While a Whole Foods Market spokesperson said May 3 the organic and natural foods grocer has no details to share about the One Riverside Jacksonville store, area retail brokers say it will draw from the neighborhood, the core Downtown and the Southbank.
Plus, Whole Foods does its homework before choosing a site.
“Whole Foods choosing Brooklyn as their third area location is another testament to the growth we’re seeing within that trade area and the urban core as a whole,” said Carrie Smith, senior vice president of retail for the Franklin Street real estate company.
Whole Foods intends to open in the Brooklyn area of the Downtown Northbank.
“The market has easily become one of the more highly sought-out trade areas of Jacksonville, which is apparent by the amount of new developments we see coming out of the ground,” Smith said May 9.
“Every facet of commercial real estate is drawn to the market – multifamily, retail, hospitality, you name it,” she said.
“This market is on fire.”
NAI Hallmark Managing Partner Christian Harden, who is based at 200 Riverside Ave., welcomes the new neighbor.
“I think it solidifies Brooklyn as the premier submarket in the urban core with its premier amenities,” Harden said May 6.
“But I think it also serves as a fantastic amenity to Downtown. The office properties will benefit from the convenience of another grocer on that side of Riverside Avenue.”
Retail broker and representative Geneva Henderson, executive vice president of Lat Purser & Associates Inc., spoke from a professional and resident perspective.
“What a great tenant for Riverside,” she said May 6 by email.
“It will draw Downtown, especially now that the Downtown is defined as also over in the Southbank.”
The size of the Whole Foods Market is larger than the next closest supermarkets – The Fresh Market and Publix Super Markets Inc.
“Being a full-size grocer in that market will be great. There are just some things you can’t find at the smaller stores,” Henderson said.
“After having lived in San Marco and shopped regularly at the Fresh Market in Riverside I would think that Whole Foods will pull a lot of those shoppers as well. Additionally, Whole Foods does a lot of market research and they would not be going into a location that doesn’t fit their criteria,” she said.
A Whole Foods Market spokesperson confirmed May 3 that a Jacksonville store is in development, adding that details will be shared when available.
The 44-year-old Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market intends to add its third Jacksonville location after opening the first in Mandarin and the second in Jacksonville Beach.
Atlanta-based Fuqua Development announced April 29 that Whole Foods Market will lease the grocery space at its $250 million apartment, retail and restaurant project.
The developer paid $25 million on Feb. 4 for the 18.8-acre site at 1 Riverside Ave. that was home to The Florida Times-Union campus.
The grocery store is planned on the parcel where the Times-Union’s five-story 55,500-square-foot office building has been demolished. The last piece of the structure came down May 3.
Work now turns to the three-level 223,000-square-foot production building.
Fuqua said in February demolition and clearing should be completed in July.
Construction of the first phase of One Riverside could start in late summer.
Fuqua said in February the first phase of One Riverside should open in summer 2024. The second phase could start at the end of 2023 or early 2024.
Whole Foods is in the first phase.
A site brochure from leasing representative Colliers released before Fuqua Development’s announcement shows an unidentified grocer will lease about 43,000 square feet of space.
Fuqua Development sold some of the property to TriBridge Residential for apartment development and 4.95 acres to the city for park space and restoration of McCoys Creek.
Whole Foods in Jacksonville market
Whole Foods Market has shopped the area for more than 14 years.
It opened its initial Jacksonville store in the Mandarin Landing shopping center at 10601 San Jose Blvd. in 2008. It is the largest of its three local stores at 51,000 square feet.
Whole Foods Market opened its 40,000-square-foot Jacksonville Beach store in October 2020 at 2050 S. Third St. in the Pablo Plaza shopping center
Whole Foods Market says it has more than 500 retail and nonretail locations in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Amazon.com paid $13.7 billion in cash for Whole Foods in 2017.
The Whole Foods Market stores vary in size.
In September 2021, Whole Foods Market opened a 44,760-square-foot store in Avon, Connecticut.
Features at the Connecticut store, similar in size to the One Riverside location, include:
