Shores Village Plaza got a grocery store back in May 2026, and it got more than that. Between August 2025 and July 2026, Ash Properties, the Jacksonville company that owns the plaza, went from one national tenant to three. A discount grocer moved into the old supermarket. A drive-thru restaurant went up on a parcel the company already owned. And the Winn-Dixie name stayed on Blackford Way on a liquor store that was slated to stay open after the grocery closed and is still listed today.
For anyone in St. Augustine Shores who runs errands off U.S. 1 South, the change shows up in how a trip to the plaza works now. Below is how it happened and who is on Blackford Way today.
Eleven Months on Blackford Way
The changes came out over more than a year, so the whole sequence is easy to miss. Here it is in order.
| Date | What happened | Address |
|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | Winn-Dixie grocery closes, projected for Aug. 17; its liquor store is slated to stay open | 181 Blackford Way |
| July 2025 | McDonald's is proposed for a vacant outparcel next to the plaza | Then reported as 240 Blackford Way |
| Nov. 24, 2025 | St. Johns County issues the McDonald's building permit | Vacant outparcel |
| May 21, 2026 | Aldi's scheduled opening in the former Winn-Dixie | 181 Blackford Way |
| July 18, 2026 | McDonald's holds its grand opening | 200 Blackford Way |
The order of events matters. McDonald's was proposed in July 2025, before the Winn-Dixie had even closed. The county issued its permit three months into the grocery gap. So the restaurant was planned and permitted while the anchor space sat empty. The plaza spent about nine months without a full grocery store, and the work that added a third national tenant went on during exactly those months.
An Aldi Inside a Winn-Dixie Building, Again
The Aldi at 181 Blackford Way, scheduled to open May 21, became the company's second store in St. Augustine. Both are in former Winn-Dixie buildings. The first is at 1773 U.S. 1, so on both ends of town, Aldi took over a supermarket people already knew instead of building a new one.
The Shores Village store is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day. Aldi held a ribbon cutting at 8:45 a.m. on opening morning, and J.R. Perry, the company's regional vice president, said in a news release that customers "will see why so many already choose ALDI for their weekly grocery shopping."
Shores Village was one of many Northeast Florida stores on Aldi's conversion list. In August 2025, the Jax Daily Record listed several Winn-Dixie locations, including St. Johns Commons in Saint Johns and the Neptune Beach store on Atlantic Boulevard, where the liquor store would stay open after the grocery closed. Shores Village was on that list too.
That's why the Winn-Dixie name is still on Blackford Way. Winn-Dixie's store locator lists Winn-Dixie Liquor at Shores Village at 165 Blackford Way, Suite C, selling beer, wine, and spirits, with delivery available. So the plaza has two grocery brands a few doors apart, and the one that used to sell groceries now sells only alcohol. The posted hours on that page don't agree with each other, so call ahead before a late-evening stop.
The Drive-Thru Built on the Plaza's Own Land
The McDonald's isn't a separate developer's project squeezed in next to the plaza. Ash Properties owns both the restaurant site and Shores Village Plaza, so the same company controls both the anchor box and the outparcel.
The plans filed in July 2025 described a 3,859-square-foot building with a dual drive-thru and 33 parking spaces. The site was held through an Ash entity called Splitsville LLC. Permit records later put construction costs at $1.2 million, and Southland Construction of Apopka built it. Brent Church owns and operates the restaurant, which was expected to create 60 jobs, according to a news release.
At the planning stage, the Jax Daily Record called it McDonald's sixth restaurant in St. Augustine. The address also changed during the process. Early reports gave 240 Blackford Way, and the opening announcement gave 200 Blackford Way. Use 200 when you're looking it up on a map.
The July 18 grand opening started at 11 a.m. The first 50 customers got McDonald's items for a year, redeemable only at the Blackford Way location, followed by a noon ribbon cutting with games.
Put together, a grocer open seven days a week, a drive-thru on its own parcel, and a liquor store still carrying the Winn-Dixie name give the plaza three national names facing U.S. 1. A year earlier, it had one.
The Suites Behind the Anchors
The national names bring the traffic in. The smaller suites in the 197 and 209 buildings, plus the separate building at 240 Blackford Way, hold the businesses you can't find anywhere else on this stretch of U.S. 1. Each one below has posted current activity on its own site this fall.
- Casa Benedetto's, 197 Blackford Way, Unit F. A Sicilian kitchen that cooks from scratch. The menu includes rice balls, braciole, manicotti, pasta fagioli, escarole and beans, and linguine with clam sauce made from freshly shucked clams. The desserts follow recipes from the bakery Grandpa Benedetto and Grandma Maria ran in Brooklyn, and tiramisu, cannoli, Italian cookies, and holiday specialties like struffoli and ricotta grain pie are available by order. The kitchen also keeps whole-grain gluten-free pasta and spiralized zucchini on hand. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It's closed Sundays.
- Consign It, 209 Blackford Way, Suite C. A consignment shop whose website features its owners' story and a spring 2026 photo gallery. It doesn't post store hours online, so check before going.
- The Little Gym, 209 Blackford Way, Unit D. A kids' activity gym. Its St. Augustine page lists a fall membership promotion good from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, 2026.
- Ancient City Aerial Arts, 240 Blackford Way, Suite C. In the building just northeast of the plaza. Its online schedule shows classes with open spots the week of Oct. 5.
- Grey Carts, 240 Blackford Way, Suite A. A golf cart dealer in the same building, listed by the e-bike brand Rattan as a local dealer.
Most of these are places people come to and stay a while: a sit-down dinner, a kids' class, an aerial session, browsing racks of consigned goods. With the anchors now drawing more people to the parking lot, these suites benefit from the extra visitors.
Three Open Suites Remain
The plaza isn't full yet. In late September 2026, Ash Properties was marketing three open spaces in the row. Suite 165B is 1,540 square feet, 197D is 1,400 square feet, and 209A–B is 2,400 square feet. 209A–B sits right next to Consign It at 209C and The Little Gym at 209D–F.
No new tenants have been reported for those spaces. The plaza now has more steady traffic than it did through most of 2025, and the next leases on Blackford Way will show what kind of business wants to be near it.
If you're in the Shores and wondering what the changes at Shores Village mean for your home's value, or you're thinking about a move and want someone who follows these details, Noah Bailey Group is glad to talk it through. Contact us anytime for an easy conversation about your corner of U.S. 1 South.
