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.
Jacksonville’s first enclosed suburban shopping mall was located at the corner of Emerson Street and Philips Highway.
The appropriately-named Philips Highway Plaza opened in 1960, anchored by Montgomery Ward and Food Fair. Junior anchors included S.H. Kress and Woolworth’s; the rest of the mall was rounded out by a mix of local and national tenants, as well as a movie theater.
Renovations in the early ‘70s brought about a rebrand as Philips Mall. J.M. Fields replaced Kress, and Food Fair rebranded as Pantry Pride.
By the ‘80s, however, the mall had already entered a decline as Philips Highway’s “Miracle Mile” era had more-or-less come to an end. It was once again rebranded, this time as an outlet center named Market Square Mall; a new Sam’s Club building was constructed behind the mall, facing I-95.
The outlet rebranding, unfortunately, never quite caught on. A sizable chunk of the mall was decommissioned in the early ‘90s, and by the mid-‘90s it was vacant. The majority of the mall was purchased around the turn of the century and converted into an office park, now known as San Marco East Plaza. The Sam’s Club building was purchased separately and converted into a Skate World location; it is now home to Jacksonville Ice & Sportsplex.
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.