The city’s “The CW” affiliate changes ownership, Aetna leaves its downtown location, plus several other notes in this week’s jam-packed Building Up Jax.

TV Shake-up

The owner of Jacksonville’s WJXT (Channel 4) TV station, Graham Media Group, will purchase WCWJ (The CW-17) from Nexstar Broadcasting Group as part of a regulatory move, according to Jax Daily Record.

There is as of yet no word on whether the purchase of WCWJ will result in any format changes to the channel.

As JDR points out, this means that the six major broadcast stations in Jacksonville will now be owned by just three different companies. WJXX (ABC-25) and WTLV (NBC-12) are owned by Tegna, Inc., and WAWS (FOX-30) and WJAX (CBS-47) are owned by Cox Media Group.

Aetna ditches downtown for Southside

According to multiple sources, health insurance company Aetna will vacate its downtown location and move to the former Bank of America office park at 9000 Southside Blvd. near The Avenues mall. As part of the move, the office park will rename itself to Gramercy Woods.

The move is reported to be brought about by cost-cutting on the part of Aetna. The company has occupied its current space at 841 Prudential Dr. since 1999.

Jacksonville Business Journal reports that the move will occur once Aetna’s downtown lease ends in August 2017.

Bloomin’ Onion

Anyone passing by the Outback Steakhouse on San Jose Blvd.
has probably noticed some major aesthetic improvements. We noted the project last month when it first began — now, here’s a look at the finished product.

A few notes

• The long-vacant International Travel location at 3216 Hendricks Ave. will soon be occupied by The Antique Fox, via Jacksonville.com.
• Publix on Beach Blvd. at San Pablo Rd. is expanding, adding a liquor store next door at a value of $228,257.
• Additional permits were issued this week for two previously-announced projects: the Topgolf project at Brightman Blvd., and the Daily’s convenience store and gas station on Hendricks Ave.
• Chomp Chomp is now open at its new location in Avondale at 4162 Herschel St., after closing this past week downtown.
• Tesla’s mini-showroom at the St. Johns Town Center will undergo a $549,647 upgrade, via JDR.
• The previously-approved Bold Bean coffee shop at downtown’s Everbank Center has submitted plans for its $145,000 build-out, according to JDR.

As always, if you have any questions about development in Jacksonville, contact us at buildingupjax@coastaljax.com or on Twitter using hashtag #bujax. We’ll get it answered!