Four months after completing the purchase of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets, Aldi is converting its first Northeast Florida store to its namesake brand.
The city is reviewing building plans to convert the Harveys at 2261 Edgewood Ave. W. in Northwest Jacksonville into a 21,839-square-foot Aldi store at an estimated project cost of $1.7 million.
Harveys operated in a 46,189-square-foot space. Aldi stores are smaller than the Harveys and Winn-Dixie supermarkets.
The Harveys is in the Edgewood Square Shopping Center.
T.D. Farrell Construction Inc. of Alpharetta, Georgia, is the contractor. Interplan LLC of Altamonte Springs is the architect and civil engineer. Codes-ABC Inc. of Orange Park is handling code compliance.
Jacksonville-based Southeastern Grocers Inc., the parent company of Winn-Dixie and Harveys, announced an agreement Aug. 16 to sell the company to German supermarket operator Aldi, whose U.S. headquarters are in Batavia, Illinois.
Southeastern Grocers said it would sell about 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys supermarkets in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi to Aldi.
Aldi said March 7 it completed the acquisition of Southeastern Grocers and would convert some of the 400 stores beginning in the second half of 2024.
It said it intended for “a meaningful amount of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets to continue to operate under their current banners.”
The company did not release details on specific stores.
Aldi has started the conversion process.
The D’Iberville, Mississippi, Winn-Dixie is being converted to Aldi, WLOX.com reported in June. AXIOS reported in May the Winn-Dixie in Metairie, Louisiana, is being converted.
Aldi has about 2,400 U.S. stores and said the Southeastern Grocers acquisition is part of a plan to add 800 stores nationwide by 2028 through new openings and store conversions. Its Haines City Division in Florida serves Northeast and Central Florida and Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota counties.
“With the acquisition of Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets, Aldi will serve even more communities in the Southeast, bringing us closer to our customers in a region where we’ve already experienced significant demand for affordable, quality groceries,” Aldi CEO Jason Hart said in the March 7 news release.
Aldi said about 50 Winn-Dixie and Harveys stores will begin the conversion process in late 2024 and reopen as Aldi stores in 2025.
Aldi said its expansion plans include adding about 330 additional stores in the Northeast and Midwest and entering new cities in the West, including Las Vegas.
Southeastern Grocers also operated 28 stores under the Fresco y Más banner, which was sold separately to an investment group called Fresco Retail Group LLC.
Winn-Dixie began in the 1920s when the Davis family opened a store in Miami and began expanding with other stores.
The company established its headquarters in Jacksonville in 1944 and became Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. in 1955.
Winn-Dixie went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2005 and 2006.
In 2012, Winn-Dixie merged with Greenville, South Carolina-based Bi-Lo Holdings to form Southeastern Grocers and based the headquarters in Jacksonville.
Southeastern Grocers went through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2018, with a group of investment funds taking control of the company.
The Winn-Dixie chain and its parent company have been headquartered in Jacksonville for 80 years.