Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2017
VOL. 104, NO. 212 • ONE SECTION
35¢
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From ‘very small aspirations,’ business grows into sports center
Photos special to the Daily Record
The Above Athletics Center is under development in southern Duval County, a quarter-mile from the St. Johns County line at 14797 Philips Highway.
Above Athletics Center designed for youth and high school sports training.
Jay Glatting watched his 9-year-old son play and train at the Jacksonville Basketball Academy, which he said grew from 30 to 300 participants in five years. It needed more space. Unable to find a place, he decided to develop it — and more. “The project went from very small aspirations to this,” Glatting said of the Above Athletics Center under development
in southern Duval County, a quarter-mile from the St. Johns County line. Glatting assembled a group involved in the center to buy, build and operate the 60,000-square-foot project at 14797 Philips Highway. It is designed for the academy and other sports training programs for youth and high school athletes. The Jacksonville Basketball Academy is directed by Jim Martin, who coaches the Providence High School basketball team, which won state championships MATHIS
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The Above Athletics Center will include the Jacksonville Basketball Academy.
Not just groceries: Publix investing in real estate Publix Super Markets bought dozens of its stores in recent years, while looking for ‘the next big thing.’ By K.L. McQuaid Observer Media Group Publix Super Markets Inc. isn’t just the dominant grocery chain along the Gulf Coast — it’s also a company with a considerable commercial real estate footprint
that’s growing in size. Though the majority of its 1,152 stores in seven states are leased, the Lakeland-based grocer has taken advantage of market conditions stemming from the past decade’s recession to bolster the portfolio of real estate it owns.
Since 2010, Publix has more than doubled the number of stores it owns, to about 300, said Brad Crenshaw, one of nine real estate managers in the company. Momentum is growing. In the past four years, Publix has acquired 119 stores, Crenshaw told a real estate conference held last month at Florida Polytechnic University sponsored by Lakeland commercial real estate brokerage Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Ralston Dantzler.
“It’s a pretty amazing feat,” Crenshaw said. “And we’re buying in all seven states we operate in. It allows us to better control our destiny and allows us to control the tenant mix of a property as well.” Earlier this summer, Publix spent $68.7 million to acquire a trio of shopping centers it occupies in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Polk counties, according to county property records. The company, which generated $34.1 billion in sales in 2016,
isn’t only buying existing or new stores, however. It continues to tweak prototypes and plans to roll out a revamped concept with an organic bent next year, the first of an estimated 100 total stores featuring organic foods. Publix’s moves come as the grocery business in Florida has become more crowded than ever, with the entrance of Trader Joe’s, Lucky’s Markets, Whole Foods Market, Walmart NeighborPUBLIX
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You should know ... Christian Oldenburg
Meet managing director of the Colliers International Northeast Florida office. PUBLIC
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