Whole Foods sets May 21 opening for Downtown Jacksonville store

Business

The Whole Foods Market in Downtown Jacksonville’s Brooklyn district will open May 21, the grocer announced April 23.

The store at 1 Riverside Ave. is part of the One Riverside mixed-use development along the Acosta Bridge at the site of the demolished Florida Times-Union building.

An announcement posted at wholefoodsmarket.com said the 38,432-square-foot store would open at 8 a.m. on opening day, with regular store hours being 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

According to the site, features of the store include:

A prepared foods department with hot food, salad bars and a rotating menu of comfort foods and seasonal options, pizza, sandwiches and sushi.
Organic and conventional produce.
Meat and seafood counters.
A specialty cheese department.
More than 500 wines and 200 craft beers.
A bakery department and health and wellness department.
More than 800 local items from more than 115 Florida-based suppliers.

The opening day event will provide the first 300 shoppers with a tote bag containing offers of up to $100 off. Samples of La Gringuita Gourmet Cookies and coffee from Bold Bean Coffee Roasters will be served.

The announcement said the store’s design includes wooden slat walls that “pay an homage to the vertical lines of the Florida Times-Union newspaper building that once sat on the store’s site.” The store’s color palette includes green and blue hues designed to represent “the water and sky seen along the riverfront of the historic Brooklyn neighborhood of Jacksonville.”

The city issued a permit Sept. 10 for RCC Associates of Deerfield Beach to build-out the 38,300-square-foot store shell at 1 Riverside Ave., Unit 1000, at a project cost of $7.5 million.

Atlanta-based Fuqua Development developed Whole Foods Market and a separate retail building for lease to tenants.

The Whole Foods is across Riverside Avenue from The Fresh Market.

The city of Jacksonville issued a permit in September 2025 for RCC Associates of Deerfield Beach to build-out a 38,300-square-foot store shell for Whole Foods at 1 Riverside Ave., Unit 1000, at a project cost of $7.5 million.

Fuqua and TriBridge Residential, also of Atlanta, developed the $250 million One Riverside project, plans for which included 270 residential units and riverfront restaurants.

In November 2021, Jacksonville City Council approved a $31.59 million incentives package for the development.

Also Downtown, discount grocer Aldi is renovating part of the former Harveys Supermarket at 777 N. Market St., at southeast Market and Union streets.

Publix Super Markets Inc. confirmed in September 2025 it will open a 31,000-square-foot store in 2028 in the Gateway Jax property at 119 W. Beaver St., east of Hogan Street between Union and Beaver streets.