Bonchon spokeswoman Carlene Blair said the location for the Korean-style fried-chicken chain’s first Jacksonville restaurant at The Strand at Town Center was chosen for its access.
“The Town Center is the destination spot for all shopping and dining experiences and the best part is we’ll be surrounded by so many other international brands, so we will feel right at home,” she said.
The Strand features Tex-Mex, Brazilian and American cuisine and the nearby Town Center Promenade will include burgers, wings, Brazilian food and more.
St. Johns Town Center across the street offers steak, seafood, Italian, Mexican, Asian and other types of restaurants.
“Jacksonville is a city that is fun, vibrant and family-centered, which closely aligns well with our company’s values,” Blair said.
She said the franchisee is an area developer set to open multiple stores in Jacksonville and Gainesville.
Blair said construction was in the preliminary stage for the first location, so no opening date has been determined.
Bonchon will lease about 2,200 square feet of space at 4972 Town Center Parkway next to Hobby Lobby. An estimated $200,000 build-out is pending.
“Bonchon” is Korean for “my hometown” and refers to the company’s roots in Busan, South Korea. It is based in New York City.
Its website says that along with fried chicken, it serves savory Asian fusion dishes and Korean specialties, such as bibimbap, jachae and tteokbokki.
Its first location outside of South Korea opened in 2006 in Fort Lee, New Jersey. It soon opened a flagship restaurant in Manhattan.
More than 236 restaurants operate in nine countries, with 63 open in the United States, including corporate and franchise-owned locations. It lists Orlando and Jacksonville as its Florida sites.
Colliers International announced Monday it completed a lease expansion at Gramercy Woods for SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc., which added 24,653 square feet of office space to occupy the entire third floor of Building 700.
That boosts SS&C Technologies’ lease to encompass the third, fourth and fifth floors, totaling 73,005 square feet of office space.
Gramercy Woods is at 9000 Southside Blvd.
Colliers International represented the landlord, Gramercy Property Trust, and the tenant, SS&C, in the lease negotiation.
Chuck Diebel, Bob Selton, Preston Phillips and Lisa McLatchey with the Northeast Florida office worked with Gramercy Property Trust.
Phillips, McLatchey and Guy Preston in Jacksonville and Leon Manoff with Colliers New York represented SS&C.
Windsor, Connecticut-based SS&C is a global provider of investment and financial software-enabled services and software for the global financial services industry.
The city approved the build-out for Kraton Corp. in the Gramercy Woods office park at 9000 Southside Blvd.
Duckworth Construction Co. is the contractor for the $1.4 million project.
Kraton, which bought Jacksonville-based Arizona Chemical Holdings Corp. last year, said in May it will move about 150 employees into the space.
Gene Shiels, director of investor relations for Houston-based Kraton Performance Polymers Inc., said then there were no immediate plans for expansion but that the company built in flexibility for growth.
He said Kraton leases almost 43,000 square feet of space at 4600 Touchton Road in the Deerwood North building. It will move to Building 100 at Gramercy Woods, where it will lease 35,000 square feet on the third floor and part of the second.
The Jacksonville Kraton operation includes employees in operations, commercial, finance, HR, procurement and IT, Shiels said.
Kraton Polymers LLC announced in January 2016 that it completed the $1.37 billion acquisition of Arizona Chemical Holdings, which was based in Jacksonville and also in the Netherlands.
Kraton is a publicly traded company that makes engineered polymers. Arizona Chemical makes products derived from pine wood pulping co-products.