Hillwood Development is frontrunner to develop Cecil Commerce Center

Hillwood Development Company has the edge in becoming the master developer of the recently privatized Cecil Commerce Center.

The city’s Professional Services Evaluation Committee is expected to vote Thursday on recommending that the Dallas company develop the 4,500 acres on the Westside. Hillwood, which leased 602,000-square-feet of space at West Point Trade Center in Jacksonville to Dr Pepper Snapple Group Inc. last year, beat out San Diego-based The Allen Group and Malvern, Penn.-based Liberty Property Trust, according to the committee’s agenda.

It isn’t known whether the world’s largest developer, ProLogis (NYSE:PLD), bid to develop the former U.S. Navy base.