Pending a permit, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is preparing to add a Quest Diagnostics laboratory-testing space in its Regency area store as part of a partnership announced in June.
Quest Diagnostics and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said June 26 they will launch with about 15 Walmart stores in Florida and Texas by the end of 2017.
The co-branded sites will provide laboratory testing and could expand to include other basic health care services.
A pending building permit application shows that Quest will take almost 700 square feet of space in the Walmart Supercenter at 9890 Hutchinson Park Drive.
No contractor is listed for the $90,000 project to make interior alterations in existing retail office space in the store.
A Wal-Mart spokesman referred to the June news release when asked which Wal-Mart stores in Jacksonville might be renovated for a Quest lab.
Steve Rusckowski, Quest Diagnostics chairman, president and CEO, said in the June news release that by providing laboratory testing and health care services where people also shop, “we will make it easier for Walmart customers and their associates to get the quality diagnostic insights they need in convenient locations.”
George Riedl, senior vice president and president of Walmart Health and Wellness, said the company was working to make its stores a one-stop shop for customers’ everyday health and wellness needs.
Quest already operates 11 locations in the city of Jacksonville.
Quest, based in Madison, New Jersey, said it has been a strong advocate of the effort to provide patients with direct access to lab testing in Colorado and Missouri, as well as through its Sonora Quest Laboratories joint venture in Arizona.
It said more than 5 million patients track and access their lab results and health data through its myQuest by Care360 patient portal and mobile app.
The company said its other consumer offerings include genotyping test services on behalf of AncestryDNA, a service that identifies and quantifies an individual’s ethnic origins based on results of DNA testing.
ModernHealthcare.com said the partnership signals Wal-Mart’s continued expansion into health care.
It said the company expanded its efforts to place retail clinics at its stores in 2014 through collaboration with QuadMed, with a focus on preventive care and management of chronic conditions, which are some of the biggest drivers of rising health care costs.
It said Walmart and Quest have been trying to embrace more consumerism in health care as they look to alternative delivery settings such as retail clinics that aim to increase access, improve outcomes and lower costs.
Quest partnered with Safeway in 2015 to offer diagnostic test centers at their stores.
Bojangles’ Inc., based in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced three development agreements that will expand the brand in Florida, including in Jacksonville.
New franchisee Bo Scallions LLC plans multiple locations in the Jacksonville market, but Bojangles’ did not announce how many and did not return a call or email for comment.
There are two Bojangles’ in Jacksonville, one along Southside near Tinseltown and one near Beach and Hodges boulevards.
State corporate records show Bo Scallions LLC is led by Thad Joiner of Braselton, Georgia.
Two agreements with other franchisees cover the Tallahassee and Panama City areas in the Panhandle and the Daytona Beach market south of Jacksonville.
As of June 25, Bojangles’ had 740 systemwide restaurants, of which 314 were company-operated and 426 were franchised, primarily in the Southeastern United States.
AutoZone Stores LLC plans to build a store at Village East at Hodges at 13997 Beach Blvd., along Gerona Drive near Hodges Boulevard.
A pending permit shows two buildings on-site will be demolished and an almost 7,400-square-foot AutoZone will be built.
The structures coming down were built in 1953 and 1959, property records show.
No contractor is listed on the permit application.
AutoZone, which sells auto and light truck parts, chemicals and accessories, operates at least 15 Jacksonville locations.
It operates about 5,900 stores, including almost 5,400 stores in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Brightwork Real Estate Inc. wants to demolish the building at the southwest corner of Monument and McCormick roads for construction of a Wawa gas station and convenience store.
It applied for a permit to take down the two-story, 14,226-square-foot office building at 2500 Monument Road. The structure was built 30 years ago. Realco Recycling Co. Inc. is the demolition contractor.
The city also is reviewing a permit application for a $1.1 million construction project for the 5,636-square-foot Wawa, a canopy and a dumpster enclosure, on the 1.82-acre corner site.
Wawa will have 16 fueling positions there.
@MathisKb
(904) 356-2466