Harris Teeter’s ceremonial groundbreaking April 24 marked a yearslong effort by developer Toney Sleiman to bring the grocer to Jacksonville, the president of Sleiman Enterprises said in an interview after the morning event.
“I’ve worked on this deal for three years,” Sleiman said, standing in front of the construction site in the Atlantic North shopping center at 11901 Atlantic Blvd. at northwest Kernan and Atlantic boulevards in East Arlington.
Sleiman said Jacksonville-based Sleiman Enterprises develops and leases sites to most of Northeast Florida’s major grocery stores, such as state industry leader Publix Super Markets Inc., and “there is a market for all of them.”
He developed a retail taste for Harris Teeter after managing the North Carolina-based grocer’s Fernandina Beach site, its only store in Florida.
“I wanted them here,” Sleiman said at the East Arlington land as construction workers dug into site work for the company’s second store in the state.
“I held this site off because I wanted a grocery store here.”
The vacant land is between Academy Sports + Outdoors and LA Fitness. Harris Teeter’s grocery and liquor stores, along with a smaller retail building for other tenants, will connect those two anchors.
Sleiman said he is working on three more locations for Harris Teeter in Florida, including in Jacksonville, but declined to identify the sites.
He said he expects news about another Jacksonville location in a couple of months.
Harris Teeter President Tammy DeBoer said at the groundbreaking that the company was developing there “to add to the fleet of stores that we will have in Florida,” but she did not say how many would be developed.
Harris Teeter builds a three-pronged development: A grocery store, a liquor store and a nearby fueling center.
In Atlantic North, the liquor store is designed adjacent to the roughly 60,000-square-foot supermarket, while the fueling center is in development across Atlantic Boulevard, also on Sleiman Enterprises land.
Harris Teeter Corporate Affairs Manager Paige Hamer said April 24 that the grocer expands with newly built stores as well as renovated spaces.
Harris Teeter, which includes fresh and prepared foods, specialty departments and a pharmacy, said it will open in spring 2027 in Atlantic North.
Sites sparking interest
Sleiman declined comment when asked about specific potential sites, including the Winn-Dixie supermarket in Sleiman Enterprises’ Point Meadows shopping center at northwest Interstate 295 and Baymeadows Road in the Baymeadows area of South Jacksonville.
City power provider JEA issued a service availability letter Feb. 2 for the “Point Meadows Grocery,” identified as the roughly 40,000-square-foot existing Winn-Dixie anchor store at 10915 Baymeadows Road, and for “associated infrastructure.”
JEA also issued a letter Feb. 3 for “Point Meadows Commercial,” and associated infrastructure whose property number is that of the closed Bank of America branch at 10925 Baymeadows Road, an outparcel at Point Meadows.
A JEA service availability request means a project is being explored. Neither request specifies what could be happening, but each says it includes associated infrastructure.
Civil engineering firm Kimley-Horn Jacksonville submitted the applications.
On Feb. 3, Kimley-Horn submitted a request for a “proposed fuel redevelopment” on a nearby 1.59-acre site whose property number is that of 8165 Point Meadows Way, which is a former credit union that has been permitted for renovation into Heartland Dental.
Winn-Dixie has said there are no plans for new infrastructure projects at the Point Meadows Winn-Dixie.
Sleiman also declined to comment about the availability of the closed 66,835-square-foot Bealls department store in Sleiman Enterprises’ Mandarin Pointe shopping center at southwest San Jose Boulevard and Orange Picker Road in south Mandarin, south of Interstate 295.
The Sleiman.com website shows a Florida portfolio of 68 properties, primarily retail and shopping centers, with the majority in Duval County. There are more than 10 in Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties and a few in the state outside Northeast Florida.
The Sleiman group also buys land and develops shopping centers when it has tenant demand for them.
Sleiman said April 24 that he had heard Harris Teeter could be working toward 20 stores in Florida in Orlando, North Florida and Tampa, meaning other developers also competing for the opportunities.
In addition to the Harris Teeter that operates in Fernandina Beach and the Atlantic North store in development in Jacksonville, Harris Teeter also has been identified for, but has not confirmed, at least two sites in St. Johns County.
Plans have been filed in St. Johns County for new supermarkets that were unnamed but match the description of possible Harris Teeter stores at Veterans Parkway and County Road 210 West and at the SilverLeaf community.
"Fill up Jacksonville"
Harris Teeter previously operated a store in Mandarin that closed in 2004 and a Ponte Vedra Beach store that closed in 2006 but is returning to the area after The Kroger Co. bought the Matthews, North Carolina-based company in 2014.
Cincinnati-based Kroger announced in November 2025 that it would open five Harris Teeter stores in new markets, including Atlantic North.
In a Dec. 4 conference call with analysts, former Kroger interim CEO Ronald Sargent talked about the expansion in Northeast Florida, noting the Fernandina Beach store in Nassau County.
“Jacksonville is an important adjacent geography that positions us to grow households and gain share,” he said.
“Harris Teeter runs a great business. They already operate in Florida in Amelia Island, which is about 40 miles from Jacksonville,” Sargent said.
“Florida itself is a large state. It’s a growing state. We expect to do very well there.”
Kroger, now led by Greg Foran since February, operates more than 2,700 stores under several brands.
“We’ll certainly fill up Jacksonville before we move to adjacent markets,” Sargent said.
He said the company had not previously pursued new store openings.
“One of our biggest challenges over the last few years is we haven’t allocated enough capital to growing stores because we have allocated a lot of capital in other areas like fulfillment centers.”
While the company hasn’t operated stores south of Fernandina Beach, Kroger began a grocery delivery service in Florida in 2021.
However, Kroger ended that service Jan. 6 and closed a home delivery hub in Groveland, near Orlando, and three other “spoke” stations for the service, including one in Jacksonville that employed 181 people.
