Deerwood, Jacksonville’s first gated community

A 1960s map showing the location of Deerwood. | Jacksonville Public Library Special Collections Department

Located at 9902 Baymeadows Road, the Deerwood Village Mall serves as an early suburban Jacksonville shopping mall that continues to survive the test of time and changing retail shopping trends. The shopping center’s story dates back to the 1960 development of the Deerwood Country Club, ten miles southeast of downtown Jacksonville. The Deerwood Country Club was Florida’s first gated community and for many years, the most exclusive residential area on Jacksonville’s Southside. The exclusive 900-acre development was the brainchild of Bryant Skinner and named Deerwood, due to the property’s abundance of wildlife.

Notable golf course architect George Cobb was hired to design the project’s golf course.The Deerwood Country Club development was financed by Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Company (SWD). At the time, SWD was Northeast Florida’s largest real estate, insurance and mortgage banking firm. Founded in 1884, as the Telfair Stockton Company, the firm developed the neighborhood of San Marco in the 1920s and Ponte Vedra Beach in the 1930s.

To make the isolated property accessible, land was donated for the construction of Southside Boulevard. Prior to this point, the only way to reach Deerwood was from Philips Highway along a three mile rural road called San Clerc. San Clerc eventually became Baymeadows Road and received an interchange with Interstate 95 when the highway was built.

Deerwood Village Mall is born

The Deerwood Village Mall in 1979. | State Archives of Florida

By the 1970s, Deerwood had become a desirable community on the edge of Jacksonville’s southward growth from the older central city. Responding to the need for commercial amenities, SWD moved forward with the development of Deerwood Village Mall at the intersection of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road. SWD hired local architecture firm Kemp, Bunch and Jackson, also known as KBJ, to design the shopping center. Anchored by Publix Super Markets and Eckerds, KBJ designed the development to have a similar architectural style to the nearby Deerwood development’s lodge, which was characterized with cedar shake roofs and a significant amount of landscaping.

The Deerwood Village Mall opened its doors in 1972, fourteen years after the first enclosed modern shopping mall was completed in the United States in Edina, MN. Designed by architect and urbanist Victor David Gruen, the enclosed mall concept was intended to serve as a centralized mixed-use epicenter of pedestrian scale activity for autocentric suburbia. Unlike Gruen’s enclosed mall concept, KBJ’s Deerwood Village Mall was developed as an open air shopping center intended to better fit into the then surrounding environment of Deerwood. Two years later, the mall’s two main anchors, Publix Super Markets and Eckerd Drugs opened their doors.

The mall’s Publix was an early part of the Lakeland-based grocery chain’s second attempt to expand into the Jacksonville market. Established in 1930, in Winter Haven, Florida, Publix opened its first Jacksonville store in the Norwood’s Gateway Shopping Center in 1959. However, that store was closed in 1962. After recording nearly $500 million in sales in 1970, the chain returned to town opening stores in Arlington Mall and University Mall and a Westside store at 4399 Roosevelt Boulevard in 1971. With the foundation established for a new division, the chain then opened a bakery plant and a produce distribution center in 1973.

By 1976, the bustling shopping mall’s list of 32 specialty shops included Venny’s Italian Restaurant, Sarah Anthony, Waldz Deli & Bakery, Persepolis Persian Rugs, The Village Vitamin Shoppe, The Lingerie Shoppe, Little Champ Market, Children Tree House and Sam The Super Teller. With Deerwood exploding in population, an additional 15,000-square-foot of retail storefronts were added by 1978, increasing the mall’s total square footage to nearly 100,000-square-feet.

Anticipating additional expansion, the City Council rezoned 20 acres in the immediate vicinity to allow for SWD to increase the shopping mall’s size in 1978. The rezoning included a 14.5-acre tract on the northwest corner of Southside Boulevard and Old Baymeadows Road and a 5.5-acre tract at the southwest corner of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road. SWD’s plans included the addition of an upscale department store, comparable to a Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue, once Deerwood’s population was large enough to support it.

Deerwood Village Mall’s success births Grand Boulevard Mall

The former Grand Boulevard Mall center court at what is now FSCJ Deerwood Campus.

Retail expansion finally took place with the November 1982 groundbreaking of National Capital Investments’ Grand Boulevard Mall. The Deerwood Village Mall was also acquired by National Capital Investments. With Grand Boulevard Mall proposed, National Capital Investments shifted the focus of the older shopping center to a “convenience center” and tenants were targeted and positioned to not have the shopping centers compete against each other.

Located across the street from Deerwood Village Mall, the $16 million, 289,000-square-foot, two-story upscale mall was anchored by an 80,000-square-foot Jacobson’s department store. Founded in 1838 by Abram Jacobson in Reed City, MI, Jacobson’s was a 25-store chain specializing in high-quality clothing, gifts and other merchandise. Unlike traditional mall-based department stores, Jacobson’s preferred smaller shopping centers, where they could serve as the dominant anchor. Jacobson’s and the developer felt the location would attract shoppers from St. Johns County, Orange Park, Mandarin and the Beaches that were used to flying to upscale centers in Dallas, New York and Atlanta for their consumer needs.

The vision for Grande Boulevard quickly morphed into the reality that it was too ritzy for Jacksonville. Viewed as too expensive, consumers stayed away, opting for other shopping malls in Jacksonville. By 1988, more than half of the mall’s leasable retail space had gone dark and the final nail in its coffin came with the 1990 opening of The Avenues. In 1994, the failed Grand Boulevard Mall was sold to Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) for $4 million, paving the way for its conversion into Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Deerwood Campus.

Deerwood Village Mall lives on

The center court of Deerwood Village Mall. Today, the shopping center is home to businesses that serve the culturally diverse Baymeadows community.

While Grand Boulevard Mall failed, Deerwood Village Mall continued to morph and prosper in a location accessible and surrounded by three busy streets. In 2000, Deerwood Village Mall LLC of Boca Raton acquired Deerwood Village Mall for $6.8 million. At the time of this transaction, the shopping center’s list of tenants included American Express, Carla’s Shoes, General Nutrition Center, Dunkin Donuts, Tijuana Flats restaurant, Venny’s restaurant and Persepolis Rugs. More change came in 2004, when Largo, FL-based Eckerd Drugs was sold to CVS Corporation and Jean Contu Group for $4.5 billion. Founded in 1898, Eckerd was the second-largest pharmacy chain in the country at its peak, with approximately 2,802 stores in 23 states. A Winn-Dixie (now Rowe’s IGA Supermarket) anchored shopping center was added in the mall’s west parking lot in 1986. Additional restaurant outparcel buildings, now occupied by Panda Express, Jimmy John’s Sandwiches, Vino’s Pizza & Grill and Las Tapatias Mexican Restaurant, were added in 2006 and 2009.

A victim of its own success, the shopping center’s original Publix, built 50 years ago, will close on October 5, 2024. Publix plans to demolish and replace the store and adjacent CVS pharmacy space with a new 48,640-Publix Food & Pharmacy and a separate liquor store. Here are a few present day photographs of Deerwood Village Mall.