JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Publix is coming to San Marco in an area that has been vacant for a long time.
A year after a deal for apartments fell through and 16 years after potential development first surfaced, it looks as if East San Marco will soon rise -- with retail.
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This time, says the property owner, East San Marco at Hendricks Avenue and Atlantic Boulevard will be just Publix Super Markets Inc. and other shops and restaurants.
There will be no apartments on top, and it might not even be named East San Marco.
“It’s going to be a terrific shopping center that’ll be very favorably received by the neighborhood and what the neighborhood needs,” Regency Centers Corp. Chairman and CEO Martin E. “Hap” Stein told Financial News & Daily Record.
“It will be a very positive addition to a great neighborhood in the San Marco area,” Stein told the newspaper Thursday after the Regency Centers annual meeting of shareholders.
He said construction should start within the year and be completed a year after that. East San Marco remains the name “for now,” he said.
Stein said Jacksonville-based Regency Centers will develop, own and manage an estimated 50,000 square feet of retail space comprising the 30,000-square-foot Publix and about 20,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
"Our position hasn’t altered since we signed the lease over a decade ago and remain committed to the project," said Publix spokesman Dwaine Stevens.
District 5 City Council representative Lori Boyer told newspaper Thursday she was happy to hear that Regency decided to develop the retail center.
“I know that area residents are looking forward to the grocer arriving soon,” Boyer said.