Renovations are nearing $2 million at Gateway Town Center in Brentwood to add two national retailers and upgrade the facade.
The city issued a permit Aug. 21 for Williams & Rowe Co. Inc. to remodel the facade for spaces 11, 12 and 12A that are being remodeled for off-price retailer Burlington at 5258 Norwood Ave.
The facade project is $200,000.
That comes after the city issued a permit July 26 for Williams & Rowe to build-out the 24,066-square-foot space for Burlington at a project cost of $750,000.
Next door to Burlington, the city issued a permit Aug. 9 for Williams & Rowe Co. to renovate a 9,321-square-foot retail space for teen merchandiser Five Below at a job cost of $963,482.
Those three projects total $1.9 million.
Landlord Jim Goldsmith said in April he expects the stores to open in the fall.
“You have to have a developer that has a relationship with tenants, and we do,” said Goldsmith, president and CEO of Gator Investments in Miami Lakes.
Gator Investments owns the property through Gateway Retail Center LLC.
Leasing brochures show Burlington and Five Below as “Coming Soon.”
Burlington confirmed its plans in a statement April 27.
“Our team is always looking for great locations to house a new Burlington. We look forward to opening this new location in Fall 2023, making this our 6th store in the area,” it said.
“In addition to great bargains, the store will also bring approximately 65-75 new jobs to the community.”
Burlington, based in Burlington, New Jersey, sells clothing and accessories for men, women, children and babies and also sells home goods and, reflecting its former name, coats. It was long known as Burlington Coat Factory.
Five Below Inc., based in Philadelphia, calls itself “the trend-right, high-quality, extreme-value retailer for tweens, teens and beyond.”
It sells merchandise at “$1 to $5 & beyond.”
Five Below has eight stores in Northeast Florida and is adding another at Southside Commons in the Regency area. Gateway would be its 10th.
Work tops $3.5 million with Roses, Hibbett
The 300,000-square-foot Gateway Town Center opened more than 60 years ago at the Golfair Boulevard and Norwood Avenue exits east along Interstate 95 and north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
It is north of Springfield and Downtown.
Goldsmith said more retailers have opened at Gateway in recent years, and he is working on bringing additional stores to lease the vacancies.
Roses Discount Stores opened in February, and Hibbett Sports is preparing to relocate into a larger space, Goldsmith said.
The city issued a permit in March 2022 for R.E. Crawford Construction of Sarasota to renovate 38,588 square feet of space for Roses at a cost of $1.3 million.
Goldsmith said Hibbett will more than double in size this fall when it relocates into a more than 10,000-square-foot “superstore.”
The city is reviewing a permit application for Hibbett Retail Inc. to build-out 11,610 square feet of space at an estimated cost of $300,000 in space 20.
Those two projects in addition to Burlington and Five Below boost the investment in renovations to $3.5 million.
Goldsmith said he also is negotiating with at least three more tenants: a fitness gym, a home improvement store and a national dollar store.
Gateway has struggled to attract retailers and faced the loss of a grocery store when Publix Super Markets Inc. announced in October 2019 it wouldn’t renew its lease after being there for 20 years.
In November 2019, Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie announced it would lease the 28,120-square-foot space, filling what the city feared would become a food desert.
Jacksonville City Council earmarked $3 million in 2018 to address food deserts in the city’s northwest area. From that, it unanimously approved an $850,000 taxpayer-backed grant in December 2019 to assist Winn-Dixie.
Publix closed Dec. 28, 2019, and Winn-Dixie opened in the spot in February 2020.
Winn-Dixie is being sold to Aldi, which has not said which stores it will convert to its format and which will remain operating as Winn-Dixie.