Circle K might be joining the wave of gas stations and convenience stores expanding in the area with new properties.
It already operates about 70 locations in greater Jacksonville, and there are more than 130 Circle K stores within 50 miles of the city, according to CircleK.com.
Now it is considering new construction.
Circle K submitted an application for an almost 5,000-square-foot building at 8837 Beach Blvd., west of Southside Boulevard next to the Promenade Shopping Center. Ten fuel pumps are shown on the plan.
Richard Kingan, real estate development manager, said the project could be the first new construction since Circle K bought the Kangaroo Express stores. “But we are still in the permitting phase,” he said.
The St. Johns River Water Management District is reviewing an application for an environmental resource permit. The engineering consultant is Bowman Consulting of Melbourne.
Area Kangaroo Express stores have been rebranded as Circle K following last year’s acquisition of The Pantry Inc. by Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.
Couche-Tard, based in Quebec, integrated The Pantry, which operated Kangaroo Express, into its system.
The 2.02-acre Beach Boulevard site was occupied by a single-family home. The city issued a demolition permit in August to take down the structure.
No rendering, other than a site plan, was included for the proposed store.
A glimpse of what it might look like was described in an application filed in Macon, Ga., for a Circle K there.
Macon.com reported in September the 5,040-square-foot store with 10 fuel stations would have a canopy over the pumps. The exterior of the building will consist of stone and brick veneer as well as stucco.
In Jacksonville, Circle K joins Gate Petroleum, First Coast Energy, RaceTrac Petroleum and Wawa as they add gas stations and convenience stores with increasingly personalized options, such as touchscreen food ordering and speedy car washes.
$2.5M project brings Regency staff together
Jacksonville-based Regency Centers Corp. will group its more than 180 employees into the 26th through 28th floors of the Wells Fargo Center Downtown.
The city issued a permit Monday for Dav-Lin Interior Contractors Inc. to renovate almost 48,640 square feet of office space on those floors for Regency Centers at a job cost of $2.54 million.
Spokesman Eric Davidson said Regency now occupies space on the second, 26th and 27th floors in the tower at 1 Independent Drive W.
Regency Centers is a self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. It owns, operates and develops grocery-anchored and neighborhood and community shopping centers.
Its portfolio of 311 retail properties comprises more than 42.3 million square feet of space in the U.S. It has developed 222 centers since 2000.
The availability of the 28th story at Wells Fargo Center allows the company to bring the employees onto adjacent floors, “while improving our surroundings and amenities,” Davidson said.
“As Downtown Jacksonville continues to grow, we feel it is important to invest in our people and this community,” he said.
Gensler is the architect, he said.
Chase relocating Town Center bank
Chase Bank wants to relocate its St. Johns Town Center inline branch to a new standalone building at The Strand at Town Center, according to documents filed with the St. Johns River Water Management District.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. wants to build an almost 3,600-square-foot bank at 4990 Town Center Parkway. The office now is in unit 113 in a shopping center at 4668 Town Center Drive.
The city is reviewing a permit application for the $1.1 million construction job. No contractor is listed.
The new location is across Town Center Parkway from the existing site.
Chase is the second Town Center tenant to indicate it will relocate into The Strand. Best Buy said it will move from The Markets at Town Center to The Strand.
Preferred Growth Properties is developing The Strand and The Crossing at Town Center. Land is cleared and construction appears imminent.
3 restaurants opening at Beach and Hodges
At least three restaurants are confirmed for a building constructed on the site where the GFS Marketplace intended to open.
Pita Pit, Jersey Mike's Subs and Your Pie have gone public in their intentions to open at the northwest Beach and Hodges boulevards retail center.
AD Development LLC built two structures, totaling 14,400 square feet on the roughly 2-acre site at 13423 Beach Blvd.
Your Pie says on its website it is “coming soon” there while the city is reviewing permits for Pita Pit and Jersey Mike's Subs to build-out space there, too.
Pita Pit will use 1,921 square feet and Jersey Mike's Subs will need 1,300 square feet, permit applications show.
That still leaves several units available.
A permit was approved in July 2014 for an almost $16 million GFS Marketplace, part of Gordon Food Service, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based restaurant supplier that operates marketplace stores.
The store wasn’t built and the developer sold the property to AD Development LLC of Jacksonville Beach.
AD Development took out a permit in April to build the shell structure at a construction cost of $1.4 million.
Retail notes
• The iLoveKickboxing gym intends to open in mid-December at 12220 Atlantic Blvd. in the BJ’s shopping center.
• Royware USA Home Products LLC, doing business as Faenza, will join International Décor Outlet in the west wing of Regency Square Mall. The city issued a certificate of use for the home décor retail store to open in unit 505. Faenza is affiliated with Roytile and together they will sell fixtures and tile. Lumen L.E.D., which sells lighting, also will lease in the wing. Captain’s Catch Seafood Restaurant and Sports Bar intends to open in the former Houlihan’s space in IDO’s wing, too.
• Make it 18 McDonald’s restaurants in Duval County that are adding customer kiosks for its Signature Crafted program. The McDonald’s at 454 Cassat Ave. is the latest to apply to the city to add two of the self-order and self-pay machines. It’s an $18,000 project. Eventually, most of the 52 Duval McDonald’s restaurants will operate the kiosks.
• Magic Ice Cream intends to open a shop at 2728 Park St. It’s a 1,500-square-foot build-out.
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