Jacksonville University students and the surrounding neighborhood soon will have a new retail store where the CVS Pharmacy vacated space in Arlington.
The city issued a permit June 10 for Summit General Contractors Inc. of Knoxville, Tennessee, to renovate the 11,242-square-foot space for Dollar Tree at a project cost of $400,000.
At 5634 Merrill Road, the store was developed at southeast University Boulevard and Merrill Road, across the boulevard from JU.
The city issued a plumbing permit June 11 at a project cost of $11,372 and approved sign permits May 15 at a project cost totaling $4,800.
RRMM Architects PC of Chesapeake, Virginia, is the architect. Dollar Tree Inc. also is based in Chesapeake.
Plans show the sign contractor as General Sign Service Corp. of Jacksonville. The plumbing contractor is A to Z Contracting & Plumbing Inc., also of Jacksonville.
Dollar Tree sells housewares, party goods, beauty products, food items, seasonal decorations, tools, office supplies, greeting cards and other items.
CEO Mike Creedon said Dec. 3, 2025, in the third-quarter earnings report of the publicly traded company, that 85% of its items are priced at $2 or less.
Among the dozens of Dollar Tree stores in Northeast Florida, the three nearest the CVS site are 4 miles north at 5799 Fort Caroline Road, 7 miles east at 8011 Merrill Road and 8 miles south at 1631 University Blvd. S.
Law firm Lewis Longman Walker requested a minor modification to a Planned Unit Development to change the use of the site from a drug store to permitted retail uses in the Neighborhood Commercial land use category.
“This minor modification is necessary because the CVS Drug Store terminated its lease with the land owner and the land owner would like to lease the existing building to Dollar Tree,” said the application to the Jacksonville Planning Department.
Owner TRSTE III Kannapolis LLC of Charlotte, North Carolina, bought the 1.78-acre site in January 2021 for $1.375 million. The CVS was built in 2002.
The property ownership is affiliated with R.J.S. Properties Inc., a private, family-owned real estate investment company that says it buys and adds value to commercial real estate throughout the United States but mainly in the Southeast and Carolinas. It also does business as RJS Properties.
The Jacksonville University Drug Store PUD dated Nov. 2, 2001, said the roughly 1.4-acre site would be developed as an 11,000-square-foot drug store with a drive-thru window. A size deviation was allowable.
A PUD allows uses, regulations and standards tailored to a property.