Jacksonville drivers passing the old Regency Square Mall on Arlington Expressway have had a front-row seat to a very visible teardown this month as demolition on the nearly six-decades-old mall is underway. This marked a major step in the redevelopment of the long-struggling Arlington shopping center.
The city had approved the demolition permit in late August after its last retailers closed in May 2025. Site work, including capping off the walls adjacent to Impact Church and JCPenney, had already been underway ahead of the main teardown. Here's what's going on:
What is happening to Regency Square Mall right now?
Demolition of the East Mall began Sunday when crews with Realco Recycling Co. started tearing into the former food court on the mall's north side, the section of the mall between the former JCPenney
building and Impact Church.
How much of the mall is being torn down?
Realco Recycling is taking down the East Mall's structure, slab and foundations, clearing out 371,444 square feet of shopping center space. This totals up to a large chunk of the old mall, but not all of it.
How long will the demolition take?
The demolition is expected to continue for six to eight months, so residents should expect construction activity, equipment and some noise and dust around the site well into 2027.
What's being built at the old Regency Square Mall?
The site is being redeveloped as The Nexus at Regency, led by developer Blackwater Development. Plans call for redeveloping the east side of the mall and its parking lot, starting with new outparcels along the expressway and Monument Road. Several of those outparcels are already earmarked for a Raising Cane's, a Chase Bank and a Circle K gas station, joini
ng the existing Firestone Complete Auto Care that already sits on the corner of the property. Blackwater has said the broader redevelopment will bring new retail, restaurant and residential opportunities to the site.
Is the old JCPenney building being torn down too?
No, the closed JCPenney building is expected to be renovated for another use rather than demolished.
Is Impact Church closing or being demolished?
No, Impact Church owns and operates its own building and is not part of the demolition.
What about the old Sears and the Dillard's Clearance Center?
Those locations also aren't part of this phase. The mall's west wing — including the closed Sears and the Dillard's Clearance Center — is not included in the current demolition. The former Sears building is separately owned and currently for sale, while Dillard's owns its clearance center outright, which remains open six days a week.
![A mechanic from Realco Demolition and Recycling, maintained an excavator as crews continued the demolishing of the Regency Square Mall between JCPenney and Impact Church Monday September 21, 2026. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2026/09/21/NFTU/91880347007-regency-square-mall-update-005.JPG)
Who owns Regency Square Mall now, and how much did it cost?
Blackwater Development purchased most of the mall's 77-acre property for just over $19 million. The sale came after years of decline, during which the property had racked up nearly $2 million in code enforcement fines under its previous ownership amid declining occupancy and deferred maintenance.
How old is Regency Square Mall?
Regency Square opened as the Southeast's largest enclosed, air-conditioned shopping mall on March 2, 1967. This demolition will wrap up just before the mall's 60th anniversary.
![The entrance to the food court of the Regency Square Mall is a tangled pile of metal between JCPenney and Impact Church. Realco Demolition and Recycling continued the demolishing Monday September 21, 2026. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2026/09/21/NFTU/91880353007-regency-square-mall-update-020.JPG)
Why is everyone talking about Regency Square Mall on social media?
Between the dramatic demolition footage circulating online and this week's coincidental power outage, the mall has become something of a running joke on social media with residents joking that "the mall's fighting back" or including posts about what it should become.
JEA's own comment ruling out a connection to the outage determined the two events just happened to land in the same week but were unrelated
Did the Regency power outage have anything to do with the mall demolition?
No, JEA crews responded to an outage in the Regency neighborhood on Thursday with nearly 3,000 customers losing power at its peak before crews had it fully restored by 4 p.m. that day.
News4JAX asked JEA directly whether the outage could be tied to the ongoing demolition at Regency Square Mall, and the utility said it did not believe the demolition was connected.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Demolition starts at Jacksonville Regency Square Mall: What we know
