Former Albertsons #4344 - Clearwater, FL (Countryside Shops)

Side view of Albertsons #4344 as seen from US 19 - 2007 Google Streetview

Albertsons #4344 / Planned Publix #1310

26583 US Highway 19 North, Clearwater, FL - Countryside Village

Today's post is a presentation of Pinellas County retail

     Of Clearwater's 3 former Albertsons stores, one was famous for being the very first Albertsons in all of Florida, one was famous for being a rather well-preserved mid-1990's Albertsons relic into the early 2020's, and the other was just...well...there. Sadly, poor Albertsons #4344 by Clearwater's Countryside Mall didn't have much notoriety going for it in terms of historical or retail nerd significance, and as such, has become one of the lesser talked-about former Albertsons stores in Pinellas County. It's a shame that is, as there are some oddities about this store, particularly involving what happened to it in the first few years after it closed. Today I'll finally give former Albertsons #4344 its time to shine, so lets learn a little more about this store and the unusual circumstances that became of it after it closed:

     Albertsons #4344 was built on a prime piece of property across the street from Clearwater's Countryside Mall. While currently Northern Pinellas County's only indoor shopping mall (and a very successful one at that), Countryside Mall was actually the newest of the 3 malls that once called Clearwater home, opening for business on September 8, 1975. Even though Pinellas County has a decent population, 3 malls was still a bit excessive for Clearwater, with mall bloat cited as the reason for the eventual closure of Countryside's two primary competitors in town - Sunshine Mall and Clearwater Mall. There's plenty to read online about the many malls of past and present in Clearwater (available at those links I provided) so I won't stray too far into the details of that, but needless to say Albertsons picked a good spot for a new grocery store.

     Albertsons' new store was to be part of a larger shopping center called Countryside Village, an entertainment complex sorts with over 250,000 square feet of space (inclusive of Albertsons' 55,000 square foot box, the largest store in the new center). 

     Countryside Village began construction in January 1981, with a projected opening for the majority of the tenants by November of that year, just in time for the Christmas shopping season.

     Outside of Albertsons, the other tenants in Countryside Village would skew more toward restaurants, entertainment, and specialty stores. A small movie theater and a new restaurant called Pizza Time Theatre (a former spin-off concept from the Chuck E. Cheese company) would serve as junior anchors to Albertsons, alongside a number of smaller tenants.

     Looking at the tenant line-up and considering how Countryside Village was designed to be a higher-end skewing specialty-store and entertainment district, Albertsons seemed like a strange choice to be the anchor of this strip. I feel like a department store or even Publix would have made more sense to anchor Countryside Village, but the pairing with Albertsons seemed to work out in the end - the Albertsons lasted for quite a long time. Albertsons remained at Countryside Village until 2008, and received two large remodels during its tenure here - one in 1991 (presumably to Blue and Gray Market from its original 70's Stripes decor, that remodel mentioned in the above clipping) and another ca. 2003 to presumably Industrial Circus/Broadway (probably looking very similar to what you'll see at that link, just with this store being a mirror). Unfortunately I've never seen any interior photos of this store as an Albertsons, so my guesses on the decor packages are based solely on the timeframes of the remodels and characteristics of the exterior modifications.

     In May 1994, a rather strange shoplifting event occurred at Albertsons #4344. After being apprehended by a security guard and handcuffed (I didn't realize store security even had such power), a man who attempted to leave the store with 4 video tapes and 3 bottles of sunscreen without paying made an unusual escape attempt.

     The man ran out of the upper-level security office, onto a catwalk, and leaped onto the store's suspended ceiling. Since a suspended ceiling can't hold much weight, the suspect ended up crashing through the ceiling and landing on his head in front of the meat counter, suffering traumatic injuries. Had the man just waited for police to arrive, he most likely would have been let go with a summons -  another remainder that is does not pay to outrun the law.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     Back when I was first putting together this blog, I swear I came across a really nice picture or two of this store when it was still open as an Albertsons. Back then I downloaded anything I could find that was somehow related to a Florida Albertsons store, but I have no idea what I could have done with those pictures - they weren't in my usual download place. Unless I dreamed up those pictures, these few blurry Google Streetview images of the store are what we'll have to use today to show what this place looked like as an Albertsons. While a typical Skaggs-era holdout building like this at its core, the building was dressed up in its 2003 remodel with a reconfigured entryway, complete with a decorative arch similar to the one installed over the liquor store and side entrance (which is a little clearer in the GSV image I started this post with).

     Albertsons #4344 was included in the sale of 49 stores to Publix in 2008, a sale that wiped out 13 of Pinellas County's 15 Albertsons stores at the time. While there's no shortage of Publixsons stores in Pinellas County because of that sale, something strange happened with Albertsons #4344 - Publix never opened a store here.

     Going as far as assigning this building a store number (#1310) and applying for a pharmacy license, Publix ultimately chose not to reopen this store under their own brand, a fate suffered by only one other Albertsons store purchased by Publix in that batch (#4315 in Tallahassee). In #4315's case, Publix had just opened a brand new store across the street from that building two years prior to acquiring it. As such, Publix wasn't going to relocate that store to an old Albertsons, and even though it's Publix we're talking about, they didn't open it as a "relief" location either (like what happened with #4302, included in that same deal). As such, Publix originally intended to convert #4315 into a 1st Gen Greenwise Market, a plan that was eventually aborted once Publix quietly decided they weren't going to move forward with opening any more of those stores by late 2008. My guess is that old #4344 was also on track to become a Greenwise Market as well, and why it suffered the same fate that #4315 did. Publix already had a nice cluster of stores around here (the closest being 2 miles to the east), so I wouldn't be surprised if this location presented itself as a potential for Greenwise, especially since both the Palm Beach Gardens and Boca Raton Greenwise stores were located in high-profile upscale shopping centers across from or next to a mall like this building was. Even after Greenwise was phased out, Publix let go of this location instead of opening it as a regular Publix, which could have worked, considering the slight buffer between stores and the eventual closure of the Sunset Point Publix a little to the south of here in 2012 also.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     In 2011, once Publix decided this building wasn't for them, they sold it to Dick's Sporting Goods. Dick's ripped apart this former Albertsons and ultimately made it unrecognizable as a supermarket. As a concession though, Google Street View drove by the building as it was in mid-conversion, and you can see some interesting perspectives of it by clicking around here.

     Other than being a little bigger than a typical non-House of Sport Dick's store, there really isn't anything to differentiate this location from any other store in the Dick's chain these days.

     Dick's even took the effort to stucco over the original river rock panels on the building's exterior, leaving nothing much from Albertsons except the original sidewalk ramps.

Photo courtesy of Google Streetview

     Since they were still visible in GSV, here's a look at the original river rock panels before they were covered over. The GSV clipping you see above is the same section of wall we just saw one photo back in modern times.

     Although completely rebuilt, Dick's main entrance is located in the same place where Albertsons' main entrance once was.

     Heading inside, we see the building was totally stripped to the walls, leaving behind nothing supermarket related. The photo above is looking straight down the middle of the store from the front doors to the back.

     This particular Albertsons store was a mirror of this one, with the grand aisle on the left side of the building and Health and Beauty, the pharmacy, and the liquor store off to the right.

     Looking from the right side of the building toward the left, Dick's clothing departments take up what would have been the health and beauty area, looking toward the former bakery on the other side of the building.

     Knowing I wasn't going to see much in here, I just did a quick lap around the store's perimeter walkway, taking a few overview photos from each end as I breezed through.

     Taken from the former produce department at the back left corner of the store, here's a look toward the old bakery and deli departments on the left side of the building.

     Even for being an oversized store compared to Dick's usual, there was no shortage of stuff in here. I guess with the new 120,000 square foot House of Sport stores, filling a 55,000 square foot location is nothing for them!

     Here's another look across the center of the building, this time from the old grand aisle back toward health and beauty.

     I guess there is one thing that Dick's Sporting Goods and Albertsons have in common - they both sell items to make a better batter! Now that I finally found a way to slip that one in, it's time to head back outside for some final exterior photos of this store:

     While the background story is interesting, this really isn't the most exciting former Albertsons out there, which is why this store has faded away more than some of its former cohorts in town, and throughout the county.

     Looking down the right side of the building, you can barely see where the old right side entrance was closed in. The side entrance was located where the first light on the side wall is now, the patch only noticiable as the stripe at the top of the wall where the entrance was closed in is thinner than the rest.

     Even though Dick's changed pretty much everything they could have with the building itself, the road sign facing US 19 is a direct Albertsons relic, about the only obvious sign of Albertsons ever having spent time on this property anymore.

     Being that the Albertsons tour was rather lackluster, let's take a quick walk around the rest of Countryside Village to see what that's all about:

     Unlike its more specialty nature from when it was first built, Countryside Village has pivoted these days into being a rather plain big box power center, anchored by many of the stalwarts you'd expect from such a center these days. Countryside Village's current anchor tenants, outside of Dick's, are TJMaxx, Home Goods, and Ross Dress for Less - Home Goods in particular pictured above. Home Goods was built on top of what used to be the Countryside Village movie theater.

     Dollar Tree serves as a junior anchor to the strip, nestled between Home Goods and Ross.

     Countryside Village is comprised of two primary strips of stores, with the one containing Home Goods and Ross located on the eastern side of the property across from the strip featuring the former Albertsons and TJMaxx.

     At the very back of the property is this 3rd strip of retail, comprised of smaller storefronts and built entirely over a pond. You access this part of the strip via a series of foot bridges, and it's actually a unique and creative design to fit more retail onto what most would look at as unbuildable space.

     Looking back toward the portion of the center where Albertsons used to be, here's a peek at the center's TJMaxx store.

     Party City served as another anchor to Countryside Village, however this store closed with the rest of the chain in 2024. Its space appears to remain vacant as of mid-2026.

     So that's about it for our tour of Countryside Village, which isn't much more exciting than the former Albertsons it's attached to. Anyway, to wrap things up, here's our look at some satellite imagery of the former Albertsons store, starting with some Bird's Eye aerial images:

Front

Right Side

Back

Left Side

     And now for some historic aerial images, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:

Former Albertsons #4344 - 2023 - The former Albertsons is the large building with the white roof closest to the interchange.

Former Albertsons #4344 - 2012

Former Albertsons #4344 - 2010 - The store is closed, but still in original form here.

Albertsons #4344 - 2007

Albertsons #4344 - 2002 - The building as it looked before its early 2000's remodel

Albertsons #4344 - 1995

Albertsons #4344 - 1985

Future Albertsons #4344 - 1971 - Back when Pinellas County still had large tracts of open land available.

     Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see here at the site of former Albertsons #4344 in terms of supermarket relics. As such, for something a little more interesting, you can skip over to MFR to see another former supermarket practically next door that has a few more pieces of the past to see. In two weeks we'll be back in this general area for a tour of a currently operating supermarket that's much, much more interesting to look than this, so things will pick up here on the eastern fringes of Clearwater soon! 

Be sure to come back then, so until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger

Former Albertsons #4330 - Jacksonville, FL (Beach Blvd.)

Albertsons #4330 / Rowe's IGA Market / Virginia College

5940 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville, FL

Today's post is a presentation of Duval County retail

     It's been a very long time since we've been to Jacksonville on the blog, so let's change that today! While I officially have one more Jacksonville-area Albertsons store to cover in the future, this store is the last one I have to cover in Jacksonville proper, with us having already seen the other four stores in town (#4305, #4307, #4325, and #4369) in the past. As you may remember from those other posts, Jacksonville was a city where Albertsons never seemed to gain a strong footing. Being the hometown of Winn-Dixie and the only major Floridian market where Food Lion actually did well, on top of Publix being Publix, Albertsons was always a distant fourth place in Jacksonville. The last new Jacksonville Albertsons opened in 1988, and for being Florida's largest city in both population and area, that seemed to be a sign things weren't looking the best for the company here. The Jacksonville market was also an early casualty for the chain too, and outside of the Miami debacle, was the only other Floridian market exit completed by Albertsons before the company began its major nationwide downsizing in 2006. We'll talk about all that in more detail in just a moment, as I'd like to talk a little more about the origins of the Beach Boulevard Albertsons before we spend more time talking about the downfall:

Photo courtesy of Google Street View - The store as it was in the Rowe's IGA Market days

     Albertsons #4330 opened in 1979, placed roughly between the company's two existing stores in town south of the St. John's River - Southside's #4305 and Arlington's #4307. From my understanding of the Jacksonville neighborhoods, Beach Boulevard (also known as US 90) is the dividing line between Southside and Arlington, and one of the main east-west roads connecting downtown Jacksonville with Duval County's beachside communities. As such, there's no shortage of retail as you drive along this stretch of road, with Albertsons building their store at the busy intersection of University and Beach Boulevards, directly across from an existing Kmart store and Florida Memorial Hospital. Albertsons #4330 probably received a remodel in the late 1980's or early 1990's to Colorful Transition Market (going off Albertsons' usual remodel pattern), and received one final remodel by Albertsons in the early 2000's where the exterior was modified into what we see today. Just based off the updated facade this store got, I'm inclined to think this store got a Blue and Green Awnings remodel, as the facade looks very similar to what we saw at the former Altamonte Springs Albertsons (and had that same decor).

     Even with that final remodel in the early 2000's, this store didn't have much time left in it. Albertsons #4330 was sold off with the 6 other Albertsons stores in Duval, Clay, and St. Johns Counties in 2005 to local supermarket executive Rob Rowe, who had spent time working at both Winn-Dixie and Albertsons before buying these 7 stores and going off on his own.

Photo courtesy of a really old real estate listing

     The early days of Rowe's stores, named Rowe's IGA Markets, weren't easy, and that rocky start didn't bode well for those 7 former Albertsons stores. I explained in much more detail the tumultuous start of the Rowe's IGA Market chain in my write-up about former Albertsons #4325, the last of the former Albertsons stores to remain under the Rowe's umbrella, so you can check that out if you're interested in  learning more about the chain's early days. By 2008, Rob Rowe only had two stores left out of the initial 7 he purchased - this store on Beach Boulevard and old #4325. With his business on the line, Mr. Rowe decided to pare down his store base to one location and use that one store to experiment with formats until he found something that worked. Of the two stores he had left, #4325 on the Westside of Jacksonville was the one showing more promise, so unfortunately for old #4330, 2008 was the end of its tenure as a supermarket. Feeling that the site of #4330 wasn't showing any future promise as a supermarket, Rob Rowe sold the building to Virginia College to covert into a school, which opened by 2011.

Photo courtesy of a really old real estate listing

     As you'd expect from a supermarket to school conversion, this old Albertsons was completely gutted and rebuilt on the inside, however, Virginia College mostly preserved the building's exterior through their tenure here. While the windows and doors are all new from the conversion, the upper stucco grid pattern and trim is actually a remnant from Albertsons' early 2000's remodel.

Photo courtesy of a really old real estate listing

     Virginia College remained at this location until December 2018, when the for-profit college chain announced the sudden closure of all of its campuses after the school's reaccreditation application was rejected. It was reported that students found out about the college's closure when they showed up for the day and found the campuses locked and empty, as the closures came with no warning. If you Google "Virginia College Closing" there are lots of articles about the mess that was caused by the chain's sudden demise and how a lot of students were left hanging with few answers about the fates of their diplomas.

     At the time of my visit to the site of former Albertsons #4330, Virginia College had already closed, and was awaiting a new tenant. That new tenant would (partially) arrive in the fall of 2020, when Jacksonville University opened a healthcare simulation center in the right side of the building. It appears the Broach School, a independent non-profit K-12 school for children with special needs, eventually took over the left half of the building in recent times, filling the building completely once again. Anyway, at the time of my visit the building was totally empty, which made photographing this place much easier than trying to sneak a few photos of an occupied school.

     While the upper facade of the building was carried over from Albertsons (as we saw in that grainy Google Streetview image from the Rowe's days), all the windows and doors we see here were installed new during the conversion into Virginia College. Having had a similar remodel to what we saw in Altamonte Springs, I'd imagine Albertsons' doors were on the opposite sides of those two columns the current front door resides between.

     Off to the right side of this former Albertsons is a shopping center, which we can see in the background. We'll talk more about that shopping center toward the end of this post, however, that center was a later addition to the property, not appearing until the mid-1980's.

     When Virginia College was open, this door on the left side of the building provided direct access into the culinary school, an appropriate reuse of part of a supermarket I suppose! These days the Broach School uses this door as its main entrance, as Virginia College's main entrance was absorbed into Jacksonville University's side of the building.

     I'd have to guess the can lights spanning the length of the upper facade are original to Albertsons, as those were a very Albertsons-esque design feature. They may possibly be original to 1979 as well, as they were present in a similar configuration on buildings that received even less modifications than this one. The wide ramp in the concrete is also an Albertsons remnant, as a college certainly wouldn't need such a wide ramp for its purposes.

     Thankfully this goofy face drawn in the dust was the only one to stare back at me through the window during this visit. I didn't need a repeat of what I experienced during my visit to the abandoned Albertsons #4346 in Venice while I was here!

     Even though I knew there wouldn't be much to see in terms of supermarket remnants, would you still care for a peek inside this building? You would? Ok, let's take a quick peek inside then:

     Looking through the glass of the front doors, instead of seeing a few check lanes and the grocery aisles, we find a reception desk and a waiting area in Virginia College's old lobby. Not long after I took this photo, the building was gutted again, and through the glass in the most recent GSV image you can see what the area inside the door looks like now following Jacksonville University's remodel. Jacksonville University moved their main entrance off toward the right side of the building, so as you can see at that link, this door doesn't lead to much now.

     Now that we've looked inside, we'll walk down the front sidewalk and head around the corner for a quick look at the building's left wall:

     Around the corner was Albertsons' side entrance and liquor store entrance, pictured above. The side entrance and original placement of the liquor store were preserved in the early 2000's remodel, as there wasn't any space here to build out a new liquor store addition.

     Following the building's conversion into a school, a door remained in this location, apparently serving as a side entrance for Virginia College's former culinary school.

     Like the front facade, the upper stucco was also carried over from Albertsons, although I'm not sure if the stucco pattern covering the original river rock walls is from Albertsons' 2000's remodel or the building's conversion into a school.

     The back left corner had one final stucco embellishment over a single door, with a drop-off/drive through ramp serving it. While this looks like something the school would have added for their purposes, according to the satellite imagery, the driveway loop and the door were all added by Albertsons in the early 2000's remodel. I've never seen anything like this added onto an Albertsons before, and placement has me stumped on what this was in the supermarket days. My guesses are the liquor store was potentially moved back here during the remodel from off the side entrance, or this was a fancy design for a designated employee entrance. If anyone has seen something like this at an Albertsons before or remembers this store in particular, let us know what this was!

     Back up front, here's another look across the building's facade. Albertsons did a pretty good job modernizing these 1970's stores in the early 2000's, but it's a shame most of that work was for nothing in Jacksonville, as these stores all closed only 4-5 years after these remodels were completed.

     On a more positive note, as of 2025, Rowe's IGA Supermarkets have rebuilt their store count from 1 store back in 2008 to 7 stores today - one more store than Rob Rowe started out with back in 2005 too! (As even though he bought 7 stores from Albertsons, Mr. Rowe sold the Mandarin Albertsons directly to Publix after acquiring it, as he believed that neighborhood wasn't right for his intended discount/international leaning format). It's quite amazing still how Rowe's went from the edge of going out of business to being a respected chain of stores serving the Jacksonville area again, gaining quite a bit from the woes of Food Lion and Winn-Dixie in recent times to build back his store base. I actually liked the Rowe's stores I've been to as well, and they're a very good example of what a middle of the road grocer in Florida should be. After working to rebuild the chain and getting it back on its feet, Rob Rowe sold his stores to a Caribbean retail holding group for $47 million in 2022 - not a bad payday for his efforts! With Rowe's having found a way to jump back from rock bottom, let's hope that another Jacksonville-based supermarket chain can pick up the pieces from its recent woes and come back strong like Rowe's did!

     Looking toward the right side of this former Albertsons, we find another set of doors. Installed by Virginia College, this entrance on the right side of the building led into the cosmetology school, and now serves as the main entrance into Jacksonville University's half of the building.

     If nothing else, at least the Albertsons facade got to live on here, as Virginia College could have really stripped apart this building more during their deep and thorough conversion of the place. Even with two new schools in this building, it still looks the same today too, and turning our attention to the right side of the building...

     …that entire wall is still quite original from Albertsons too! Even though this building's river rocks were covered over with stucco many years ago, no modifications were ever made to this side of the building, left as another reminder of this building's past here at the honorary Albertsons University.

     After standing by itself on this corner for 6 years, a new Zayre-anchored shopping center was constructed on the adjacent parcel, designed in a way where it made Albertsons act as the strip's grocery anchor. The Zayre store remained in operation until 1988, when the chain was purchased by Ames, and after a brief run under the Ames name, closed in 1990 amid the financial fallout Ames faced from buying Zayre to begin with. After Ames closed, the former Zayre store was converted into a Scotty's Hardware, which appears to have closed by the late 1990's. After the closure of Scotty's, the left side of the former Zayre became home to a Staples, with the right half of the building now home to the HabiJax Habitat For Humanity ReStore.

     The portion of the former Zayre building that Staples took over included Zayre's main entrance, which Staples modified and repurposed for their own use. While from this angle that isn't super apparent anymore...

     …going around to the other side, a tiny remnant from the old Zayre facade remains (where the corner of the red-paneled canopy cuts inward on an angle), a leftover from Zayre's mid-late 1980's store design (here's a look at a better preserved example of this same design for comparison).

     Like many Staples stores in recent times, this one has since closed, shut down in 2023 as this chain seems to slowly bleed away stores as offers from better tenants come in. Following the closure of Staples, a Gordon Food Service store (now branded as Gordon Restaurant Market) opened in Staples' place. While Gordon rebuilt the interior to conform to a supermarket, the Staples facade was left behind, meaning the small piece of Zayre canopy still lives on too.

     With Staples in the left half of the old Zayre, off in the distance we see the HabiJax ReStore in the right side of the building.

      Being it was a thrift store, and I was already here walking around, and I had time to kill as well as a post about a not-super-exciting former Albertsons to fluff, I stopped inside and took a few photos of the HabiJax store. While thrift stores in old retail buildings can sometimes prove fruitful for remnants of the past, we weren't so lucky here. Being that the former Zayre spent time as a Scotty's, I didn't have high hopes for finding any retail relics in here, as Scotty's usually gutted out most buildings they took over (and being a hardware warehouse, didn't have much of their own remnants to leave behind either). In the end, that's what we'll find in here: not much besides lots of used hardware and home items.

     Even in a thrift store, I still managed to find an aisle 12! I had to photograph it too, because when opportunity knocks, you obviously head to the door aisle!

     Like most Habitat ReStores, this store had a heavy focus on hardware and furniture, with some housewares, kitchen stuff, and a little bit of other miscellaneous thrown in for good measure. Every Habitat for Humanity chapter that runs a ReStore operates them differently, with some branches running them like a regular thrift store with expanded hardware and furniture sections, and others selling hardware and furniture exclusively. HabiJax was somewhere in between those two extremes, as there was a small book and tchotchke section in the front corner mixed in with all the hardware and home stuff for sale here.

     I'd have to imagine the warehouse look was carried over from Scotty's, although the blue floors and blue walls were probably a HabiJax addition, as I believe Scotty's would have chosen orange if they were going to add any pops of color to one of their stores.

     Being that we're in the tile department, it would only make sense I mention the Big Lots I linked to earlier still had the original Zayre floor tiles inside it, which was a fun find from a long-gone discount chain. The tile pattern in that linked store would have been identical to what was in this building originally too, as both stores were about the same age. I wonder if HabiJax has any tiles for sale here that would replicate that pattern?

     The back left corner of HabiJax was home to mattresses, with little cubby holes of merchandise lining the partition wall between it and the (now former) Staples.

     As I mentioned before, this ReStore did have a little bit of regular thrift store merchandise, that selection mostly relegated to the front left corner seen here, where we find books, some rugs, and other miscellaneous et cetera.

     As I scanned over the books I pulled this one out, although I was quite disappointed with what I saw - that's not the A&P I was hoping to read about!

     Our final interior photo of the HabiJax store looks across the front end, with some more furniture (a lot of it looking like it hailed from the era of Zayre) separating us from the exit in the distance.

     Leaving HabiJax, here's one final look at the former Albertsons building, as seen from the edge of the former Zayre shopping center's parking lot. With Gordon Food Service opening in late 2024, that officially brings a supermarket back to this property after a 16 year hiatus. It's also good that the supermarket-turned-school was able to find new life as two different schools too, and that it hasn't been left to sit or be demolished. This part of Jacksonville has been seeing a lot of redevelopment lately, with projects revitalizing the old Kmart across the street in addition to the conversion of Southgate Plaza into new apartments as well. Anyway, to wrap up this post, we'll take a look at the usual satellite captures, starting off with the Bird's Eye aerial views courtesy of Bing Maps:

Front

Right Side

Back

Left Side, with a good view of that unusual drop-off area too

     And lastly, the historic satellite imagery, courtesy of Google Earth and historicaerials.com:

Former Albertsons #4330 - 2023

Former Albertsons #4330 - 2011

Former Albertsons #4330 / Rowe's IGA Market - 2007

Albertsons #4330 - 2005

Albertsons #4330 - 1999 - The building in its original form, before the early 2000's modifications

Albertsons #4330 - 1983

Future Albertsons #4330 - 1970 - It appears a small shopping plaza right on the corner was demolished to make room for the new Albertsons.

     While that's it for today's trip to Jacksonville, our next post will also have ties to Jacksonville as well, so we're not done with our excursion to the area just yet. Be sure to come back in two weeks for more!

So until the next post,

The Albertsons Florida Blogger