A Mandarin store where shoppers once found Blue Light Specials may give way to the bright orange signage of The Home Depot after action by the Jacksonville City Council on May 14.
Council voted 17-0 in favor of rezoning the site of a long-closed Kmart at 9600 San Jose Blvd. to Planned Unit Development to allow the home improvement retailer to build a 133,123-square-foot store that includes a 25,225-square-foot garden center.
Council member Will Lahnen abstained. Council member Raul Arias was not present.
The Home Depot, based in Atlanta, proposes to build a 132,975-square-foot store at a construction cost of $8 million at 9600 San Jose Blvd.
The Kmart store will be demolished.
The city is reviewing a building-permit application for the project. No contractor is listed. WD Partners of Dublin, Ohio, is the architect. Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. of Vero Beach is the civil engineer.
The Home Depot proposes to build a 106,367-square-foot store with a 25,074-square-foot garden center and other space. The site is 11.64 acres along San Jose Boulevard, west of the intersection with Old St. Augustine Road.
The site is between Sunbeam and Kori roads and is accessible by San Jose Boulevard.
According to documentation filed with the rezoning request, Ordinance 2024-0194, the store would produce an additional 2,127 car trips per day on San Jose Boulevard, which is at 78% vehicle capacity at the site.
The Jacksonville Planning Commission voted 7-0 in favor of the rezoning, and the Land Use and Zoning Committee also approved it on a unanimous vote.
Duval County Property Appraiser records show the building was developed in 1979.
Through Atlantic Mini-Storage of America Inc., Ash Properties paid almost $4.39 million for the property Dec. 1, 2015.
Kmart closed there 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 said in October 2019 that it intended to renovate the building for several large and possibly a few smaller tenants.
