Out along Pritchard Road, west of Interstate 295 between large industrial parks and pastures, about 22.18 undeveloped acres are in consideration for a retail center.
And it just might include a supermarket.
That area of Northwest Jacksonville, north of I-10 and Beaver Street, has long been home to thousands of acres of distribution centers, logistics hubs and manufacturing, primarily among the Westside and Westlake Industrial Parks.
But it’s also an area of generational homesteads as well as a fresh landscape for new housing.
Rooftops follow jobs, and retail follows rooftops.
Pattillo Industrial Real Estate developed Westside Industrial Park and also is developing within Westlake.
Through Stone Mountain Industrial Park Inc., Atlanta-based Pattillo owns the property that is being considered for the 50,000-square-foot Shops of Pritchard.
City utility JEA issued a letter of service availability March 5 to Pattillo regarding the connection points for electric, water and sewer service.
Pattillo Vice President of Development Peter Anderson said March 6 that the Shops of Pritchard would be a land sale “to a prominent retail development firm” that he did not identify.
He said the number of buildings that would account for the 50,000 square feet of space has yet to be determined.
“The project is in the preliminary phases but the explosion of residential growth in the area (some 8,000 home sites are under construction) has created a need for grocery and retail services,” he said by email.
Typical grocery stores can range up to 40,000 to 50,000 square feet, so a potential supermarket would take up most of the shop space for now.
Smaller stores, such as the hair salons, dry cleaners, food storefronts and other tenants that typically join grocery-anchored centers, usually range from about 1,000 to 5,000 square feet,
There’s no indication – at least yet – of outparcels, which is where gas stations, fast-food drive-thrus and coffee kiosks usually settle in.
Welcomed to the Westside
Landings Real Estate Group President Christopher Bicho would welcome more retail to Westside, specifically the far Westside, as in west of I-295.
“If there are any retail developers here, you ought to go out and buy property,” Bicho, a real estate investor and developer, said at the BisNow “Jacksonville State of the Market” presentations March 6 at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Downtown.
Landings Real Estate is based in Rhode Island.
Bicho invests in apartments in West Jacksonville, which includes land south of I-10, and specifically he referred to the Cecil Commerce Center business and industrial park area.
“I think that is a textbook blueprint for economic development,” he said.
Cecil is 17 miles south of the Westside and Westlake industrial parks.
The city converted the thousands of acres it owns at the decommissioned Naval Air Station Cecil Field into Cecil Commerce Center and signed with master developer Hillwood.
Dallas-based Hillwood has developed it as the AllianceFlorida at Cecil Commerce Center industrial park and has been selling some of the land for retail development.
Other developers have been building residential neighborhoods throughout West Jacksonville.
“The city invested in the Cecil Field area and then had great developers build the job infrastructure, and now we are seeing the residents,” Bicho said.
“The only laggard is really getting the retail side of the world out there. We just had a new Publix out there, but it’s just still not enough to support literally the thousands of people who are going to actually live there in the next five years,” he said.
Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc. opened Aug. 15, 2024, at 11341 Normandy Blvd. in the Plaza at Normandy retail center at Chaffee Road, near Cecil Commerce Center. The store is less than a mile from the First Coast Expressway, another factor that will play into Westside development as it opens up access.
Another Cecil-area project is a new Gate gas station and convenience store.
Dallas-based Hillwood sold 13.27 acres in July 2023 to Jacksonville-based Gate Petroleum Co.
Gate is building a 6,536-square-foot convenience store and gas station with 24 fueling positions at 5877 Sky Warrior Way and 13655 New Boy Road, across Sky Warrior Way from a 5,200-square-foot Gate Express Carwash.
The addresses are within the Gate property at southwest Normandy Boulevard and POW-MIA Memorial Parkway.
The property also includes three future expansion parcels of 1 acre, 1.26 acres and 1.6 acres.
Bicho singled out Publix and Gate, and said “there will be more.”
Landings Real Estate Group’s properties include the Saddle Brook Landings apartments near Cecil Commerce Center.
Bicho considers Westside to be an opportunity.
“I think you are going to see families and people who need more affordable housing,” he said. “You’ve got some really affordable single-family home development out there, and town home development.”