Preferred Materials buys Naples mining land

Preferred Materials Inc., a Lutz-based asphalt and construction materials company with operations throughout the state, has spent $22 million to purchase a 425-acre site in Naples, property records indicate.

The company bought the site, known as the Brown mine, from a trust controlled by James A. Brown Jr., records show.

The transaction represents one of the largest land deals in Southwest Florida thus far in 2019.

Preferred Materials, which in all operates 16 asphalt plants and 32 “ready mixed” concrete and other plants in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, did not return several telephone calls for comment on the purchase.

In Florida, the paving and building materials company maintains operations in Orlando; Winter Park; Daytona Beach; Jacksonville; Panama City; Lutz; Tampa; Fort Myers; and Odessa, according to its website.

It could not be determined whether the company intends to maintain or shift operations from its current Southwest Florida regional office in Fort Myers, at 18080 Green Meadow Road, in the wake of the Collier County purchase.

Preferred Materials has been among the most active suppliers of building materials in recent years throughout the Gulf Coast.

It has provided material for the 26-story Seaglass Bonita Bay condominium tower, in Bonita Springs; concrete for the state’s first “diverging diamond” highway interchange at Interstate 75 and University Parkway, on the border of Sarasota and Manatee counties; material for a 25-story condo project on Harbour Island, in Tampa; concrete for a recently completed Golisano Children’s Hospital in Fort Myers; and pavement for Amazon’s 1.2 million-square-foot fulfillment center in Ruskin, among other projects.