Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is the second retailer to show up on site plans for outparcels at a potentially redeveloped Regency Square Mall.
City utility JEA is reviewing a service availability determination request filed Jan. 29 for a 2,786-square-foot, 75-seat Raising Cane’s on 1.34 acres.
The map shows the site is where Atlantic Boulevard meets the Arlington Expressway in the front of the Arlington mall.
A plan dated Oct. 2, 2024, indicates a double drive-thru. Consolidated Development Services of Addison, Texas, is the applicant and agent.
“We are taking over a small portion of an existing mall parcel located at the address noted in this request,” the application said.
The address is 9501 Arlington Expressway, which is Regency Square. While the property appraiser’s real estate number on the application refers to the Sears property at the west end of the mall, the site plan shows Raising Cane’s at the front entrance that is owned by Namdar Realty Group LLC.
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is building its first Jacksonville location at 8308 Merchants Way in Oakleaf Station at southwest Argyle Forest Boulevard and Merchants Way in Southwest Jacksonville.
Frontier Building Corp. of Miami is the contractor for the almost $1.1 million project comprising a restaurant; free-standing drive-thru and pickup window canopies; and a dumpster enclosure.
The city issued permits Dec. 3 for the construction following a permit Aug. 23 for site work and horizontal development on the 1.21-acre site at project cost of $2 million.
A building statistics table says the 3,457-square-foot restaurant will have 71 seats and 35 patio seats.
The 29-year-old chain is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Its menu comprises box combos of chicken fingers, fries, coleslaw, Cane’s Sauce, Texas toast and drinks. The sandwich combo comprises three fingers on a toasted bun.
The Oakleaf Station project team comprises owner Raising Cane’s Restaurants L.L.C. of Plano, Texas, and in headquarters at Baton Rouge; Zebra Architecture PLLC of Scottsdale, Arizona; and civil engineer Kimley-Horn of Vero Beach.
Regency Square site
At Regency Square, a site plan indicates that Raising Cane’s could be on Outparcel 1, which is at a main entrance into the mall at 9501 Arlington Expressway.
That entrance roadway would divide the mall parcels with Impact Church to the west and potential redeveloped property to the east, where the existing mall likely would be demolished.
Previously filed plans have indicated 11 outparcels wrapping around the southeast corner of the property at Atlantic Boulevard and Monument Road.
JEA previously received a service availability request for a proposed 5,200-square-foot convenience store and gas station on a 1.42-acre site that appears to be Outparcel 5.
It is called “CK Atlantic Blvd & Monument Rd,” hinting that it could be a Circle K.
Bohler Engineering of Orlando is the civil engineer.
The gas station site plan shows it along another proposed access road off of Atlantic Boulevard.
The description calls it “part of a master redevelopment.”
The outparcels are shown as 1.16 to 2.21 acres.
The existing Firestone auto care store is shown on the 1.23-acre corner Outparcel 7.
Redevelopment
The applications seem to indicate the 58-year-old Regency Square Mall is closer to redevelopment.
A December visit to the mall found that just two stores remain open within the interior of the east side of the mall – Rogers Jewelers and Tokyo Sakura, the only food court tenant.
The only access into the mall is from the food court in the back entrance, which faces north, and the only interior pathway is from the food court to Rogers Jewelers near the main corridor.
Visitors have no access into any of the other corridors. The remainder of the eastern mall is roped off.
The mall is open 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Rogers Jewelers is closed Tuesdays.
Based on the gas station and convenience store site plan dated Sept. 25 by EnVision Design & Engineering of Jacksonville, it appears that the eastern part of the mall would be redeveloped, although no specific uses are indicated.
While the plans do not specify demolition, the enclosed east mall is listed as “Main Parcel 2.”
The parking lot to the north is “Main Parcel 1.”
Impact Church, the Dillard’s Clearance Center and Sears are separately owned and not within the master development plan as now outlined.
Regency Mall Realty LLC, a partnership of Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group LLC, both based in Great Neck, New York, owns the bulk of the mall and said Oct. 2, 2023, it had a contract to sell its portion.
Property records show the group owns about 74 acres and about 980,200 square feet of retail space at Regency Square.
Lake City-based Blackwater Development LLC announced Oct. 16, 2023, that it has a contract to buy that part of the mall.
President Rurmell McGee said May 29 the purchase could be completed by the first quarter of 2025, pending due diligence and other issues. He spoke to Scenic Jacksonville’s Scenic Vision Series on Arlington panel discussion at Jacksonville University.
McGee said Dec. 10 he had no comment on the JEA site plan or the progress of redevelopment. He could not be reached immediately about the Raising Cane’s
He said in May that parts of Regency Square Mall would be demolished and the property redeveloped with multifamily housing, retail, entertainment and other uses pending the largely vacant regional mall’s sale.
There are two portions shown on the gas station site plan filed with JEA.
A roadway with a roundabout runs north from Regency Square Boulevard south to where the Arlington Expressway connects with Atlantic Boulevard.
Impact Church is northwest of the roundabout.
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