Now under new ownership, the largely vacant 58-year-old Regency Square Mall property may have a new lease on life with a new name, The Nexus at Regency.
Lake City-based Blackwater Development LLC announced April 9 that it closed on the purchase of the mall property at 9501 Arlington Expressway in the heart of the city’s Arlington area.
Blackwater Development LLC paid $19.1 million for Regency Square Mall among two deeds executed April 9.
The deeds were recorded April 10 with the Duval Count Clerk of Court.
Blackwater Development announced Oct. 16, 2023, that it had a contract to buy the part of the mall owned by New York-based investors that faced community and lawmaker complaints for allowing the mall to deteriorate and racking up almost $2 million in code compliance fines.
Blackwater said April 9 the acquisition “marks the beginning of a transformative mixed-use redevelopment effort aimed at breathing new life not only to the Regency property, but also into the entire Arlington community.”
“The Regency Square Mall is the front door to Arlington, and we believe a reimagined site will serve as a catalyst for future revitalization in the community for years to come,” said Rurmell McGee, founder of Blackwater Development, in the announcement.
McGee said his group is rebranding the development as The Nexus at Regency, a name that surfaced on documents filed previously with city utility JEA.
“The word nexus signifies a meaningful connection or link, and that spirit of connection is at the core of this project. We don’t want to lose the deep, personal ties that so many Jacksonville residents have with the Regency Square Mall,” he said.
Blackwater Development said First Horizon Bank committed financing to the deal.
Duval County property records show that the Regency Mall Realty LLC group, which is selling to Blackwater Development, owns about 74 acres and about 980,200 square feet of retail space at Regency Square.
The Duval County Property Appraiser’s Office assesses it at almost $6.5 million for tax purposes.
Impact Church, Dillard’s Clearance Center and the former Sears store at the mall property are separately owned.
The redevelopment plan includes multifamily residential communities, financial institutions and nationally recognized retail brands, the release said.
A site plan was not included. The project will need city, planning and building approvals.
Impact Church, which anchors the center of the property, will continue to serve as a vital anchor and community hub within the property, the release said.
The release said Blackwater Development remains committed to a close and collaborative partnership with the church, which was founded by George and April Davis.
“Bishop George and his team have been exceptional in sharing their hopes and vision for the future of the site — and we are actively listening and look forward to working with them,” it said.
Blackwater said it has also met with the remaining tenants of the mall to discuss potential solutions for their businesses. “We are committed to an open dialogue and look forward to continued conversations in the months to come,” McGee said.
Few tenants remain, with just two inside the only open interior portion of the East Mall and at least two that open to the exterior.
The announcement said the vision for The Nexus at Regency “is only becoming a reality because of the support, dedication, and belief of so many others. There are countless individuals and partners who have walked alongside us — and without them, this project would never have come to fruition.”
“We are incredibly proud of this project, but we are deeply aware that we are not the only ones making it happen,” McGee said.
The release noted five groups that helped:
• Mayor Donna Deegan, City Council member Ken Amaro, Council Vice President Kevin Carrico and all council members, as well as the city Office of Economic Development, Code Compliance and the Building Department, “guided us with patience and insight.”
• First Horizon Bank, where Market President Abel Harding and Senior Commercial Relationship Manager Dan Hennessy “have believed in us, in this vision, and in what Regency can become.”
• The group’s partners and investors, who were not identified but whose “support has been instrumental in moving this vision forward.”
• Architect Thomas Duke and civil engineer Doug Skiles, both based in Jacksonville, who “helped ensure the consistency and integrity of the overall project.”
• Fifth, the Blackwater Development family members.
Past and present
As the area’s first regional shopping mall, Regency Square opened in 1967 at 9501 Arlington Expressway in the developing Arlington area.
The original developer was the Regency Square partnership, led by the Martin E. Stein family of Jacksonville.
“The Stein family had an incredible vision when they brought the mall to Jacksonville. So many memories were made here and woven into the fabric of the Jacksonville community — we hope to continue that legacy of connectivity,” McGee said.
“Over the course of this redevelopment, we’ve heard incredible stories — people sharing how they got their first job at the mall, went on their first date there, or even proposed to their spouse within its walls,” he said.
“These memories are not just anecdotes; they are the emotional foundation of Regency’s identity, and they deserve to be honored.”
Blackwater Development said it has added a design element of the project to reflect and preserve that legacy.
One example is the monument entrance sign.
The announcement said Regency Square Mall is well-known for the distinctive brickwork that once defined its architecture — brick that covered much of the mall’s exterior.
“Rather than discard that history, we are repurposing the original brick as the base of all the monument project signs, symbolizing that the redevelopment is being built — literally and figuratively — on the foundation of what came before,” McGee said.
“We even designed the signage to pay tribute to its origins: the word Regency is framed within a square, a subtle but intentional nod to the ‘Regency Square’ Mall,” he said.
He said Blackwater’s hope is that the residents of Jacksonville “will see themselves reflected in this transformation and appreciate how we are weaving the legacy of Regency Square Mall into the future of The Nexus at Regency.”
Regency Square Mall continues to command prominence along the Arlington Expressway at the split with Atlantic Boulevard, and between Interstate 295 and Monument Road, providing direct access to Downtown, the Beaches, and North and South Jacksonville.
Sold and re-sold
As population shifted the past half-century, new shopping malls were developed and Regency was sold and re-sold.
Competition came in full force when The Avenues mall opened in Southside in 1990, St. Johns Town Center followed in 2005 and River City Marketplace, in North Jacksonville, launched in 2006.
Those developments drained shoppers and sales from Regency.
Before then, Regency Square was the biggest game in town when it opened in 1967 with 50 stores and later expanded to more than 100 department stores, boutiques, specialty retailers and food vendors.
The center doubled in size in 1981-82 and added more space in the early 1990s.
In 1991, Regency Square sold the property to an entity that became controlled by General Growth Properties of Chicago.
The Stein family took shopping mall developer Regency Centers Corp. public in 1993 and that company had no ownership in Regency Square.
General Growth went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2009 and 2010.
By February 2013, General Growth said the mall had been “transferred to the special servicer,” which was trying to renegotiate the loan on the property.
General Growth Properties sold the property in 2014, reporting that occupancy at Regency Square had fallen from 60.1% at the end of 2012 to 37.9%.
A New York-based group known for buying, but not necessarily renovating or maintaining, aging malls then added Regency to its portfolio.
A decade of decline
Three LLCs led by New York-based Regency Mall Realty LLC bought the mall for $13 million on Feb. 14, 2014.
Regency Mall Realty LLC is a partnership of Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group LLC, both based in Great Neck, New York.
It sold off the movie theater parcel behind the mall in 2015 for $26.2 million and it sold the closed Belk store in the center of the mall to Impact Church for $7 million in 2016.
Regency Mall Realty LLC said Oct. 2, 2023, it had a contract to sell its portion, after which Blackwater Development confirmed it was the prospective buyer.
Ongoing deterioration had generated city code compliance fines of $1.85 million as of March 3 as ceiling tiles molded, buckled and fell in; rainwater flowed through the roof into hundreds of buckets, cans and containers; and air conditioning and heating systems sputtered. Fines also noted floor damage and exposed wiring.
Lawmakers called for corrections.
When the sale contract was announced, state Sen. Clay Yarborough asked ownership to take action to fix “the current state of distress of the Regency Square Mall.”
He labeled his letter to Namdar Realty Group and Mason Asset Management as an “Urgent Appeal for Intervention at Regency Square Mall in Jacksonville, Florida.”
District 1 Council member Amaro said at the time that the community “is tired of the mall ownership.”
He said if owners are not going to be “a productive partner in Arlington, they too should leave.”
The city said in an email Feb. 3 that the Jacksonville Office of General Counsel had met with McGee and sent him a copy of a settlement agreement template to review and, pending due diligence to make the purchase, to complete.
Signs of life
Signs of life have been surfacing surfaced as city utility JEA reviewed service availability for a redeveloped property.
More intentions for the redevelopment of at least part of the property surfaced in March with a preliminary new name – The Nexus at Regency.
And a definition – 11 commercial outparcels at northwest Atlantic Boulevard and Monument Road in Arlington. They would wrap around the inside of the southeast corner of the property.
Previous JEA applications show sites for a Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers on Outparcel 1 and a gas station/convenience store, possibly a Circle K, on Outparcel 5 among the 11 outparcels.
The existing Firestone auto care store is shown on the 1.23-acre corner Outparcel 7.
The description is for “creation of (11) commercial outparcels within the existing parking lot along Atlantic Blvd and Monument Road.” The estimated daily usage is “based on a mix of restaurant and retail.”
Based on the gas station and convenience store site plan dated Sept. 25, it appears that the eastern part of the mall would be redeveloped, although no specific uses were indicated.
A Sept. 25 gas station and convenience store site plan does not specify demolition, but the enclosed east mall is listed as “Main Parcel 2.”
The parking lot to the north is “Main Parcel 1.”
The 41.84-acre eastern site is at northwest Atlantic Boulevard and Monument Road.
The 35-acre site is west of that, north of the Arlington Expressway.
McGee has said that parts of Regency Square Mall would be demolished and the property redeveloped with multifamily housing, retail, entertainment and other uses pending the mall’s sale.
All in all, it could be a five- to 10-year redevelopment.
“You’ve got the church, you’ve got Namdar, and trying to make sure everybody’s expectations are met is really what we’re working through now,” McGee said in May 2024.
McGee said there would be notification and discussions with existing tenants about their leases.
“So I would say within the first year, you’ll start to see action and start to see movement, but a lot of it will be based on what the final plan is, and then what the delivery requirements are for the users that become a part of the project.”
Florida law requires that notices to and from a landlord must be in writing and must be either hand-delivered or mailed, even if the rental agreement is oral.
When that happens, demolition is expected.
“I think the only way for us to redevelop that property is to demo it. I can’t tell you when the demo will happen, but the demolition is a part of that,” he said.
Developers often sell parts of their properties to companies or other landlords that want to build apartments, retail stores and restaurants.
“I think we’re open to all options,” he said, but the decision would be based on what makes sense for the project and what benefits the community.
Blackwater also would buy two buildings that are part of the mall ownership but free-standing – the leased Firestone Complete Auto Care center and the closed Piccadilly cafeteria.
‘Future of Arlington’ support
Supporters and residents of the Arlington neighborhood have long called for reuse of the mall.
At a panel discussion at Scenic Jacksonville's Scenic Vision Series on "The Future of Arlington" May 29, 2024, at Jacksonville University, McGee was called up to the front of the room to talk to the crowd.
“It’s really about the vision and reality,” he told the group that clearly showed support for redevelopment of Regency Square Mall.
“We’re currently working on putting that together but it’ll be a mixture of multifamily retail, entertainment that … will revitalize that property,” he said to applause.
McGee said that his group is looking at what works for the community.
“How can people in the community benefit from that property? So instead of just looking at it from a development standpoint … it has to perform, it has to make money,” he said.
“That’s the only way any of us can do the things that we do. It has to be profitable, but the reality is we want to create a vibrant property project that benefits the neighborhood and benefits the constituents in that area.”
This story has been updated with the sale price of the mall.