Foodtown, a New Jersey-based grocer, shocked retail and real estate observers when it gobbled up two Winn-Dixie stores in South Florida.

“We had not anticipated or thought of them as a potential tenant,” said Rob Jacoby, chief operating officer of Menin Development Cos. in Palm Beach Gardens.

Menin owns South Wind Plaza in West Palm Beach, where Foodtown is renovating a former Winn-Dixie store. It’s also taking over for Winn-Dixie at Carriage Hills Plaza in Davie.

Look for an August opening in West Palm. The Davie store is expected to open in September.

Foodtown also bought a third Winn-Dixie store in Plantation but later sold it to Wal-Mart, which plans a Neighborhood Market store.

This is Foodtown’s first foray into Florida. It has more than 60 locations in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The business operates not as a chain but rather as a cooperative, in which independent owners run the supermarkets under the Foodtown flag.

“They try to fill the spots in between the big-chain guys,” said Mike Duff, executive editor of Food Retailing Today, an industry trade publication in New York. “The best way to describe it is they try to fit into localized niches. That often means they lean toward a large assortment of ethnic items.”

Foodtown’s Ajay Dhawan said he isn’t ready to divulge his strategy but said he expects to buy more stores in Florida.

Menin would have preferred to lure a larger retailer as an anchor tenant. But Yenin didn’t have a say in the matter after Foodtown stepped up, and a bankruptcy judge approved the transaction.

Jacksonville-based Winn-Dixie has been shedding store leases as it tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The firm voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 in February 2005 after years of losing ground to Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets and discount superstores such as Wal-Mart and Target. Winn-Dixie said it hopes to come out of bankruptcy in October.

Although Menin doesn’t know what to expect from Foodtown, the early returns are positive. Officials are diligently refurbishing the store, Jacoby said.

“We’re getting a good vibe from them,” he said.

Meanwhile, Menin, whose signature project is the new Downtown at the Gardens entertainment complex in Palm Beach Gardens, had better luck getting name tenants at two of its other centers.

Staples, the nation’s largest office supply retailer, is replacing Winn-Dixie at the Marketplace at Hillsboro in Coconut Creek. And in Jupiter, Menin exercised its right to remove Regal Cinemas and bring in Cobb Theatres, which also anchors Downtown at the Gardens.

The largest sale in Gulf Stream’s history closed last week.

A nine-bedroom mansion at 1511 N. Ocean Blvd. sold for $16.8 million, $1.15 million less than the asking price.

The sellers were Barbara and John Wynne. The buyer was an unidentified Frenchman who took title through a corporation.

The estate, built in 2001, has a main house, guest cottage, a tennis court and a 60-foot pool. It also has 150 feet of ocean frontage and 450 feet of depth.

Gulf Stream is a town of fewer than 800 residents between Briny Breezes and Delray Beach.

The listing agents were Randy Ely and Wendy Overton. The buyer’s agent was Candace Friis. All three work for The Corcoran Group in Delray Beach.

“There are other houses in Gulf Stream that if they came on the market, they might [fetch a higher price],” Ely said. “But this is the highest so far.”

Paul Owers can be reached at or 561-243-6529.