With the first floor of the closed JCPenney in Gateway Town Center in Brentwood converted into Extra Space Storage, the property owners want to do the same with the second story.
The city is reviewing a permit application for developer Global Jacksonville LLC to build out the 61,283-square-foot second floor at 5200 Norwood Ave. at an estimated project cost of almost $1.72 million.
BG Southern Division LLC of Windermere is shown as the contractor. Jarmel Kizel Architects and Engineers Inc. of Livingston, New Jersey, is the architect. Legacy Engineering of Jacksonville is providing private plan review.
Gateway Town Center is north of Downtown and Springfield, east of Interstate 95.
For the first phase, the city issued a permit in July 2025 for BG Southern Division to renovate 61,283 square feet of space on the ground floor of the long-closed JCPenney at a project cost of $844,106.
Also, the city issued seven sign permits in July 2025 for Extra Space Storage on the two-story building at a combined cost of $10,500.
In another sign of development, the city issued a permit March 12 for Global Jacksonville to demolish about 62,000 square feet of unused retail space around the Extra Space Storage building at a project cost of $252,000. ELEV8 Demolition of Jacksonville is the contractor.
Much of Gateway Town Center opened more than 65 years ago, in 1959, at the Golfair Boulevard and Norwood Avenue exits east along I-95 and north of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.
Gateway Retail Center LLC sold part of the Gateway Town Center property, about 10.7 acres, in July 2024 for $6 million to Global Building Jacksonville I LLC, which is an affiliate of Global Building LLC of Carlsbad, California.
Global Building bought an estimated 263,000 square feet of vacant space that served as the indoor mall and other uses.
Duval County property records show that Gateway Retail Center LLC, led by Gator Investments President and CEO James Goldsmith, had owned 53.4 acres.
Global Building President Joseph Zummo said in July 2025 that Extra Space Storage would operate the storage center.
He said the ground floor would open first and the second floor would follow when the ground-floor units are partially leased up.
Zummo said the developer is Global Storage Partners LLC. Global Building specializes in mixed-use and self-storage center development and ownership.
He said previously the two-story building will comprise about 900 storage units.
Plans for both floors call for partitions, new restrooms, finishes, ceiling grid and tiles, light fixtures, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, elevators.
Upon the property purchase in July 2024, Zummo said Global Building would convert the former JCPenney building into a two-story, 100,000-square-foot indoor climate-controlled self-storage building that would operate under a third-party agreement. Global Building owns it and the operator would manage it. The two-story department store comprises 132,456 square feet, property records show.
Global Jacksonville also intends to add retail stores and affordable housing to its property.
About 30,000 square feet of adjacent vacant retail space will be marketed to retailers, such as a furniture store and other discounters like Ross Dress For Less, Zummo said previously.
The rest of the former mall buildings on the Global Building property would be demolished for development of affordable housing, he said.
He could not be reached for comment whether the demolition permit applied to that part of the project.
The affordable housing appears to be an 88-unit apartment development.
City utility JEA issued a service availability determination letter Oct. 9, 2025, for Sandhill Villas, which is identified as a project by Birdsong Housing Partners of Maitland.
The Sandhill Villas address is 5156 Norwood Ave. and would comprise a three-story, walk-up building and a central community center.
JEA is reviewing an updated availability request that shows the apartments would consist of 27 one-bedroom units; 51 two-bedroom units; and 10 three-bedroom units, for a total of 159 bedrooms. It would have a central community center.
“Sandhill Villas will serve the Family Demographic,” the original availability application says. The Florida Housing Finance Corp. was verifying infrastructure availability.
Birdsong already is developing what is believed to be the first affordable housing development in Jacksonville made possible through the Live Local Act of 2023, which supports multifamily housing projects on commercially zoned land. Egret Landing is about a mile east of Gateway Town Center.