Southeastern Grocers announced May 27 it would add eight Winn-Dixie stores in Florida before the end of the year, including one in Jacksonville.
Winn-Dixie will fill the space of a former Earth Fare store at 11700 San Jose Blvd. in Mandarin. It will lease a 28,000-square-foot space in the Mandarin South Shopping Center.
It will close its store across the street at 11701 San Jose Blvd. in the Medical and Merchants Center of Mandarin. Operations and associates from that store will transfer to the new store, said Kaley Shaffer, Southeastern Grocers senior manager of consumer communications and community affairs.
A timeline for the move hasn't been set.
“Winn-Dixie is deeply rooted in Florida, and we are proud to expand our footprint and enhance our presence throughout the state,” Southeastern Grocers President and CEO Anthony Hucker said in a news release.
“In addition to our new store that we opened earlier this year, we look forward to introducing eight more new appealing stores with fresh, quality products at the right price to deliver a shopping experience our associates, customers and communities can always count on,” he said. Winn-Dixie opened in February in Gateway Town Center.
The seven other Winn-Dixie locations are spaces previously occupied by Lucky’s Market and Earth Fare stores. Winn-Dixie will open in Boynton Beach, Fort Myers, Gainesville, Lakewood Ranch, Lake Mary, Melbourne and Viera.
Earth Fare announced in February it would close all its stores, including three in Northeast Florida. Its Mandarin location opened in 2017.
An Earth Fare spokeswoman said neither of the two remaining Earth Fare location leases had been sold, and were returned to the landlord in bankruptcy.
Lucky’s Market announced it would close most of its stores in January, including two it operated in Northeast Florida. Publix Super Markets agreed to buy the lease of the Lucky’s at 580 Atlantic Blvd. in Neptune Beach.
Each new Winn-Dixie store will be remodeled to “provide a wide product selection,” the release said.
Southeastern Grocers will offer jobs to former Earth Fare employees to staff the store.
The grocer plans to hold a grand opening for the store this year.
