By Karen Brune Mathis, [email protected]
Work is underway to redevelop the Mandarin South Shopping Center, including building-out stores for Earth Fare and PetSmart.
Tijuana Flats restaurant also would like to open in the center.
Plans filed with permit applications show Earth Fare and PetSmart will open at the 11700 San Jose Blvd. retail plaza.
Earth Fare spokesman Mark Malinowski said the Asheville, N.C.-based company was “very excited to continue our growth in Jacksonville” and would share more details later about its new location.
The grocer opened its first area market in August 2014 in the Atlantic North center at Kernan and Atlantic boulevards. Earth Fare’s chief financial officer said then it wanted to open two to three more stores, including in Mandarin.
At Mandarin South, which is south of Interstate 295 at San Jose Boulevard and Loretto Road, much of the vacant space is being cleared out. Three tenants remain.
AutoZone continues to operate near the Earth Fare space. Planet Beach and The Poochie Spa will move from the south end of the center to the north, near AutoZone.
PGP previously filed site plans for Mandarin South that outlined a 27,550-square-foot “natural grocer” and a junior anchor next to it of 17,730 square feet, both unidentified.
Plans filed this week show both new tenants in the middle of the shopping plaza.
A PetSmart spokeswoman said last week it planned to open a store at Mandarin South in fall 2017. It would lease the junior anchor space.
Nine building-permit applications for the center filed this week are only for interior demolition of some of the small units and the roughly 45,000-square-foot building.
That space had been a Winn-Dixie store years ago and will be renovated and expanded for Earth Fare and PetSmart to operate side by side.
Interior demolition and rehab is shown at a job cost of $160,000 for the smaller units, which range up to 2,809 square feet, and $250,000 for the two anchor spaces.
In all, the interior demolition work totals $410,000 for almost 60,900 square feet of space. The total center will be more than 73,500 square feet upon completion, plans show.
Tenant build-out typically will be permitted separately. No contractor is specified.