A $12 million incentive package to keep The Winn-Dixie Company LLC’s headquarters in Jacksonville and support an expansion is poised for introduction to City Council after an April 13 vote by the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee.
The MBRC unanimously approved a request by the city Office of Economic Development to introduce Council legislation on the incentive, which would comprise a $5.5 million Recapture Enhanced Value Grant and a $6.5 million Headquarters Retention Grant for Winn-Dixie to stay in its offices at 5050 Edgewood Court.
According to a memo from the Office of Economic Development, the incentives would come as a 20-year, 50% Recapture Enhanced Value Grant. A REV grant is a refund on ad valorem tax revenue generated by a new development or property enhancement. It can apply to real property and tangible personal property.
OED also proposes to grant Winn-Dixie a Headquarters Retention Grant totaling $6.5 million, paid at $1.3 million annually, beginning in October 2027.
Winn-Dixie proposes a $65 million capital investment that comprises $48 million in store renovations and $17 million at the headquarters.
“Winn-Dixie is a household name. They’ve been here since 1944, so really it’s a name and an institution and a company that we don’t want to lose in Jacksonville,” said Ed Randolph, the city’s executive director of economic development, adding that the company was considering moving its headquarters to another city in Florida.
“Periodically, we do get approached by other entities that have a headquarters here, but it’s very rare. But in this case, Winn-Dixie is a company we do not want to lose in the Jacksonville landscape.”
Winn-Dixie returned to its headquarters to 5050 Edgewood Court in West Jacksonville in late 2025 after operating there from the early 1950s until 2016 when as Southeastern Grocers it moved across town to the Baymeadows area. On April 7, the city issued permits to put up signs on the Westside building.
During the company’s years at the Baymeadows headquarters, it leased space at Edgewood Court for IT functions.
Winn-Dixie has evolved over the years through name, ownership and location changes. Since construction began in 1952, the headquarters campus in West Jacksonville has been bought and sold several times. The company is now owned by an investor group with plans to focus on Florida and South Georgia markets.
Previously named Southeastern Grocers, the company completed a deal in March 2024 to sell its primary banners Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets to German grocer Aldi. Aldi bought about 400 stores from Southeastern Grocers to convert to its discount concept.
In February 2025, a consortium of private investors led by Southeastern Grocers Inc. CEO Anthony Hucker and supplier C&S Wholesale Grocers acquired SEG and 170 remaining Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores to continue the banners. Winn-Dixie is converting the Harveys to its banner.
The new owners registered The Winn-Dixie Company LLC with the state Division of Corporations on Feb. 5, 2026.
A memo from the OED states that Winn-Dixie, in restructuring its corporate operations, is considering a $65 million capital investment and an addition of 200 jobs in its Edgewood Court headquarters. The new jobs would provide an annual wage of at least $100,000 and would bring the company’s headquarters workforce to 700 full-time employees, the memo says.
In an interview after his presentation to the MBRC, Randolph said the new jobs would include “various functions across the core of the headquarters operation, such as HR and any other executive capacity.” He added that the jobs would involve central operations and would not include employees of Winn-Dixie stores.
Under the legislation, Winn-Dixie would be required to operate at least 13 stores under the Winn-Dixie name in Jacksonville. The company currently operates 12 grocery stores in the city.
In response to a question from the committee, Randolph said the stores are located throughout Jacksonville and include Harveys Supermarkets being converted to the Winn-Dixie brand.
The memo states that the public assistance would generate $1.04 in return for every $1 of incentives.
Randolph said the OED had rarely used the Headquarters Retention Grant, which is not part of the office’s formal public investment policy.
“It’s really just a grant we’ve used in situations like this where we don’t want to lose an existing headquarters.