Construction was approved Friday for what could be Jacksonville's first Walmart Neighborhood Market.
The City approved a building permit for J. Raymond Construction, based in Longwood, to renovate the former Food Lion supermarket at Merrill Station in Arlington for a Walmart Neighborhood Market. It is a $1.59 million project.
In October, the Daily Record reported that two Walmart Neighborhood Market stores, which are Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s smaller grocery-store formats, were closer to construction. The developer had bought both shopping centers, anchored by former Food Lions, and the permit applications were submitted.
In Arlington, the Walmart Neighborhood Market is planned in the 39,665-square-foot grocery store in the Merrill Station shopping center at 8011 Merrill Road.
In Mandarin, the market is planned in a 38,640-square-foot store in the Crossroads at Mandarin center at 10550 Old St. Augustine Road at a construction cost of almost $1.55 million.
The permit applications say the projects are interior remodels for new grocery stores to take over previous grocery spaces.
Developer Gatlin Development Co. Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, through GDC Jax 3 LLC, bought the shopping centers Sept. 7 for a total of $8.8 million and took out a mortgage Sept. 11 for $17.6 million from Ladder Capital Finance LLC.
GDC Jax 3 LLC paid $3.6 million for Merrill Station and $5.2 million for Crossroads.
Meanwhile, a third Duval County Food Lion at San Pablo Road and Atlantic Boulevard also has been shown on plans as a Walmart Neighborhood Market but was not sold to Gatlin. The San Pablo store is shown as 49,433 square feet and plans indicate Wal-Mart Stores East L.P. as the developer.
CPH Engineers Inc. is shown as the engineer for all three market locations.
Sources have said Wal-Mart plans five to nine Neighborhood Markets in Northeast Florida. The stores typically are 42,000 square feet in size, a quarter of the size of the average 185,000-square-foot Supercenter, according to Wal-Mart.
Meanwhile developers plan more Save-A-Lot, Dollar General, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree stores, too.
In fact, the Daily Record reported last week a pending building permit shows Dollar Tree Stores intends to open a 10,423-square-foot location at Merrill Station, near the Walmart Neighborhood Market site. Build-out for Dollar Tree is shown at $90,000. The job is out for bid.
Merrill Station is near a newly built Dollar General store that recently opened at Merrill Road and Wedgefield Boulevard.
More plans appear for Nordstrom Rack
Nordstrom Rack's possible plans to open at the Markets of Town Center have shown up at the St. Johns River Water Management District, as well as at the City.
The Daily Record reported Friday the City was reviewing plans for a possible single-story, 35,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack near the site where a two-level, 124,000-squuare-foot full-line Nordstrom will be built in the St. Johns Town Center.
Pinehill Markets Operating LLC of Atlanta, developer of the Markets at Town Center, submitted an application Wednesday to the water management district.
The application covers Outparcels 8-11. Outparcel 8 is occupied by Brio Tuscan Grille. Parcel 9 will feature a 4,000-square-foot building; Parcel 10 is shown with an unidentified 7,659-square-foot restaurant; and Parcel 11 is the Nordstrom Rack.
Nordstrom Rack is the off-price division of Nordstrom Inc., the Seattle-based upscale retailer that plans to open its first Jacksonville store in fall 2014 in St. Johns Town Center.
Nordstrom spokesman Colin Johnson said Thursday evening the Seattle-based company had no information to announce and would not confirm a Rack store for the Markets at Town Center.
"We are hopeful everything can come together in a way that we could take care of more customers in Jacksonville and we are keeping our eyes open for opportunities as it relates to the Rack," Johnson said.
Johnson said it was "super-exciting to announce our full-line store and we will get under way in fall 2014. We continue to look for ways to better serve customers throughout the First Coast region," he said.
It's common for a Rack store to operate in the same city as a Nordstrom. Johnson, saying he was not responding to the question of a Rack opening in the Markets at Town Center, said "it's very common that we have Racks in close proximity to where we have a full-line store."
The Jacksonville-based England, Thims & Miller engineering firm is shown on site plans as the Nordstrom Rack project engineer.
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