Few cities in America were impacted by the rise of suburban shopping malls as significantly as Jacksonville.
The city had already built up a reputation as a shopping mecca through its decades of thriving downtown department stores. It therefore came as no surprise that, when shopping malls boomed in popularity in the 1960s, mall developers set their sights on the Bold City.
Five enclosed shopping malls debuted in Jacksonville during the ‘60s, and another three were built in the decades since. Only two are still in operation as malls, with the rest having been either redeveloped for a new purpose or demolished.
We’ve put together a brief history of each of Jacksonville’s eight indoor shopping malls, as a reminder of how the city was once among the country’s finest shopping destinations.
Though it had technically existed as a traditional shopping center since 1959, Gateway Mall didn’t gain its enclosed portion until the late ‘60s.
Even after the enclosed addition, the center operated as something of a hybrid between a traditional shopping center and a mall. The new mall portion – which was a relatively small 176,000 square feet on its own – was anchored by Montgomery Ward and J.C. Penney, which joined the center’s existing anchors that included G.C. Murphy, Food Fair, Winn-Dixie, and W.T. Grant.
By the time the mall was sold to a Canadian firm in 1984, Grant’s had gone out of business, May-Cohens had arrived, Montgomery Ward became Jefferson Ward, and Food Fair had rebranded as Pantry Pride.
Unfortunately, the change in ownership coincided with a rapid downturn in the mall’s quality. By the mid-‘90s, most of the mall’s occupants had left – including all of its previous anchor tenants.
The derelict shopping center was purchased by Gateway Center Economic Development Partnership in 1997 and, with the help of millions in public funding, it was redeveloped as an open-air center once again. Parts of the center were torn down with the aim of opening up the center to I-95, and former anchor units were subdivided to accommodate smaller-scale tenants.
New ownership managed a brief but notable tenure of success, even luring Publix to the center around the turn of the century. The remaining interior portion of the mall was given a small facelift in attempts to attract new tenants to its limited corridors.
Ultimately, though, too much of the property remained vacant to make the project financially viable in the long-term. GCEDP filed for bankruptcy in 2012, and the property entered foreclosure.
Today, much of the center remains vacant; among its notable tenants are Hibbett Sports, which occupies part of the old J.C. Penney building, specialty apparel shop Brothers 2000, and Family Dollar. The mall portion of the center has been closed for several years. Publix closed late last year but was quickly replaced by Winn-Dixie, marking the long-time local grocer’s return to the center it once anchored.
The Avenues is not going anywhere. That mall is in a better side of town and is more convenient to all areas of Jacksonville & even nearby St. John’s County to the south. Although stores began leaving in recent years, the mall is generally very healthy. The departure of Sears in late 2019 didn’t really affect the mall. Another plus is that the store occupied 120,000 square feet and was leased by Sears rather than being a 200,000 square foot store owned by Seritage Growth Properties. I will say that many of those stores, along with the ones at Regency & Orange Park, are going to stay vacant longer than the Avenues location. Simon is very good at filling vacant boxes so they won’t have a problem finding a new vibrant tenant for the space. The difference between the Avenues vs. Orange Park & Regency is that the area of Arlington isn’t very well ran considering how badly rundown Regency is, & I’m not saying that Orange Park will go under, but that mall is more for the middle class, & whereas with the Avenues, the surrounding areas are more affluent. Don’t be negative at all, I do think the Avenues will better compete with St. John’s Town Center by getting another makeover and having a Von Maur to replace the former Sears in 2022. In general, Jax’s Southside is very innovative. One thing that the Avenues & St. John’s Town Center have in common is that they’re both owned by Simon, which also owns other high quality malls. Either way, right now is a very tough time for all retailers & shopping centers, so there’s a chance that things will get better as the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic slows down.