A 61,000-square-foot grocery store project matching Harris Teeter is advancing in St. Johns County.
Jacksonville-based Kimley-Horn is the civil engineer for plans in review with the county that precede a building permit. The county’s development review committee is scheduled to discuss the SilverLeaf project Feb. 18.
The site is at northeast County Road 16A and SilverLeaf Parkway.
There is no confirmation that the store is Harris Teeter. The Matthews, North Carolina-based grocer has repeatedly not responded to questions about its possible interest in the site.
Representatives from Publix Super Markets Inc. and Winn-Dixie said those companies are not involved in the project. Whole Foods did not respond to requests for comment, but its stores range from 40,000 to 51,000 square feet in Jacksonville.
On Nov. 6, the St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency voted 5-1 to recommend approval of a minor modification to the SilverLeaf Planned Unit Development zoning to allow the store.
The modification also would allow an affiliated liquor store and outparcels designed for restaurant tenants to sell alcohol within 270 feet of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Florida instead of the required 1,000 feet.
A Planned Unit Development zoning allows uses, regulations and standards tailored to a property development.
Board members Richard Hilsenbeck, Chuck Labanowski, Greg Matovina, Robert Olson and Meagan Perkins voted in favor of the request. Judy Spiegel cast the dissenting vote.
St. Augustine-based The Hutson Co., through White’s Ford Timber LLC, owns the property. Ellen Avery-Smith of the Jacksonville-based Rogers Towers law firm represents the project.
The SilverLeaf project appears to be a part of a broader Harris Teeter expansion in the region. On Dec. 1, St. Johns County began reviewing plans for a store at Veterans Parkway and County Road 210 West, which matches the Harris Teeter footprint. The location is in north St. Johns County, 3.8 miles southeast of the interchange of Interstate 95 and U.S. 98.
A day after announcing Nov. 10 it will open in Jacksonville, Harris Teeter filed permit applications with the city to build a supermarket and a liquor store in the Atlantic North shopping center in East Arlington.
No contractor is specified for the applications, shown at a project cost of $3 million for the 61,000-square-foot space for the supermarket and $1 million for the adjacent 3,010-square-foot liquor store.
Harris Teeter previously operated stores in Jacksonville’s Mandarin neighborhood, which closed in 2004, and in Ponte Vedra Beach, which closed in 2006. Its only store in Florida is in Nassau County at 4800 at Coast Highway.
Harris Teeter reports that as of Oct. 29, it operated more than 250 stores and 60 fuel centers in Delaware, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.