JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A generation has grown up hearing that Publix could be coming to San Marco … someday.
That day looks like it’s finally here. Probably.
While there have been false starts before, something happened last month that neighbors hadn’t seen until now: Construction crews broke dirt on the supermarket site at Hendricks Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard.
"This is incredibly important for the neighborhood," said Scott Wohlers, an investment firm executive who is president of the San Marco Merchants Association.
Eventually the project is expected to mean more convenience for residents and foot-traffic and customers for businesses close to the store. But for now the start of work is simply an end to waiting for a project that was first publicly discussed in late 2002.
“This is a huge relief. … It’s taken years and years and years,” said Joe Carlucci, an insurance agent who led the merchants' association before Wohlers took office this month.
Permits to build the two-story shopping center called East San Marco aren’t valid yet, with Jacksonville’s Building Inspection Division marking permit applications from October “return for corrections” in its records.
But four separate permits for site-clearing and sewer and driveway installation have been issued in December and January, letting contractors who specialize in infrastructure get to work.
“A lot of people are ready for it. It’s sort of become a running joke with the public,” said Chris Woolston, president of the San Marco Preservation Society.
The one-block project site is across Alford Place from South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church property that’s scheduled to become a four-story apartment complex.
Site plans have shown Publix backing up to Mango Place, the eastern edge of the shopping center, and small mall retail or restaurant spaces lining Atlantic.
Because open land is at a premium in the neighborhood, a 38,294-square-foot store was planned to be built on top of a ground-level parking garage, according to the October permit applications. A 1,430-square-foot Publix liquor store is part of the plan, too, along with about 18,800 square feet of "shell" retail or restaurant space for other tenants.
Developer Regency Centers hasn't released information about a construction schedule or other tenants, but spokesman Eric Davidson said Monday that the company was "organizing all that information as we speak," and could have updates in a few weeks. A Publix spokesman also said he didn't have a timeline he could share.
A leasing sign posted recently identifies Publix and Orangetheory Fitness, a boutique fitness studio, as tenants.
Carlucci said San Marco-area businesses haven’t seen the addition of businesses as something to worry about, although restaurant operators have asked the project's planners to try to avoid recruiting eateries identical to those already in the neighborhood.
“We kind of told them we’d like a little diversity … so we’re not cannibalizing our restaurants,” he said.
Beyond that, he said, business owners are viewing East San Marco as something that will draw more people to the already-popular area, creating more opportunities for existing businesses, many of whom had a hard year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“If it was on track to finish in the first quarter of 2021, that would be awesome,” Carlucci said, adding he realized that wouldn’t happen.
Predicting what will happen next at East San Marco has been a challenge for some time, including the last time a bunch of building permits were issued.
In December 2016 the city issued permits for a 33,481 square-foot Publix, a parking garage and phases of apartment construction standing four and five stories tall. (Housing was dropped from the current plan.) But developers who planned to buy Regency Centers’ interest in the project never closed on their deal and no one ever turned any ground.
That milepost, at least, has been reached this time.
When Publix will actually open is still anyone’s guess.
