Marking the culmination of a fight over a Brentwood-area grocery store and $12 million in incentives for The Winn-Dixie Company LLC, officials from the grocer and the city of Jacksonville celebrated the opening of a new Winn-Dixie store at 201 W. 48th St on June 20.
The store, which was converted from a Harveys Supermarket, was originally set for closure. As Jacksonville City Council members debated awarding Winn-Dixie $12 million in incentives to maintain the company’s headquarters in Jacksonville, the company committed to keeping the Brentwood location open.
‘Today is really about our people, and from the moment that I walked into this store we began this transformation,” said Greg Stanford, Winn-Dixie’s North Florida regional vice president. “It took a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication to get to the point where we’re at today, and I think they’re the ones who’ll be very proud of what you see throughout the store today, as we celebrate this morning with our associates and customers.”
Jacksonville City Council member Ju’Coby Pittman, whose District 10 includes the store, attended the opening.
On May 12, Council granted 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 in West Jacksonville.
According to legislation containing the incentives, Ordinance 2026-0326, they include a 20-year, 50% REV Grant, which 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. The Headquarters Retention Grant would be paid at $1.3 million annually, beginning in October 2027.
With an amendment to the legislation brokered by Council Vice President Nick Howland, Winn-Dixie agreed to come back to the Council Finance Committee 18 months before its lease on the 48th Street store ends in February 2029 to provide an update on any efforts to stay in the area. Additionally, should Winn-Dixie fail to see out the lease, it would pay back the Headquarters Retention Grant approved by Council.
Construction on the store finished on June 12, and the Winn-Dixie sign on the front of the store went up about one week before that, Stanford said. Winn-Dixie retained 28 staff members from its Harveys-branded store, and hired 55 more employees from two hiring events.
Winn-Dixie officials said that during the store’s conversion from the Harveys to Winn-Dixie brand, they also made upgrades to the produce, bakery, meat, seafood, floral and deli sections. The store also added a “community room,” complete with free produce, packaged goods and board games.
“One of our missions is to become authentic and local, and this store will help us to define that, and we work together to enhance the experience day after day,” said Adam Kirk, Winn-Dixie’s chief of store operations. “As part of that, we listen really loudly to everything that’s being said about the old store, about what we hear more broadly in Winn-Dixie stores, about what our customers are looking for.”
City incentives
A memo from the city’s Office of Economic Development states that Winn-Dixie, in restructuring its corporate operations, is considering a $65 million capital investment and an addition of 200 jobs in its headquarters.
The new jobs would pay an average wage of at least $100,000 and would bring the company’s headquarters workforce to 700 full-time employees, the memo says. An amendment approved by Council requires Winn-Dixie to add 15 jobs by Dec. 31, 2027, and an additional 25 in 2028, 75 in 2029, 40 in 2030 and 45 in 2031.
Additionally, as with all other Winn-Dixie stores in economically distressed areas, should Winn-Dixie close the Brentwood-area store, it would have 18 months to open another store in the area.
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 Finance Committee, Director of Economic Development Ed Randolph said the stores are located throughout Jacksonville and include Harveys Supermarkets being converted to the Winn-Dixie brand.
A memo from the Office of Economic Development said the public assistance would generate $1.04 in return for every $1 of incentives.
Winn-Dixie’s history
Winn-Dixie returned to the Edgewood Court headquarters in late 2025 after its ancestral company operated there from the early 1950s until 2016, when as Southeastern Grocers it moved 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 Supermarket 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.
The new owners registered The Winn-Dixie Company LLC with the state Division of Corporations on Feb. 5, 2026.