A decade after opening in South Jacksonville, the St. Johns Town Center could be gaining commercial and residential neighbors along Town Center and Gate parkways.
About 45 acres west of St. Johns Town Center is under contract for potential development into mixed uses, including retail stores, multifamily, office space and a hotel.
A.C. “Chip” Skinner III, one of the Skinner family members that own the property, said Friday the property is under contract. He referred questions to Cantrell & Morgan Inc., who he said is representing the buyer. CEO Chris Morgan did not return phone calls or emails late Friday or earning this morning.
Cantrell & Morgan had featured the development on its cantrell-morgan.com website, but the project information was removed this morning.
The Cantrell & Morgan website showed the “new mixed use development at St. Johns Town Center” and said it is a development by Preferred Growth Properties.
Preferred Growth Properties is a subsidiary of Birmingham, Ala.-based Books-A-Million and already owns the Mandarin South Shopping Center in Jacksonville, which it intends to redevelop.
Scott Kappler, Books-A-Million vice president of marketing, said Monday afternoon the company had no comment about the status of the deal.
A map on the Cantrell & Morgan site showed the property among three parcels.
A 15.7-acre site sits across Town Center Parkway from Mimi’s Café, Ameris Bank and a traffic light. An adjacent 20.58-acre site is across Town Center Parkway from Best Buy and Toys R Us, also at a traffic light. Both of those sites border the lake.
The third parcel, 9.29 acres, is just across Gate Parkway where Town Center Parkway connects at a traffic signal. That site is across Gate Parkway from CVS and Pollo Tropical. Details for that property show three retail buildings, a bank and a hotel, according to a preliminary site plan by England-Thims & Miller Inc.
Jacksonville-based Cantrell & Morgan is a full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm that offers tenant representation, leasing, acquisition and disposition, property management, REO, consulting and development services.
Preferred Growth Properties is one of the three business units of Books-A-Million, along with traditional book retailing and online retailing. The real estate business owns, develops and leases commercial retail estate.
Preferred Growth Properties focuses on generating revenue through developing and leasing commercial retail real estate for the purpose of earning rental income.
It owns and operates four shopping centers in Florence and Gardendale, Ala.; Fayetteville, N.C.; and Jacksonville, totaling 316,000 square feet. It bought Mandarin South in July.
Skinner said he is one of nine family members that own the property.
He said Friday the property was in due diligence and would not identify the buyer nor say how many acres were involved because he was under a confidentiality agreement.
The site sparked speculation last fall when the Skinner family cleared trees on some of the property.
Skinner said then that as part of an ongoing forest and timber management plan, mature trees were being harvested at southeast and southwest Gate Parkway and Butler Boulevard and that work would soon begin at the northwest area near the Town Center.
He said Friday the family has been thinning the timber holdings.
The Skinner family also was the dealmaker that resulted in development of the Town Center, which opened its first phase in March 2005. The family owned that property and sold it to the developers.
Now a retail and even tourist attraction, the Town Center features exclusive retailers in the market such as Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co., the Apple Store, Louis Vuitton and others.
The Town Center area also features luxury apartments and a suites hotel.
Cantrell & Morgan’s property details referred to the St. Johns Town Center and adjacent The Markets at Town Center, with more than 2 million square feet of retail development.
Meanwhile, Preferred Growth Properties says on its website, pgpcompanies.com, it intends to redevelop the Mandarin South center at 11700 San Jose Blvd., south of Interstate 295.
“The property will be redeveloped into a high end lifestyle center with the PGP signature style and top tier retail branding,” says the site.
It bought the 4.9-acre center in July through PGP Jacksonville LLC, which was created in June. Property records show it paid $4.7 million.
Records show the center comprises three buildings, totaling almost 70,000 square feet, developed in 1982.
The vacant anchor space formerly housed a Winn-Dixie at least 20 years ago. Mandarin South was about 64 percent vacant at the time of the purchase.
Cantrell & Morgan represented Preferred Growth in the sale and also handles leasing and property management for Mandarin South.
Chris Morgan said in July that the acquisition was an investment purchase by the private limited liability company and no specific tenants were in tow.
A Cantrell & Morgan property brochure on its cantrellmorgan.com website shows the redevelopment includes a new facade, roof and parking lot.
Space is available from 900 to 41,000 square feet.
Mandarin South features a Wood You Furniture and AutoZone, among other tenants.
A separate building adjacent to the center, anchored by Bailey’s Powerhouse Gym, is separately owned and was not involved in the sale.
@MathisKb
(904) 356-2466