The site of the closed Kmart at San Jose Boulevard and Old St. Augustine Road in the Mandarin area could be redeveloped for The Home Depot.
The city issued a mobility fee calculation certificate March 21 for a 134,592-square-foot Home Depot on 11.51 acres at 9600 San Jose Blvd.
Mobility fees are calculated to mitigate a development’s traffic impact. No fee is shown. The location was previously a Kmart, a similar use.
The application explains the closed 105,737-square-foot Kmart would be demolished.
Jacksonville-based Ash Properties owns the property through Atlantic Mini-Storage of America Inc.
A site plan shows a 106,270-square-foot Home Depot with a 26,606-square-foot garden center and other uses.
The 11.5-acre site does not include the separately owned Zaxby’s restaurant along San Jose Boulevard in front of the building.
There are a dozen Home Depot stores in Northeast Florida. A Home Depot spokesperson was not “able to provide any information at this time.”
The building had been envisioned for conversion into a retail center that included a movie theater.
The city issued a permit Feb. 6, 2021, for Ash Construction LLC to start interior and exterior work at a cost of $762,548.
That comprised interior demolition, storefront work, roofing and more to convert the building into an empty shell in preparation for tenant build-out.
Ash Properties has not responded to calls or emails about the status of the property.
The commercial real estate development company has been working on the project for years.
Through Atlantic Mini-Storage of America Inc., Ash Properties paid almost $4.39 million for the property Dec. 1, 2015.
Property records show the building was developed in 1979.
Kmart closed there in 2016 but continued to lease the property until parent company Sears Holdings Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2018.
Ash Properties said in October 2019 that it intended to renovate the building for several large and possibly a few smaller tenants.
Ash Properties principal Elaine Ashourian said previously the company will “be beautifying that corner.”
Previous plans showed the building divided into five spaces of 11,450 to 30,905 square feet of space. They also showed a future 7,380-square-foot building in the parking lot.
Ashourian and Ash Properties Chief Operating Officer Randall Whitfield had declined to identify the potential tenants until leases are signed.
The city issued a concurrency reservation certificate Jan. 13, 2021, for the project, shown at 110,686 square feet.
A conditional capacity availability statement specified that the existing building of 98,252 square feet would be expanded by 12,434 square feet.
Sun-Ray Cinema, an independent two-screen theater in Five Points, announced Sept. 28, 2019, on its Facebook page it would expand with a five-screen theater in the Mandarin building.
Cinema co-owner Shana David-Massett said in December 2020 there was no movement on the lease. She said Feb. 8, 2021, she did not have any comments about the San Jose project.
“We continue to watch and wait,” she said. “Our operations are pretty consuming as we work to move this business forward during the most extraordinary adversity we could have imagined.”
With the pandemic shutdowns that began in 2020, Sun-Ray added drive-in options.
Co-owner Tim Massett said in May 2020 that “this pandemic has interrupted things a bit.”
Ashourian and Whitfield said in 2019 that Sun-Ray had not signed a lease at that time.
Shana David-Massett could not be reached for comment on the latest plans for the site.