JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Construction permits for demolition of the Regency Square Mall site\u2019s east wing have been approved.<\/p>\n
The permits, issued on August 28, were filed by demolition contractor RealCo Recycling Co. on behalf of Regency Square Mall\u2019s owner Blackwater Development. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n With the permits newly approved, Jacksonville City Councilman Ken Amaro (R), who represents this district where the mall is located, is looking ahead to the future.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m highly optimistic about what that property is going to look like in the next year or two,\u201d Amaro said. <\/p>\n Action News Jax told you last April<\/a> that Lake City-based Blackwater Development paid $19.1 million dollars for roughly the roughly 74-acre mall.<\/p>\n For now, the abandoned mall, opened in 1967, doesn\u2019t look like much. Some businesses and organizations remain with Impact Church occupying the former Belk Department store.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s languished, it fell into disrepair,\u201d Amaro said. \u201cThen it became an eyesore. It became in many respects blighted property, and in any neighborhood, the last thing you want to have is blight.\u201d <\/p>\n Of course it won\u2019t stay like this for long. Action News Jax told you in July<\/a> that most of the mall\u2019s indoor public areas will be demolished to birth Nexus at Regency. It\u2019ll be a mixed-use development with apartments, retail, restaurants, offices, and new internal streets.<\/p>\n A study by Build Florida 2030 finds that Regency\u2019s revamp could create nearly 1,600 jobs and increase economic activity by $360 million.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be an economic boost. I am expecting what I call transformative work. Work that transforms not just that intersection, but has a ripping effect up and down Monument and the rest of the Atlantic Boulevard corridor,\u201d Amaro said. <\/p>\n The project has at least three phases.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear exactly when the Nexus at Regency plans to open its doors.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Construction permits for demolition of the Regency Square Mall site\u2019s east wing have been approved.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,155128,347,155126,155125,28,348,116,351,118,117,349,155127,70885,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-387365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-blackwater-development","tag-cbs47","tag-construction-permits","tag-east-wing-demolition","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-northeast-florida","tag-realco-recycling-co","tag-regency-square-mall","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}