WEDNESDAY September 11, 2019
Public legal notices begin on page 3
jaxdailyrecord.com • 35 cents
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
THE MATHIS REPORT
Grainger to lease Crossroads warehouse
Closure of Sears atRecord The Avenues Daily mall ‘creates opportunities’ JACKSONVILLE
The 297,067-squarefoot distribution center will be the company’s second in Jacksonville.
Daily Record Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
company of Sears and Kmart, said it will close the Sears store at The Avenues mall by mid-December. The store has anchored the 10300 Southside Blvd. mall since the shopping center opened in 1990. Sears occupies 125,330 square feet of space on two levels on the north end of the 1.11 millionsquare-foot enclosed mall. Liquidation sales are expected to start in mid-September, according to Sears and Kmart spokesman Larry Costello. Costello said Tuesday he would have no further comment and declined to say how many employees work at The Avenues mall store. A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Notice was not filed with the state as of mid-afternoon Tuesday. Costello said Sears would not release a full list of the latest closures, although USA Today reported almost 100 stores are in this round. Sears has been closing
W.W. Grainger Inc. will lease the 297,067-square-foot building at Crossroads Distribution Center developed by Miles River Partners LLC and TriGate Capital. Grainger is a business-tobusiness distributor of industrial maintenance, repair and operating products. The city is reviewing a permit application for Arco Design/Build to make tenant improvements for Grainger at a cost of $1.5 million at 6590 Pritchard Road in Northwest Jacksonville. Plans show Grainger will buildout 4,162 square feet for office space. Joe Micucci, Grainger senior director of external affairs, said the center will serve as a bulk warehouse to support the company’s almost 250,000-squarefoot Jacksonville distribution center at 8001 Forshee Drive in Westside Industrial Park. That center employs 160 people, he said. It is one of 16 distribution centers throughout the U.S. It serves Florida and Southern Georgia as well as being able to ship nationwide. The Crossroads facility will not affect Grainger’s branch at 8450 Philips Highway, Micucci said. “Grainger is adding this bulk warehouse to serve our customers in the region even more effectively,” he said. Micucci said Grainger is working though the team member needs, such as the number of employees. He said the company expects
SEE MATHIS, PAGE 2
SEE GRAINGER, PAGE 2
JACKSONVILLE
File image
Sears occupies 125,330 square feet of the 1.11 million-square-foot enclosed mall. That’s about 11% of the space at The Avenues.
KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
Sears says it is closing the store in mid-December. It has anchored the Southside shopping center since it opened in 1990.
Retail real estate brokers say the impending December closure of Sears at The Avenues mall gives the Southside shopping center a chance to fill the space with a more successful and vibrant tenant. “It creates opportunity,” said Jason Ryals, executive director of Colliers International Northeast Florida. Ryals said mall ownership, which includes national retail investor Simon Property Group, can sign a tenant “to bring some new life to that part of the project.” He mentioned fitness and furniture tenants. “They won’t have a problem finding new tenants for that space,” Ryals said. Sears, which has undergone bankruptcy reorganization, “doesn’t bring much to the trade area or the mall,” he said. “Store closures aren’t always a negative,” he said. Transform Holdco LLC, the parent
Fidelity kills deal to acquire Stewart Fidelity National Financial Inc. on Tuesday said it is terminating its proposed acquisition of Stewart Information Services Corp. after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Friday voted to oppose the merger of the two title insurance companies. Jacksonville-based Fidelity, the dominant company in the title insurance industry, agreed to buy Stewart for $1.2 billion in March 2018. The deal would have increased Fidelity’s share of the U.S. title market from 32% to 43%, and the FTC said it was opposed to the deal because it would lessen competition in the market.
VOLUME 106, NO. 209 • ONE SECTION