City utility JEA is reviewing an adjusted service availability determination request for a 2,786-square-foot, 75-seat Raising Cane’s on 1.34 acres of the former Regency Square Mall property at 9501 Arlington Expressway.
Civil engineer Kimley-Horn Jacksonville submitted the new request April 18 for the fast-food chicken finger chain on an outparcel at Arlington Expressway and Atlantic Boulevard.
The restaurant would seat 120 customers inside and out, up from 75 on a previous request in February.
A service availability request means a project is being explored and does not indicate a deal is done.
The site plan with both requests, dated Oct, 2, 2024, but slightly revised, shows a 2,786-square-foot restaurant with a double-drive-thru and an outdoor patio.
The map shows the site is where Atlantic Boulevard meets the Arlington Expressway in the front of the Arlington mall.
Mall sold
Blackwater Development LLC bought much of the mall property April 9 for $19.1 million and is rebranding it as The Nexus at Regency.
“The Regency Square Mall is the front door to Arlington, and we believe a reimagined site will serve as a catalyst for future revitalization in the community for years to come,” said Rurmell McGee, founder of Blackwater Development, in the April 9 announcement.
A site plan was not included. The project will need city, planning and building approvals.
Duval County property records show that the New York-based Regency Mall Realty LLC group, which sold to Blackwater Development, owned about 74 acres and about 980,200 square feet of retail space at Regency Square.
The bulk of the mall could be demolished for the redevelopment into multifamily uses, although Impact Church, the Dillard’s Clearance Center and the closed Sears store are separately owned.
Blackwater says that outparcels will be available for retail, bank and other uses.
JEA previously received a service availability determination request Jan. 29 for Raising Cane’s on the outparcel. It issued the letter Feb. 12, 2025, for a lower water flow and fewer seats, at 75.
Consolidated Development Services of Addison, Texas, was the applicant and agent.
“We are taking over a small portion of an existing mall parcel located at the address noted in this request,” the application said.
Building in Oakleaf
Raising Cane’s is building its first Jacksonville location at 8308 Merchants Way in Oakleaf Station at southwest Argyle Forest Boulevard and Merchants Way in Southwest Jacksonville.
The 29-year-old chain is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Its menu comprises box combos of chicken fingers, fries, coleslaw, Cane’s Sauce, Texas toast and drinks. The sandwich combo comprises three fingers on a toasted bun.
At Regency Square, a site plan indicates that Raising Cane’s could be on Outparcel 1, which is at a main entrance into the mall.
That entrance roadway would divide the mall parcels with Impact Church to the west and potential redeveloped property to the east, where the existing mall likely would be demolished.
Previously filed plans have indicated 11 outparcels wrapping around the southeast corner of the property at Atlantic Boulevard and Monument Road.
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is the second retailer to show up on site plans for outparcels at the property.
JEA previously received a service availability request for a proposed 5,200-square-foot convenience store and gas station on a 1.42-acre site that appears to be Outparcel 5.
It is called “CK Atlantic Blvd & Monument Rd,” hinting that it could be a Circle K.
Bohler Engineering of Orlando is the civil engineer.
The gas station site plan shows it along another proposed access road off of Atlantic Boulevard.
The description calls it “part of a master redevelopment.”
The outparcels are shown as 1.16 to 2.21 acres.
The existing Firestone auto care store is shown on the 1.23-acre corner Outparcel 7.
Based on the gas station and convenience store site plan dated Sept. 25, 2024, by EnVision Design & Engineering of Jacksonville, it appears that the eastern part of the mall would be redeveloped, although no specific uses are indicated.
While the plans do not specify demolition, the enclosed east mall is listed as “Main Parcel 2.”
The parking lot to the north is “Main Parcel 1.”
A roadway with a roundabout runs north from Regency Square Boulevard south to where the Arlington Expressway connects with Atlantic Boulevard.
Impact Church is northwest of the roundabout.
The 41.84-acre eastern site is at northwest Atlantic Boulevard and Monument Road.
The 35-acre site is west of that, north of the Arlington Expressway.