The Ferber Company Inc. announced Feb. 6 it will develop the 70-acre Durbin Creek Crossing in St. Johns County to include the county’s second Aldi grocery store.
In addition to the 19,000-square-foot Aldi, tenants include ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, First Florida Credit Union and Tire Kingdom.
Tenants are expected to open by fall 2021.
The location is at southwest Race Track Road and St. Johns Parkway in northwest St. Johns County.
Ponte Vedra Beach-based Ferber said it completed land entitlements and rezoning in 2019, taking the project “one step closer to construction by early summer.”
Durbin Creek Crossing includes 10 outparcels of 0.79 to 2.56 acres each that could generate up to 250,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and services.
Ferber, a privately held real estate development and investment company, said St. Johns County is home to the highest median household incomes in the state.
Ferber Vice President Tom Mundy said the company saw an opportunity to complement the nearby development of The Pavilion at Durbin Park.
Mundy, vice president of retail development services, said the market already has a traditional power center along with several grocery-anchored neighborhood centers.
“Once Aldi locked-in, our leasing momentum attracted additional outparcel concepts that together with the multifamily community are creating an attractive mixed-use project for the northwest sector of St Johns County,” he said in the release.
The property includes about 30 acres for apartment development, a 6.5-acre pond and 22 acres of wetlands.
The first Aldi in St. Augustine opened in 2014.
Mundy said the Florida 9B interchange and The Pavilion at Durbin Park “made for the ideal site to support this type of development.”
He said Ferber is negotiating with other national retailers and hopes to name additional tenants soon.
Teresa Grashof, Ferber vice president of leasing, said four remaining parcels are well suited “for quick service, fast casual or sit-down restaurant concepts and medical offices, particularly given the expansive frontage and ease of access from Race Track Road and St. Johns Parkway.”
The Colliers International team of Nancy Sumner and Katy Figg, directors of retail services, is the exclusive leasing adviser for the commercial portion of Durbin Creek Crossing.
Lawyer Ellen Avery-Smith with the Rogers Towers firm represented Ferber to obtain land use and zoning designations.
Mundy said that in addition to 2,500 new residences in nearby Durbin Crossing, more than 25,000 homes are under construction or planned over the next few years between Interstate 295 and Florida 16. He said more than 90,000 consumers with a median household income of nearly $100,000 live within 5 miles of the site.
Jacksonville-based England-Thims & Miller is the project’s civil engineer.
