An artist’s rendering of the renovated property at 9600 San Jose Blvd.
Sun-Ray Cinema won’t be the only tenant at the former Kmart store on San Jose Boulevard.
Property owner Ash Properties intends to renovate the building at 9600 San Jose Blvd. for several large and possibly a few smaller tenants.
“It’ll be a great addition to the neighborhood,” said Elaine Ashourian, a principal with the Jacksonville-based commercial real estate development company.
The property is in the Beauclerc area of Mandarin.
The closed Kmart will be enlarged and divided for tenants. The site’s parking lot, lighting and landscaping will be improved.
Ashourian and Ash Properties Chief Operating Officer Randall Whitfield declined to identify the potential tenants until leases are signed.
Conceptual site plans indicate possibilities such as dining, groceries and home goods, although Ashourian and Whitfield emphasize those placeholder names aren’t necessarily accurate.
Through Atlantic Mini-Storage of America Inc., Ash Properties paid almost $4.39 million for the property Dec. 1, 2015.
The store was built 40 years ago. Kmart closed in 2016 but continued to lease the property until parent company Sears Holdings Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2018.
Ash Properties could not redevelop the property until the lease ended.
That time has come.
The 105,737-square-foot building sits on 11.5 acres on the west side of San Jose Boulevard. Ash Properties intends to expand it to 115,000 square feet.
Sun-Ray Cinema, an independent two-screen theater in Five Points, announced Sept. 28 on its Facebook page it would expand with a five-screen theater into the Mandarin building.
Ashourian and Whitfield said Sun-Ray, whose lease was not signed as of Monday, would take less than 30,000 square feet. That leaves about 85,000 square feet for more tenants.
“We have some great prospects,” Whitfield said.
He plans for an anchor tenant of 35,000 to 40,000 square feet and three to four smaller “synergistic” tenants that complement one another.
Whitfield expects tenants of 16,000 to 40,000 square feet with some spaces of 2,000 to 5,000 square feet.
Ash Properties also can develop a 1.5-acre outparcel toward the front of the site with a building of 2,500 to 7,500 square feet for one to three tenants.
Whitfield said Ash Properties is dealing with several potential users for that building. A drive-thru is possible.
The outparcel building would be a build-to-suit, meaning Ash Properties retains ownership of the land.
The Zaxby’s restaurant along San Jose Boulevard in front of the site is separately owned and not part of the development.
Ashourian and Whitfield said Ash Properties soon will file for permitting reviews. They expect work to begin upon approvals with possible completion by early 2021.
“There’s a lot of work to do on the site,” Whitfield said.
The development has not been branded.
Ashourian and Whitfield said that names on the plans don’t mean that type of tenant will lease there.
So don’t look for “Designer Warehouse,” “Morton’s Market,” “Broadway Café” and “Cinema Moderne.”
The cinema, presumably Sun-Ray, is on the northern end of the building.
Ash Properties wants to elevate the profile of the location along San Jose Boulevard. A traffic light provides access at the Old St. Augustine Road intersection.
“We’re going to be beautifying that corner,” Ashourian said.
Ashourian and Whitfield declined to provide a cost estimate of the project.
“It’ll be worth the investment,” Ashourian said.
Sun-Ray said on Facebook that it is “on the path to a second Sun-Ray,” in Mandarin. The post included an interior seating plan for the five-screen theater.
Sun-Ray said on the Facebook post that when the Mandarin location opens, it would renovate one of its Five Points screening rooms and it would remain open through the renovation.
