Gordon Food Service expects to open its first Jacksonville grocery store and delivery service next year in the former Staples store at southwest Beach and University boulevards.
Staples closed its office supplies store at 5800 Beach Blvd., according to its website and phone message.
Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Gordon Food Service will lease the 30,400-square-foot space, said Colliers Senior Vice President Gary Montour, who represented the Boulevard Corners landlord in the lease.
Montour said Oct. 11 that Gordon Food Service probably will open in the fourth quarter of 2024.
“A lot of work has to be done,” he said, including interior demolition and build-out.
“It will really help that center,” Montour said.
He said the 102,000-square-foot center is about 95% leased.
HabiJax has signed a long-term lease renewal for the 45,000-square-foot ReStore space it occupies next to Staples, Montour said.
He said Staples must vacate its space Oct. 31, after which work will begin for Gordon Food Service.
The move returns groceries to the corner, where Albertsons operated decades ago in another part of the shopping center.
After it closed, the Albertsons space was leased for other uses and now by the Broach School and the Jacksonville University Simulation Training and Applied Research Center.
About the location
Montour said the store will be the first in Northeast Florida for Gordon Food Service.
Gordon Food Service has 14 distribution centers, including in Miami and Plant City, to serve restaurants, health care, schools and other customers that serve groups of customers.
The ScrapeHero.com data site says Gordon Food Service has 196 stores in 163 cities in 17 states, including 21 in Florida. The closest to Jacksonville is in Daytona Beach.
The Boulevard Corners Shopping Center landlord is 116 W Flagler Street LLC of Miami.
Montour said Atlantic Retail of Miami represented Gordon Food Service in the deal.
“If you look at Jacksonville, they can go anywhere fast,” Montour said of the delivery and access.
The site is accessible south down University Boulevard to Interstate 95, west across the Hart Expressway to Downtown, east along Beach Boulevard to the Beaches and north along University Boulevard to Arlington and North Jacksonville.
“I think they like the fact Beach Boulevard is a great corner with a great population,” Montour said. “It puts them into a circle of servicing so many different users they have targeted.”
He also said the space was a big draw.
“It is not easy to find a big 30,000-square-foot box,” he said.
Montour said the deal needed provisions for the delivery vans for the food service.
Gordon Food Service has not responded to a request for information about the Jacksonville location.
Gordon’s previous Jacksonville plans
A decade ago, plans showed that Gordon Food Service intended to open an almost 16,000-square-foot GFS Marketplace at 13423 Beach Blvd., at Brougham Avenue, west of Hodges Boulevard.
Pinnacle Real Estate Inc., the store developer, bought almost 2.9 acres on Dec. 23, 2013, for the project.
The city issued a permit in July 2014 for an almost $16 million GFS Marketplace.
The store wasn’t built and the developer sold the property to AD Development LLC of Jacksonville Beach for a strip retail center.
About Gordon Food Service
The GFSstore.com site says that privately owned Gordon Food Service, in operation for more than 125 years, serves the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest regions of the United States and coast-to-coast in Canada.
“Beginning as a simple butter-and-egg delivery service, we’ve grown to become the largest family business in the foodservice industry by upholding the same approach since 1897 — remaining passionately committed to the people we serve,” it says.
It says it operates more than 175 Gordon Food Service Store locations in the U.S.
“By partnering with organizations from across industries — healthcare to education, independent and chain restaurants and event planners — Gordon Food Service helps customers create food experiences that people choose, enjoy and remember.”
The site says its customer service desk helps to “determine the best menu, products and quantities for your event.”