A Tampa-based developer has a 22.16-acre stretch of vacant land along Pritchard Road in West Jacksonville under contract, with plans for a grocery-anchored shopping center that could bring up to 966,000 square feet of retail and self-storage space to a corridor now dominated by warehouses and industrial parks. Jacksonville City Council introduced two ordinances on Sunday, August 24, to rezone the site from agriculture to community commercial, setting up the Pritchard Plaza planned unit development for a public hearing before the Land Use and Zoning Committee.
Dunphy Development LLC, led by CEO Jim Dunphy, is pursuing the retail project on land situated north along Pritchard Road between Jones Road and Magill Road, west of Interstate 295 between the Westside Industrial Park and the Westlake Industrial Park, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. Dunphy told the paper his group has the parcel under contract and that he wants to provide convenient shopping options while giving area employers the chance to create jobs and existing businesses room to grow. Ordinances 2026-655 and 2026-656 were both introduced August 24, and the Land Use and Zoning Committee's public hearings are scheduled for October 6, per the same filings tracked by Legigram.
A Grocery-Anchored Center Wrapped Around an Existing Dollar General
Site plans call for the Pritchard Plaza PUD to include four outparcels and a personal property storage facility alongside its retail component, the Daily Record reports. One of those outparcels would wrap around an existing 9,301-square-foot Dollar General at 9075 Pritchard Road that was built in 2022, according to the same report. Dunphy has not named tenants yet; he told the paper he'll announce them once the plans are approved and the deal moves into closing and development, with real movement expected by late spring 2027.
The proposed scale marks a jump from earlier planning documents for the site. Pattillo Vice President Peter Anderson, whose firm owns the vacant land through Atlanta-based Stone Mountain Industrial Park Inc., said the prospective purchaser is still evaluating potential users or occupiers for the location, the Daily Record notes. Anderson said Pattillo was asked by an interested potential purchaser to request utility guidance from JEA, which issued a service availability determination letter for the site on June 1, 2026, covering a 67,000-square-foot commercial-retail center with associated outparcels — a letter that, per the report, does not mean development will take place. That June 2026 letter reflects a larger project than an earlier JEA service availability letter from March 5, 2025, which covered a proposed 50,000-square-foot “Shops of Pritchard” planned as a land sale to an unidentified prominent retail development firm.
Residential Growth Driving the Push for Retail
The Daily Record's report ties the project to residential growth in the submarket, where about 8,000 home sites were under construction as of March 2025, and where residential communities continue to expand. Dunphy told the paper the area has a serious lack of retail services, and Christopher Bicho, cited in the same report, said retail developers should be buying property in the area given how significant drivetimes to retail service are for area residents.
Dunphy Development has a track record of delivering Publix-anchored shopping centers across Florida, including the 73,000-square-foot Livingston Marketplace in Lutz, completed in 2022, and the Market at Mirada in San Antonio, completed in 2021, according to Dunphy Development. Jim Dunphy holds a 1984 degree in Urban Development from the University of Pennsylvania and has been a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers since that year, per the firm's project history. Smaller tenants in grocery-anchored centers like the one proposed typically range from about 1,000 to 5,000 square feet, the Daily Record reports, suggesting room for several smaller retail or service businesses alongside a supermarket anchor once one is secured.
Part of a Broader Industrial-to-Retail Shift on the Westside
Pattillo Industrial Real Estate controls more than 1,400 acres of commercial and industrial land in Jacksonville, including the adjacent 1,600-acre Westside Industrial Park and the 1,139-acre Westlake Industrial Park, land holdings that place the Pritchard Plaza site squarely inside one of the city's largest industrial footprints. Peter Anderson, who is Pattillo's vice president and has overseen Florida acquisitions and developments for the company since 1992, has managed more than 10 million square feet of industrial and commercial projects hosting corporate tenants including Boeing, BMW, UPS, and Unilever. Pattillo has pursued a similar strategy elsewhere in the city, seeking JEA utility availability in June 2025 for a 136,500-square-foot building and four commercial outparcels at NorthPoint Industrial Park in North Jacksonville.
The Pritchard Road corridor has also drawn significant logistics investment in recent months. New Jersey-based Sudler Cos. filed plans in June 2026 for an $18.5 million, 511,100-square-foot speculative cross-dock warehouse shell on 34.9 acres in Westlake Industrial Park, just south of Pritchard Road. Riggy's Truck Parking is set to open a 350-space paved truck parking facility with driver amenities off Interstate 295's Exit 25 at Jones Branch and Pritchard roads next month, adding to the freight-oriented infrastructure taking shape around the site.
This isn't the first time council has weighed rezoning land along the corridor for retail use. In October 2025, council reviewed separate ordinances to rezone a nearby 3.99-acre parcel at 4065 Magill Road from rural residential to neighborhood commercial for a proposed 30,000-square-foot retail strip, reflecting sustained interest in Westside grocery retail even as the area's industrial base keeps expanding. Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow is listed as the project agent for the Pritchard Plaza ordinances, according to the Daily Record's reporting. Whether the rezoning clears the Land Use and Zoning Committee without objection, and which grocery chain ultimately anchors the center, remain open questions ahead of the October hearing.
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