As national grocery chains open and close around Jacksonville, locally owned Rowe’s IGA Supermarkets is renovating in Deerwood and Northwest Jacksonville for its sixth and seventh stores.
The city issued permits this month for Williams & Rowe Co. Inc. to build-out both.
Williams & Rowe will renovate a former Winn-Dixie store at 9866 Baymeadows Road in the Deerwood area at a cost of almost $1.4 million. That city issued the permit Feb. 3.
It is next to the Deerwood Marketplace shopping area.
The store was built in 1986 and closed in 2018 as part of the Southeastern Grocers Inc. bankruptcy restructuring. Winn-Dixie is a Southeastern Grocers banner.
Rowe’s IGA Supermarkets CEO Rob Rowe said previously he will invest $4.5 million to retrofit the space. He bought the closed store a year ago.
Like other Rowe’s stores, it will be full-service but without a pharmacy.
In Northwest Jacksonville, Williams & Rowe will renovate the former Harveys Supermarket at 1012 Edgewood Ave. N. in Commonwealth Shopping Center at a cost of $579,934.
The city issued the permit Feb. 20.
In November, City Council approved a $750,000 grant to partially finance renovations to open a Rowe’s IGA Supermarket in the former Harveys Supermarket, also a Southeastern Grocers banner, that sat empty for almost two years.
The bill provides taxpayer-backed incentives to Commonwealth landlord Saglo Development Corp. of Miami to partially finance a $3.5 million renovation of the 49,000-square-foot store with Rowe’s.
Rowe said in October he anticipated a $5 million total investment in the project. He expects the landlord will invest $1 million and Rowe will spend the remaining $4 million.
Rowe said there isn’t a full-service grocery store within 2 to 3 miles of the location.
Rowe’s IGA Supermarkets, operates five stores in west, northwest, north and south Jacksonville and in Orange Park. The IGA brand serves independent grocery chains.
Southeastern Grocers closed the Deerwood Winn-Dixie and Commonwealth Harveys, along with more, in spring 2018 as it restructured under bankruptcy laws.
