Sleiman Enterprises to announce more tenants at Atlantic North

[thelakelander]

Sleiman Enterprises and Earth Fare announced the return of the natural and organic foods grocer to Sleiman’s Shoppes of St. Johns Parkway in St. Johns County, which raises the question about the store’s potential return to East Arlington.

Full article: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/sleiman-enterprises-to-announce-more-tenants-at-atlantic-north

[Ken_FSU]

This guy is REALLY good about developing retail centers and filling them with quality tenants.

Maybe we should think about having him do something downtown?

[thelakelander]

Kind of crazy how much heartache was given over the talk of providing Sleiman $12 million in incentives to redevelop the Landing years ago. Only to have the same dissenters want to spend hundreds of millions more for Lot J. Hopefully, the last few years will have taught us a lesson about seizing opportunities when they present themselves and cashing in while the economy is humming.

[marcuscnelson]

I imagine if Brown had been re-elected it probably would have gone through eventually. The bigger factor seems to be that Curry decided to completely blow the train off the rails when he took over.

[JBTripper]

This guy is REALLY good about developing retail centers and filling them with quality tenants.

Maybe we should think about having him do something downtown?

Is he though? Miramar Center is located in one of the more affluent areas of town and can't seem to support much more than a Goodwill Donation Center and a dingy, old sports bar. It's been about half vacant in my 10 years here. Likewise Lakewood Promenade. Since Slieman purchased it, there's been a paint job and some new signage, but everything that was vacant 5 years ago remains vacant today.

[Steve]

This guy is REALLY good about developing retail centers and filling them with quality tenants.

Maybe we should think about having him do something downtown?

Is he though? Miramar Center is located in one of the more affluent areas of town and can't seem to support much more than a Goodwill Donation Center and a dingy, old sports bar. It's been about half vacant in my 10 years here. Likewise Lakewood Promenade. Since Slieman purchased it, there's been a paint job and some new signage, but everything that was vacant 5 years ago remains vacant today.

I do feel like Sleiman has a mousetrap that he knows and he struggles with anything outside of that.

In terms of Mirimar/Lakewood, I'd love to know his thoughts. I know in Lakewood it's pretty clear what the plan is - Starbucks is moving across the street (under construction now), and I'm guessing the building at the SE corner of San Jose/University is going to be dumped. No idea if he's going to replace it with anything.

[thelakelander]

They're also fixing up this retail building in Murray Hill:

[jaxlongtimer]

This guy is REALLY good about developing retail centers and filling them with quality tenants.

Maybe we should think about having him do something downtown?

Is he though? Miramar Center is located in one of the more affluent areas of town and can't seem to support much more than a Goodwill Donation Center and a dingy, old sports bar. It's been about half vacant in my 10 years here. Likewise Lakewood Promenade. Since Slieman purchased it, there's been a paint job and some new signage, but everything that was vacant 5 years ago remains vacant today.

I do feel like Sleiman has a mousetrap that he knows and he struggles with anything outside of that.

In terms of Miramar/Lakewood, I'd love to know his thoughts. I know in Lakewood it's pretty clear what the plan is - Starbucks is moving across the street (under construction now), and I'm guessing the building at the SE corner of San Jose/University is going to be dumped. No idea if he's going to replace it with anything.

To be clear, the new Starbucks in Lakewood, currently under construction, has nothing to do with Sleiman other than it will be vacating one of his buildings across the street.  Articles have indicated this move has been planned for over 2 years, predating Sleiman's purchase of Lakewood.  The site for the new location was sold by Daily's who either wanted the independent Shell station on that site closed and/or thought they could exploit the site better by building their template design.  Since their purchase, Daily's has built 3 stores on San Jose Blvd., one each in San Marco, Miramar, and North Mandarin.  They have a 4th one under construction on San Jose in South Mandarin.  So, I guess they decided they didn't need the Lakewood location so much anymore.

With COIVD-19 and e-commerce, many small businesses that fill these neighborhood centers are going out of business - likely faster than new ones moving in -creating the vacancies.  I also think that today Jacksonville may be "over-retailed" adding to even more vacancies.  It seems there are stores and centers everywhere - one is always just around the corner.

I figure, based on Sleiman's portfolio, he and/or collectively his family has to be at or near billionaire status.  They have owned a lot of land and centers for decades now so they probably have substantial equity and, with the growth of Jacksonville, their dominant market share and inflationary rents, also amazing cash flow.  This should give them staying power regarding vacancies, whatever the cause.

In Mandarin, there are a number of vacancies along San Jose and it seems the only new occupants of significant note are the marijuana dispensaries.  (I do note that Blue Bamboo and the Latin grocery did just open too).  The K Mart and Village Inn properties, proposed for multi-tenant, have gone nowhere in years while the Sleiman and Hakimian centers seem to have their share of vacancies.  If we lose more restaurants, I expect it to get worse before it gets better.

[Steve]

I’m aware Starbucks’ move has been in the works for a while and the old gas station site was never part of Lakewood Promenade and isn’t owned by Sleiman. What I was saying is it presents him an opportunity. Sometimes it’s nice to be a little lucky.

[jaxlongtimer]

I’m aware Starbucks’ move has been in the works for a while and the old gas station site was never part of Lakewood Promenade and isn’t owned by Sleiman. What I was saying is it presents him an opportunity. Sometimes it’s nice to be a little lucky.

Got it although I am not sure that losing a Class A tenant like Starbucks is a "lucky opportunity" most landlords would ask for, especially with retail vacancies already running high .

I remember (in the 1960's) when the current Starbucks building in Lakewood was a Dobb's House restaurant and Dipper Dan's ice cream parlor.  The end cap facing San Jose was also once the home of American Federal Savings & Loan.  They had a drive up teller window on the end.  As they grew (ultimately to several branches around the city until they were acquired), they ultimately built their own building across San Jose.  That building is now the home of Rosenblums clothing store.  Per Google Street View, it looks like the drive up tellers on both buildings have been replaced with windows and/or walled over.  I think the vault may still be in the Rosenblum's store though based on a visit long ago.