solutions. Sodium is a much more available element than lithium.

Natron is likely to receive more than $50 million in state and local grants.

Natron Energy opened the first U.S. sodium-ion battery plant at its Michigan headquarters earlier this year. Natron claims sodium-ion solutions outperform, are significantly safer, and are far more sustainable than lithium-ion options.

Kyowa Kirin, a Japanese life sciences company, has selected Sanford, North Carolina, for its new pharmaceutical manufacturing complex. The $200 million investment will create more than 100 jobs. The company will utilize the Helix Innovation Park at the Brickyard, a new 895-acre industrial park in Lee County.

The Charlotte Business Journal reports the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Economic Investment Committee approved roughly $2 million worth of incentives to lure the project. Earlier, the Sanford City Council and the Lee County Board of Commissioners approved an incentives package of $3.86 million and roughly $4.7 million, respectively.

Kyowa Kirin first entered the North American market when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved three medicines it markets in the United States. The company has three other manufacturing sites in North America.

Sanford, in recent years has landed large projects from Pfizer and Astellas Gene Therapies, part of Japanese firm Astellas Pharma.

Capital Development Partners has announced a 982,800-square-foot lease at Central Port Logistics Center with Plastic Express. Plastic Express will export over 150 million tons of US-made plastic resin products.

Central Port Logistics Center Building 11 is a CSX rail-served site and will deliver in June of 2024. This facility offers packaging, warehousing, transloading, and storage capacity for over 8,000 TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent Units) and will create over 200 direct jobs and 250 construction jobs. Building 11 is Phase I of the industrial park that covers 1,000 acres with 5.5 million square feet of warehouse space to support the growth of the Georgia Ports Authority. The logistics center is a $155 million project. Central Port Logistics Center Building 11 will not be ready until June of 2024.

Plastic Express manages over 50 rail yards, 4.2 million square feet of full-service warehouses with packaging and over 30 bulk truck terminals across the country.