Businesses flee Regency Square Mall without AC

[Florida Power And Light]

Maybe the area is Haunted...

[jaxoNOLE]

More detail on that "finalized contract":

"Blackwater Development has entered into a contract to acquire the Regency Square Mall property," President Rurmell McGee said in a statement Oct. 16.

"We are currently early in the initial phase of the due diligence process. Our primary objective at this juncture is to conduct a thorough assessment of the property and determine the project's feasibility."

It won't be a quick purchase.

McGee expects the sale could close in the third quarter of 2024.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2023/oct/17/blackwater-development-announces-contract-to-buy-regency-square/

According to the article, McGee was formerly employed at Rimrock Devlin, the last development group whose attempted purchase of the mall fell through. Blackwater Development was newly formed in 2022.

[jaxlongtimer]

This has to be a major boneheaded move by a property owner to sell the dead middle of their property or for anyone else to buy it from them with this condition.  Does the church also have an easement or ownership to/of any parking or access roads?  Bad enough not own the Dillards and Sears stores but at least the are on one end close together.  Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

[thelakelander]

They probably made millions by selling the Belk and AMC spaces. They never had any intention of helping this property survive as a traditional mall. They got it for scraps and made a big profit letting it die. I can't imagine the buyer (if the contract is ever finalized) will fix it either.

[marcuscnelson]

This has to be a major boneheaded move by a property owner to sell the dead middle of their property or for anyone else to buy it from them with this condition.  Does the church also have an easement or ownership to/of any parking or access roads?  Bad enough not own the Dillards and Sears stores but at least the are on one end close together.  Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

I'm holding out hope that Impact is agreeable and can be built around and these Blackwater guys recognize that. A little creativity on the part of all parties can make this work.

They probably made millions by selling the Belk and AMC spaces. They never had any intention of helping this property survive as a traditional mall. They got it for scraps and made a big profit letting it die. I can't imagine the buyer (if the contract is ever finalized) will fix it either.

I mean it's right there in the graphic, they basically doubled their money by spinning off the AMC and Belk. Ironic to see Eddie Lampert mentioned because he did much the same with all of Sears.

I'm not saying there's no risk with redeveloping this property. But there's no reward without risk.

[thelakelander]

^It does! I totally missed the sell numbers in that graphic when looking from my phone a few days ago.

[jaxlongtimer]

For the $7 million they got from the church, I wonder how much that "depreciated"' the value of the surrounding property and/or will cost today to work around it.  Not sure that sale was worth it.

[thelakelander]

They purchased it for $14 million. They've already sold a fraction of the property for $33.23 million. In no way are they losing money on this.

[thelakelander]

Looks like the plan is simply to demolish the mall and sell outparcels to whatever gas station, restaurant, strip plaza, and/or garden apartment group willing to develop something.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/dec/10/site-plans-show-first-sign-of-regency-square-mall-redevelopment/

[Jax_Developer]

This one sucks to hear about. Not surprised at the end of the day... Just curious what they had to pay at this point.

[Jagsdrew]

Looks like the plan is simply to demolish the mall and sell outparcels to whatever gas station, restaurant, strip plaza, and/or garden apartment group willing to develop something.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/dec/10/site-plans-show-first-sign-of-regency-square-mall-redevelopment/

We really need a mattress store and car wash over there!

[copperfiend]

Not a surprise at all. The mall has four different owners. This was always going to be a mess. It's a shame.

[thelakelander]

[marcuscnelson]

To some extent this is a given, but there are absolutely ways this could be better planned than a mere strip center.

I guess today is a parade of failures to lead.

[CityLife]

Really sad. It's another example of Jacksonville just being too sprawling or the government too incompetent to properly plan anything. A city I was previously Planning Director in also had a defunct mall site that was located at a key intersection with redevelopment potential. It's fairly similar to Regency, in that there is a much more desirable commercial hub (ala St. Johns Town Center) on the better side of town affluence wise.

Rather than watch it flounder, we did some city subsidized master planning on behalf of the previous land owner that did not have the vision or capability to pull anything off. With our visioning of the site, we were able to bring in a well regarded developer that had done numerous large scale mixed-use projects. Then worked with the developer to craft new land development regulations that made the development work.  So instead of having the mess that Regency will become, this will be getting built soon: