After finalizing a deal to keep a Brentwood-area Harveys Supermarket open through at least February 2029, Jacksonville City Council approved May 12 up to $12 million in financial incentives for The Winn-Dixie Company LLC.
With an 16-2 vote on Ordinance 2026-0326, Council approved incentives for Winn-Dixie to keep its company headquarters in Jacksonville and increase its central workforce by 200 full-time employees. President Kevin Carrico and Council member Rory Diamond voted no on the incentive deal and member Terrance Freeman was absent.
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.
"Meaningful milestone"
According to the legislation, the incentives 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.
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.
“As Jacksonville’s hometown grocer, this is a meaningful milestone for our company and for the community we have proudly served for generations,” Winn-Dixie Chairman and CEO Anthony Hucker said in a statement. “Today’s approval is an investment in the future of Jacksonville and in the long-term growth of The Winn-Dixie Company. This decision allows us to move forward with plans to invest $65 million over the next five years in our Jacksonville operations to strengthen our Store Support Center, invest in our local store footprint and support future job growth.”
The Council vote came after Council Vice President Nick Howland and The Winn-Dixie Company LLC announced May 12 they had worked out a deal to keep a store near Brentwood open through at least 2029.
Winn-Dixie had announced plans to close the store, a Harveys Supermarket at 201 W. 48th St. The store is in North Shore, north of Brentwood.
The pending closure turned into a sticking point in Council committee discussions over incentives to retain Winn-Dixie’s headquarters, with some Council members refusing to approve a deal without guarantees that the North Shore store would remain open. Closing it, some said, would create a food desert in the area surrounding the store.
Making a deal
In the Howland-brokered agreement, 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.
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.
During the May 12 Council meeting, Council member Ju’Coby Pittman said the North Shore Harveys was “a lifeline” for her. Pittman’s district includes the store, and she hosted a public meeting with Council members, community members and Winn-Dixie representatives.
In a statement, Winn-Dixie said it was “grateful for the passion shown by the community, the continued dialogue with members of the Finance Committee, and the spirit of mutual collaboration that has guided our efforts to craft this agreement.”
“Jacksonville is our hometown and it has always been our very strong desire to remain in this community and continue to be a part of the city’s continued growth and prosperity,” the statement said.
Diamond pushed back, saying the incentives could be returned to taxpayers or could have been used for social programs.
“This is corporate welfare,” he said. “Whether you’re on the left, think about what you could do with $12 million to help people in your district. If you’re on the right, imagine giving ($12 million of) taxpayer money back to the people who elected you, because that’s what they want you to do. Jacksonville does not want this.”
Responding to Diamond, Council members noted what they saw as Winn-Dixie’s charitable history in Jacksonville.
“They give away turkeys, they do other things to support the community. So they’re not just buildings in our community. They’re institutions and they help the community,” Council member Tyrona Clark-Murray said.
Council discussion
Some Council members wanted further guarantees that Winn-Dixie would not leave the neighborhood. Council member Reggie Gaffney Jr. requested a commitment from Winn-Dixie to keep the store open for five years. Others sought assurances that the store would remain fully stocked or that Winn-Dixie would open more stores.
Those issues were discussed at length.
“This is the reason that this deal almost went off the rails on Friday,” Howland said. “We’re a local government. We’re not in the business of telling individual, privately owned companies how to run their portfolio stores, how to run their businesses.”
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.
The Harveys location near Brentwood was one of two Harveys slated to close in Jacksonville, the Daily Record reported in March. The other location was in Arlington. That store is set to close May 17.
Originally, the Winn-Dixie legislation was designed to keep the Jacksonville-based grocer from moving its headquarters out of Jacksonville and to encourage the company to add 200 jobs to its headquarters workforce.
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.
Winn-Dixie Chief of Staff Zack Bingham told committee members May 5 that Winn-Dixie explored relocating its headquarters to other locations, and that other municipalities 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.”
Return on investment
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, 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 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.