More than five years after the city began reviewing plans for the project, Wawa Inc. announced the grand opening of its store at 3561 Spring Park Road will be Nov. 30.
The site is at southeast Emerson Street and Spring Park Road, east of Interstate 95.
The gas station and convenience store will open at 8 a.m., after a countdown starting at 7:45 a.m., with a community toast and ribbon-cutting at 8:30 a.m.
The first 100 customers will receive limited-edition “Wawa Coffee, Hoagies & Kindness” T-shirts, while supplies last. All customers can receive free coffee through Dec. 10.
Wawa will recognize first responders with its Hoagies for Heroes hoagie-building competition between the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and JSO Explorers to see who can build the most hoagies in three minutes.
Each team will receive $1,000 checks for their charity of choice.
General Manager David Tryon will lead a team of about 50 full- and part-time employees.
The store has a fresh food kitchen, coffee and specialty beverages, packaged goods and fuel services, among other amenities.
It offers mobile ordering, curbside pickup, delivery options and its Catering Online service.
Pennsylvania-based Wawa plans to open up to 76 new stores throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and Florida in 2023.
The Spring Park grand opening is the 56th store to open this year among the chain’s six-state operating area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C.
Wawa has more than 1,030 locations.
The chain also announced it will expand to the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
The Spring Park Road and Emerson Street store had been expected for years.
In September 2018, the city reviewed plans for the site.
In October 2018, the city issued concurrency reservation and conditional capacity availability statements for the Wawa store and six pumps with 12 fueling positions.
The city also rezoned the property in October 2018 for the project.
The Ferber Co. bought the property in February 2019 from multiple landowners and included a land lease agreement memorandum with Wawa Florida LLC.
The city issued permits in May 2019 for Realco Recycling Co. Inc. to demolish three buildings – two offices and a car wash – at the site for Wawa development.
Ferber sold the site in March 2021 to investors that include Klein Automotive Parts Inc. of New Jersey. Klein said it will be the landlord for the project.
The city issued a permit Sept. 22, 2022, for Triton Construction Group LLC of Tampa to build the 5,636-square-foot gas station and convenience store.