C&S Wholesale Grocers leases the 1.2 million-square-foot, 200-acre distribution center campus it is closing in Baldwin, west of Jacksonville.
Winn-Dixie Properties LLC developed the campus in 2000-01 at 15500 W. Beaver St. and sold it in 2013 for almost $100 million as part of a sale-leaseback transaction with Charlotte, North Carolina-based American Realty Capital.
The high-profile campus is north of Interstate 10 and signs announce it as Winn-Dixie.
It has a lengthy and complicated sale history.
Duval County property records show the property owner as ARC WDJKVFL001 LLC, in care of Southeastern Grocers at Prominence Parkway in the Baymeadows area of South Jacksonville.
American Realty Capital Partners transitioned in 2015 to become VEREIT Inc., which then merged in 2021 into Realty Income Corp., based in San Diego.
That is the address shown on county records for the property ownership.
The 2013 sale came after Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie merged with Greenville, South Carolina-based Bi-Lo Holdings in 2012 to form Southeastern Grocers and based the headquarters in Jacksonville.
In 2013, the merged company announced that C&S Wholesale Grocers Inc. would provide warehouse, transportation and most procurement services for all Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo stores by the end of that year.
C&S had provided the services for Bi-Lo stores since 2005.
As part of the agreement, employees in Winn-Dixie’s six distribution centers and the functions that supported them became employees of C&S.
The company did not announce how many employees would transition to C&S.
C&S and Southeastern Grocers
A group of private investors led by Southeastern Grocers LLC CEO Anthony Hucker and C&S Wholesale Grocers announced Feb. 7 it acquired Southeastern Grocers and 170 remaining Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, from Aldi.
Southeastern Grocers had sold about 400 stores to Aldi in March 2024.
After the February acquisition, the company began restructuring its operations, but did not announce how that would affect staffing and operations.
C&S Wholesale Services told the state and the Town of Baldwin on April 30 that it will close the Baldwin operation starting in July and lay off 490 workers.
Lauren La Bruno, C&S Wholesale Grocers senior vice president of communications and marketing, said in a statement May 2 that “it is a long-standing practice of C&S Wholesale Grocers not to comment on questions concerning our structure.”
It says that “C&S remains steadfast in our transformation strategy to drive long-term growth.”
It says it continues to pursue opportunities to increase its customer base and expand its retail and wholesale footprint.
Meredith Hurley, senior director of Communications and Community for Southeastern Grocers, said May 2 in a statement that C&S “has notified its workforce of a right-sizing in anticipation of exiting the facility. We will not comment on their operations, but we do know they remain fully committed to our fleet of stores and our ongoing operations.”
It said the decision “does not affect our SEG stores or supply chain capabilities, and we do not expect this to impact or compromise our ability to keep Harveys Supermarket and Winn-Dixie locations consistently and reliably stocked for our customers.”
5050 Edgewood Court
C&S continues to lease warehouse and distribution space along Edgewood Court, another former Winn-Dixie property in West Jacksonville.
Winn-Dixie was long headquartered at 5050 Edgewood Court, where it built an 892,000-square-foot office-warehouse complex on 46.6 acres.
The property comprises 891,262 square feet of office and industrial space among seven buildings on 57.7 acres. Those include parking lots and vacant land.
The properties were built from 1952-99, anchored by Winn-Dixie. The site is at southwest Edgewood Avenue and Beaver Street. It also is north of I-10.
The property is 15 miles east of the Baldwin distribution center.
It, too, has a lengthy ownership history.
Los Angeles-based Cannon Commercial Inc., a private real estate investment and management company, bought the property Dec. 11, 2024, for $36.4 million.
Through JKFL Industrial LLC, Cannon bought the property from ZSF/WD Jacksonville LLC, which is in care of Zurich Alternative Asset Management LLC of New York City.
ZSF/WD Jacksonville LLC, then affiliated with Euclid Warehouses Inc. in New York City, bought it in 1999 for $40.79 million from Sunbelt-Dix Inc., based in New York.
It appears that Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. and First Union National Bank sold it in 1988 to Southeast Dix Properties Inc., which internally conveyed it to Sunbelt Dix Inc.
While 790 associates moved in 2016 to the Southeastern Grocers Baymeadows headquarters, more than 330 remained at Edgewood Court at what was called the Southeastern Grocers Technology Center.
About C&S
CSWG.com says C&S Wholesale Grocers LLC, based in Keene, New Hampshire, is an industry leader in supply chain solutions and wholesale grocery supply in the United States.
It says the company, founded in 1918 as a supplier to independent grocery stores, now supplies more than 7,500 independent supermarkets, chain stores, military bases and institutions with more than 100,000 different products.
C&S says it operates and supports corporate grocery stores and services independent franchisees under a chain-style model throughout the Midwest, South and Northeast.
It lists 31 locations in California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Vermont.
The Florida locations are in Baldwin, Jacksonville, Miami and Plant City.