As the city completes demolition of The Jacksonville Landing, some of the Downtown riverfront shopping center’s former tenants have found a new home at Regency Square Mall.
That includes First Coast Cookies, a new venture for Michelle Rhoades, owner of Hana & Her Sister jewelry.
Instead of reopening that business at Regency, she chose to set up First Coast Cookies in Regency’s food court.
Coastal Cookies didn’t plan to reopen elsewhere after the Landing closed, so Rhoades made an offer on their cookie equipment. She bought the equipment and in November, opened at Regency.
As the 32-year-old Landing closed in on its final days in operation in May, Rhoades spoke with the owners of Coastal Cookies, which was one of the Landing’s original tenants. She saw how successful the store was and wanted to start her own.
The Regency store opened Nov. 23. First Coast Cookies sells cookies, cookie cakes, hot dogs and coffee. Prices range from $2.75 for a quarter-pound of cookies to $11 for a pound.
“When I was in the jewelry industry, it was great,” Rhoades said. “It brought people joy, but it only could bring so many people joy because I’m selling diamonds and gold, so it’s expensive stuff and not everybody can afford it. But everybody can afford a cookie.”
Accentuate Boutique, Aly Cat and The Art Center Cooperative also moved into the Arlington mall during the summer and fall. Regency is at 9501 Arlington Expressway.
The former Landing business owners said they moved to Regency for several reasons, including lower rent compared with the rest of the city, feedback from their customers at the Landing and their belief the mall will improve its occupancy.
“We’ve been together for so long and we’ve seen each other,” Rhoades said. “So it’s like we all just kind of moved together.”
Rhoades said with the Regency food court filling up, and Impact Church building-out space in the mall, she saw Regency Square as a promising retail center and decided to lease space there.
Impact Church announced in 2016 it purchased the former Belk store in the mall and would relocate its operations there in 2020.
Accentuate Boutique moved to the mall in May, and The Art Center Cooperative moved there in July.
"We see the vision in where the mall is heading," said Michael Cobb, owner of Accentuate Boutique, which sells clothing and accessories for women and men.
Alyson Peder, owner of Aly Cat, moved her store to the mall at the end of July.
Aly Cat sells sandblasted art, rhinestone T-shirts, jewelry and other accessories.
Peder said she opened at Regency because of the lower cost of rent and client suggestions. She said she saved $700 to $800 a month by leasing at Regency versus the average storefront and with a larger space than before.
She said so far, she preferred the Landing to Regency Square, mostly because there was more foot traffic coming through Downtown, especially tourists. She said the JCPenney department store brings most customers into the mall.
“It’s a little slow, but things are picking up,” she said. “They’re trying to do things with the mall.”
Ed Malesky, president of the Art Center Cooperative, said traffic in the mall is slow, but he and the cooperative are working to change that. At the Landing, Malesky said people came to the store from Downtown events and conferences.
“That doesn’t happen here,” Malesky said. “So what we have to do here is we have to have events. So our show openings and our featured artist receptions and all of that is the way we’re trying to build traffic here.”
Accentuate Boutique is also planning on holding events in the mall, similar to ones they held at the Landing. The store hosted a fashion show in the mall in November.
In March, Regency Square Mall owners signed a leasing agreement with Murphy Land and Retail Services to help fill and market the shopping center. Their initial plans included attracting a health club, skating rink, nightclub, school, medical clinic or offices to help redevelop the mall.
Peder also is hopeful that Impact Church will help to revitalize the shopping center.
“Right now it’s not ideal, but it will be,” Peder said.
Cobb said his store had a strong following before coming to the mall, which has helped the store perform "extremely well" in the mall.
Rhoades said the food court sees more traffic than she saw at the Landing. She’s hopeful about the mall’s future, and what owners are doing to bring in more foot traffic.
“A lot of things are happening and a lot of things are changing,” Rhoades said. “I think it’s going to be back to life soon.”
