Whole Foods Market proposes to renovate its only Jacksonville location, updating much of the Mandarin store’s food-service areas in an almost $643,000 project.
The city is reviewing plans for the project to include replacing the bakery, deli and pizza service cases; replacing and installing a new hot bar, salad bar and soup bar, including refrigeration, plumbing and electrical service; and renovating the scullery with a new cooler and equipment.
The plans include renovating the employee breakroom with new finishes and furniture.
O’Barr Construction LLC of Bowie, Maryland, is the contractor listed on the permit application. SBLM Architects PC of Miami is the architect.
Built in 2008, the almost 51,000-square-foot supermarket is at 10601 San Jose Blvd. in the Mandarin Landing shopping center.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. bought Whole Foods Inc. in August for $13.7 billion and has been making changes.
Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods operated about 470 stores in the United States and United Kingdom at the time of the deal.
The Whole Foods media contact has not responded to several emails for comment about that store or the grocery store planned in Jacksonville Beach at the Pablo Plaza shopping center.
In 2015, landlord Equity One announced an $18 million makeover of the center to include a PetSmart as a junior anchor. PetSmart has opened there.
Equity One has since merged with Jacksonville-based Regency Centers Corp.
Equity One bought the property, which was built in 1973, for $19.3 million in 2010. The 146,491-square-foot shopping center is at the intersection of Third Street and 23rd Avenue South. Anchor tenants include Marshalls, HomeGoods and Office Depot.
Office Depot sublets its 34,400 square feet of space from Publix Super Markets Inc., which holds a lease that expires in November 2018, an Equity One report said in 2015.
Publix moved out of that space in 1995 when it opened a store in the South Beach Parkway center south of Butler Boulevard along Florida A1A.
Whole Foods Market announced in May 2015 it had signed a lease to open a store in Pablo Plaza but not until 2021, although it would be able to move in once the Publix lease expires.
Regency Centers owns Mandarin Landing and Pablo Plaza.
Regency Centers Communications Manager Eric Davidson said the company did not have any details to share about the Whole Foods renovations at Mandarin Landing.
“The anchors do this from time to time and usually incorporate their newest additions that line up with the rest of their store strategies,” he said.
Davidson said he could not provide details about Whole Foods at Pablo Plaza. He said the Publix lease ends in November and the Whole Foods lease was signed.
“But we are still putting the pieces together for the future,” he said.
