State leaders have approved the purchase of a warehouse in Auburndale for use as a supply site for emergency operations.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted at a recent meeting to approve up to $75 million to purchase and retrofit a 423,000-square-foot warehouse along Interstate 4, just west of County Road 559. The facility will be used as a hub for the storage and movement of emergency supplies during emergency activation and response, according to a description from the agenda of the June 12 meeting.
The state has issued a no-bid contract to LifeScience Logistics to operate the facility, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The Texas-based company owns a warehouse in Lakeland that the state chose to handle medications imported from Canada.
The Florida Cabinet consists of DeSantis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.
The Florida Legislature allocated $116 million for the project in the budget for the coming fiscal year. The agenda item specified that up to $75 million may be used for the purchase and closing costs. Florida’s Division of Emergency Management will operate the facility.
The Midpoint Florida Logistics Center is owned by Dalfen Industrial, a Texas real estate investment firm that operates under the name CH Realty IX-DAL I Lakeland Auburndale LP. The company paid nearly $25.7 million in 2021 to buy a 74-acre property from Mancini Development, according to county records.
Since that purchase, Dalfen has built two warehouses, each exceeding 400,000 square feet, the News Service of Florida reported. The state seeks to buy one warehouse set upon 40.6 acres at 640 C. Fred Jones Blvd., just east of an Amazon distribution center. Both of the Dalfen warehouses appeared to be unoccupied, and no activity could be seen Wednesday afternoon.
A possible joint field office during disasters
The facility includes 39,200 square feet of office space, 400 trailer spaces, 274 car spaces, and 50 dock doors for loading and unloading disaster-related supplies, according to the agenda item.
When the retrofit is complete, the warehouse will be fully air-conditioned and will include racking, dock equipment, material handling equipment, cold storage, a dedicated area for trailer storage, and open floor space, the agenda description said. The site will be able to manage the Department of Emergency Management’s disaster supplies, such as emergency food, water, tarps, generators, and personal protective equipment.
Areas will be designated for mobile command vehicles and other disaster response equipment.
The warehouse will eventually absorb the storage from three smaller facilities now in use, including one in Lakeland that stocks personal protective equipment, the News Service of Florida reported.
The Auburndale facility will have office spaces and workstations for more than 100 people, a training center for the agency and living quarters to support the Florida National Guard, the agency’s field teams and others working at the warehouse during a disaster response, the agenda item said.
Because of the facility’s location and size, the office space and workstations could become a temporary joint field office during a federal disaster declaration. The agenda description emphasized the site’s location along I-4 in Central Florida.
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton told the News Service of Florida that it is too early to know if the state will need to spend the entire $75 million allotted for the purchase. He said that the property is now out for appraisal.
In a 2022 news release, Dalfen described the property as one of few in Central Florida zoned for industrial use that had no wetlands or floodplain issues. At the time, Dalfen owned 16 other industrial properties in Florida and 67 buildings in the Southeast, the release said.
Leaders of Dalfen Industrial could not be reached for comment.
LifeScience Logistics is politically connected
A legislative committee prepared a report during the 2022 session on pandemic and emergency response. Based on that report, the Legislature passed a measure in that session directing the Department of Emergency Management to seek proposals for a warehouse facility, and the agency issued a contract to LifeScience Logistics.
In 2021, the Texas Company built a 100,000-square-foot warehouse on Galloway Road in Lakeland, designated as a storage site for the state’s planned program to import some prescription medications from Canada for distribution by Florida agencies. DeSantis has twice held news conferences at the facility to complain that the federal government had not approved Florida’s proposal.
The Food and Drug Administration in January authorized Florida to import certain drugs from Canada at lower prices than they are sold in the United States.
Florida has already paid $50.3 million to LifeScience Logistics, though the warehouse has seen little use. The state contract calls for the company to receive another $14.5 million a year through 2026, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Rather than following the typical process of seeking bids for the project, the Department of Emergency Management sought quotes and presented a report to the Legislature, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The Legislature then awarded the contract to LifeScience Logistics.
The company has contributed heavily to the Florida Republican Party and legislative leadership committees, the Sentinel reported. LifeScience Logistics has also paid Ballard Partners, a large lobbyist firm with ties to both DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, as much as $179,000 for its services over a three-year period, the Sentinel reported.
Emails showed that two lobbyists who formerly served as top aides to DeSantis engaged in discussions with legislators about the project, the Sentinel reported.
LifeScience Logistics did not respond to a request made through its website, and no one with the company could be reached by phone.
Julie Womble, Auburndale’s community development director, said she recently participated in a virtual session with officials from the Department of Emergency Management before the Cabinet meeting to discuss plans for the warehouse. Womble said she did not know any details beyond what the state has released.