The Jacksonville City Council Finance Committee opted May 5 to defer a proposal to grant The Winn-Dixie Company LLC $12 million in city incentives after members raised concerns with the company’s plans to close a store near Brentwood.
The proposed incentives will be stalled until at least the May 12 full Council meeting. Ordinance 2026-0326, which contains the incentives, could also be delayed until future committee meetings, which begin May 18.
Finance Committee members instructed Winn-Dixie officials to work with the city to include a stipulation that the Brentwood store would remain open in order for Winn-Dixie to receive the city funding.
After residents appeared before the committee to complain that Winn-Dixie was planning on closing the store at 48th and Main streets in the North Shore area north of Brentwood, Council members echoed those comments
That store, a Harveys Supermarket at 201 W. 48th St., is one of two Harveys closures planned in Jacksonville, the Daily Record reported in March. Winn-Dixie also plans to close a Harveys in Arlington.
“We’re giving you guys money. You guys are closing the store,” said committee member Raul Arias, who represents part of Jacksonville’s Southside. “Now, we’re going to have a food desert in that part of town.”
The nearest grocery store to the North Shore Harveys is a Winn-Dixie at Gateway Town Center, about 1 mile away. The U.S. Department of Agriculture describes a food desert as an area where at least 500 people and/or at least 33% of the population lives more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery store.
After Winn-Dixie Chief of Staff Zack Bingham told committee members the store had a “reasonably strong performance,” Council member Ju’Coby Pittman, who represents the area, asked the company to reconsider closing it.
“The residents are concerned because there is not another place other than Gateway (Town Center),” Pittman said. “A lot of those residents depend on bus transportation to get there.”
“If this store stays open, I will support the bill,” Finance Chair Joe Carlucci said.
Ordinance 2026-0326 would grant 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 the legislation, the incentives would come as 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.
Winn-Dixie proposes a $65 million capital investment comprising $48 million in store renovations and $17 million at its Edgewood Court headquarters.
Bingham told committee members that Winn-Dixie had explored moving its headquarters to other locations, and that other municipalities had offered incentives for Winn-Dixie to move there.
“It is our very clear aspiration and our hope that we remain in Duval County, in the city of Jacksonville,” Bingham said. “If this incentive package does not pass, then yes, we would be forced to reconsider our options.”
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 provide an annual wage of at least $100,000 and would bring the company’s headquarters workforce to 700 full-time employees, the memo says.
In an interview after his presentation to the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee, city Economic Development Director Ed Randolph said the new jobs would include “various functions across the core of the headquarters operation, such as HR and any other executive capacity.”
He added that the jobs would involve central operations and would not include employees of Winn-Dixie stores.
The MBRC voted to allow the Office of Economic Development to prepare legislation for the incentives.
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 committee, Randolph said the stores are located throughout Jacksonville and include Harveys Supermarkets being converted to the Winn-Dixie brand.
The memo states that the public assistance would generate $1.04 in return for every $1 of incentives.
Outside of the issue with the 48th Street store, committee members expressed differing opinions about the incentives.
“This is extortion. If you want to go, go. Don’t beg for the money of the people of Jacksonville,” committee member Rory Diamond said.
“This is why people don’t like politicians. This is corruption. Shame on the mayor for proposing it, shame on Winn-Dixie for asking for it, and shame on us if it passes.”
“I’m never inclined to incentivize companies who are already here to not move away from here,” said Council Vice President Nick Howland.
“But this not only retains the corporate headquarters of Winn-Dixie in Jacksonville, it also brings 200 more high-paying jobs in an area of the city that is needed most, and $65 million more of capital investment.”
An amendment approved by the Finance Committee altered the timing of the job requirements originally proposed by OED. The amendment would require 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.
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 across town 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.
Winn-Dixie is converting Harveys to its banner.
The new owners registered The Winn-Dixie Company LLC with the state Division of Corporations on Feb. 5, 2026.