By Karen Brune Mathis, [email protected]
By next year this time, ground should be broken and likely some tenants announced for the first phase of the 1,600-acre Durbin Park in northern St. Johns County, expected to bring jobs, stores and services to area residents.
“It’s huge,” said Geneva Henderson, executive vice president of Lat Purser & Associates in Jacksonville and a retail property manager and broker.
Durbin Park is designed for about 2.4 million square feet of retail space, 2.8 million square feet of office space, 999 multifamily housing units and about 350 hotel rooms.
The full project is planned over four phases. Build-out could take 20 years, but the first phase of 80 acres may open in the first quarter of 2018.
The total retail space is almost twice the size of St. Johns Town Center.
“It’s finally happening,” said Frank Gatlin III, whose Gatlin Development Co. Inc. is a partner in Durbin Park with Gate Petroleum Co. Gatlin Development is a retail developer and a real estate investment company.
Gatlin said he and Gate anticipate “bringing many services and restaurants and uses that St. Johns County is missing.”
Count jobs, too.
Melissa Glasgow, economic development director for St. Johns County, said Wednesday that Durbin Park will generate jobs throughout the project.
And the office park will position Durbin for targeted industries, especially corporate headquarters.
“The interest that I’ve heard about represents several companies and several thousand jobs,” she said, guarding her comments to avoid speculation about which companies might be looking.
Jacksonville-based Gate and Gatlin announced plans last month for Durbin Park, along Interstate 95 at the Florida 9B/County Road 2209 interchange under construction.
The project includes a long-announced Bass Pro Shops and hundreds of acres of stores, housing, hotels, offices and entertainment in one of the largest developments in Northeast Florida.
Gate said Durbin Park is one of the largest, most diversified mixed-use developments in Northeast Florida. The company owns the land.
“There’s a lot of energy right now focused on St. Johns County that can bring positive constructive growth to the area residents while making substantial contributions to the county’s financial resources,” said Ken Wilson, president of GL National, a division of Gate.
Gatlin will lead the retail development as Gate’s joint venture partner.
The first phase is an 80-acre parcel west of the interchange.
It will include about 700,000 square feet of retail space anchored by at least three big-box retailers, described as a home-improvement center, membership club and department store.
Plans also show a Gate convenience store.
Gatlin declined to identify the tenants pending corporate approval from them.
He said there would be about 150,000 square feet of junior anchor stores, ranging from 15,000 to 50,000 square feet.
There also would be smaller shops for tenants such as hair salons, ice cream shops, small clothing stores and other food, goods and services.
Bass Pro Shops will be in the second phase, planned east of the interchange and next to I-95.
The store announced in 2012 it would open a Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World by mid-2014, but that was delayed.
The second and part of the third phase will be an approximately 1.5-million-square-foot lifestyle center with stores, a theater, commercial space, multifamily development and a 150,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops.
That should follow the first phase by a year to 18 months.
Wilson said the lifestyle community will include high-end retailers, hotels, residential and office space in an urban-style design. It will provide more services close to workers and residents for their convenience.
Plans also show signature restaurants, a woodland preserve and an entertainment area with a theater, an event lawn with a video wall and a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round.
The rest of the third phase and the fourth will be an office park.
Wilson said the first phase of Durbin Park is “only a small beginning” of what could resemble Gate’s efforts with Deerwood Park in Southside and the resulting growth that followed.