Winn-Dixie announced Oct. 2 that it will open in mid-November at 11700 San Jose Blvd. in Mandarin, moving the business from across the street at 11701 San Jose Blvd.
The current store will close by Nov. 1 depending on how quickly it sells inventory.
The new store is a former Earth Fare market. Winn-Dixie parent company Southeastern Grocers Inc. acquired the site this year.
Current Winn-Dixie associates will move to the new location. Jacksonville-based Southeastern Grocers spokesman Joe Caldwell said in a news release more will be hired.
“The closure process generally lasts no longer than 30 days and we will regularly share details about special mark-down discounts on our remaining merchandise,” he said.
The new store will not have a pharmacy. Current prescriptions will be confidentially transferred to the nearby pharmacies, he said.
“The details will be clearly communicated to our customers,” he said.
The current in-store pharmacy will close to the public Oct. 14.
Winn-Dixie’s move into the closed Earth Fare store is a return to an original location.
Winn-Dixie previously leased the location – and adjacent space – in the Mandarin South Shopping Center. It occupied at least 45,000 square feet there more than a decade ago.
The Jacksonville-based grocery chain then moved to a 51,282-square-foot store across San Jose Boulevard into the Merchants Shopping Center of Mandarin. Winn-Dixie opened the store there Nov. 9, 1995.
The Mandarin South space then was subdivided.
Preferred Growth Properties bought the center in 2014 for $4.7 million. It redeveloped the center and leased about 28,000 square feet to Earth Fare, which opened in 2017.
Earth Fare announced in February it would close all its stores, including three in Northeast Florida.
It didn’t sell the leases to the other two Jacksonville-area stores and returned them to the landlord in its bankruptcy proceedings.
