Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores chose Jacksonville for its eighth Florida roadside plaza, an estimated $7.5 million, almost 14-acre project at southeast Interstate 95 and Pecan Park Road in North Jacksonville.
“We look forward to entering into the Jacksonville community and building longstanding relationships with local community members and leaders,” said Kealey Dorian, a media specialist for Love’s, based in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Dorian said the Jacksonville location “will fulfill a gap in services for professional drivers and leisure travelers along I-95 in the Jacksonville area.” Along I-95, it operates in Fort Pierce and Ormond Beach.
Love’s Travel Stops applied for a permit to build the almost 27,000-square-foot travel stop, food venue and tire center at 400 Pecan Park Road at a construction cost of $4 million.
The stop will include a Subway sandwich shop and a Chester’s International fried chicken restaurant.
Dorian said the company hopes to break ground this summer and open in mid-spring 2015. The plaza will create about 50 jobs.
Site plans show Love’s Travel Stops will develop two buildings on the vacant property. Plans show one building will comprise the Love’s and the restaurant space, while another will serve as a Love’s Truck Tire Care center for tire care and roadside assistance.
City Council is reviewing legislation, proposed Ordinance 2014-261, to rezone about 11.52 acres at the site from Commercial Community/General-1 to CCG-2. That land is owned by GHM Real Estate & Development Inc.
The rezoning’s purpose is to develop an interstate travel stop for cars and trucks and selling gas with associated retail, fast food and minor truck repair.
Plans show Love’s would combine two parcels for its project, including a separately owned 2.18-acre parcel that now has a service center on it. Adkinson Engineering is the project engineer.
The center would include 82 trailer spaces along with eight diesel-fueling and 16 car-fueling locations.
Love’s was founded 50 years ago in Watonga, Okla., near Oklahoma City, and is privately held by the Love family. It has four brands, including the Love’s Travel Stops, which are interstate highway travel centers, and Love’s Country Stores, which are convenience stores. Love’s Truck Tire Care and the Gemini Motor Transport petroleum fuel hauler are the other two.
Love’s has seven locations in Florida along I-95, I-75, I-10 and I-4. It operates more than 300 retail sites in 39 states and employs about 10,000 people. Annual revenue tops $26 billion, ranking it No. 9 in 2013 on the Forbes list of America’s largest private companies.
Its website is loves.com.
Arhaus building-out at Town Center
More Nordsrom-wing retailers are filling out the interiors of the planned stores at the St. Johns Town Center. The department store and its neighboring retailers are expected to open Oct. 10.
Arhaus Furniture will occupy a two-story, 16,157-square-foot building at 4828 River City Drive, No. 103. It’s a $2.6 million build-out. Counting the shell structure, it’s a $3.6 million project. It’s pronounced “our house.”
Arhaus, based in Cleveland, Ohio, typically features interior architectural details such as skylights, a river rock fireplace, hand-painted murals and a combination of distressed oak and stone flooring, as well as signature display elements such as the Arhaus “chair wall” showcasing dining seats and an “accessory column” stacked with seasonal soft goods and glasswork.
Other new retailers in the wing include a Disney store, Swim ‘n Sport and Natural Life.
Sola Salon to open in Mandarin
Sola Salon Studios is working on plans to open in Mandarin at Riverplace Shopping Center.
Plans show the build-out as a $488,900 project to remodel 5,560 square feet of space.
Ron Alderman Construction Inc. of Tampa is the contractor. Sola Salon is based in Tampa.
Sola Salon says it is the largest, fastest-growing salon studio business in the country. It was created a decade ago and now has more than 150 locations nationwide in 32 states.
CMG treatment center OK’d
CMG Colonial Management Group LP Treatment Center was approved for renovations at the Norco Executive Office Center at 590 Ellis Road S., north of Interstate 10.
B.L. Woods Construction Inc. is the contractor for the $267,000 project to remodel 6,946 square feet of space.
Plans show 14 counseling rooms, nurse and physician offices, and group, break and conference rooms, along with other space. The methadonetreatment.com site describes Colonial Management Group as an organization of 57 private outpatient substance abuse treatment clinics that have been treating opiate dependence since 1986.
The Orlando-based company’s Florida locations include a Jacksonville methadone treatment center at 4427 Emerson St. and in St. Augustine at 3574 U.S. 1 S.
Q Auto renovations on the go
Q Auto Jacksonville was cleared to renovate the former Coggin Toyota at the Avenues dealership at 10564 Philips Highway.
R.L. Haines Construction LLC will renovate existing buildings, improve the parking area and provide other work at a project cost of $721,829.
Coggin Toyota at the Avenues moved to a new dealership at 11340 Philips Highway.
Both the Toyota dealership and Q Auto are owned by Duluth, Ga.-based Asbury Automotive Group Inc., which chose Jacksonville and Tampa for its first Q Auto standalone used-car locations.
The Tampa store is scheduled to open this month and Asbury expects to open the Jacksonville Q Auto in the fall.
Regency adding single-family lots
More rooftops are planned in Regency.
A 94-lot single-family development, referred to as Mia-Lanta South, is planned north of the Regency Square Mall area. The struggling mall was sold recently and developers want to reposition it for retail and other uses.
More homes in the area might play into those decisions.
Mia-Lanta South LLC proposes to develop the lots on almost 26 acres on the west side of the Southside Connector. The site is off of Kendall Drive West, north of Regency Square Boulevard. Prosser Inc. is the engineering consultant.
A master site plan filed with the St. Johns River Water Management District shows an entrance from Kendall Drive. An amenity center is near the entrance.
The property formerly was referred to as Kendall West.
Mia-Lanta South LLC is based in Coral Gables. Its agent is James Kern and its managing member is Indigo Jax LLC, whose partners are Alex Sanchez of Coral Gables, which is the Miami area, and Mark Hackner of Atlanta. (Mia-Lanta) James Kern of Coral Gables is the agent.
Kern was not available for comment. Sanchez left a message on his voicemail that he was on vacation. A call to reach Hackner was not returned.
The Mia-Lanta South project would join another single-family home community in the Regency area. Lennar Homes is developing Mill Creek at Kendall Town on property west of the Southside Connector.
The property has been approved for 188 single-family lots. A site plan for Mill Creek at Kendall Town shows a 54.4-acre site at southeast Lone Star and Mill Creek roads. It is north of Regency Square Boulevard North.
Prices there start from the high $100,000 range. Homes range from 1,200 to more than 2,400 square feet in size.
Based on the acreage and number of lots, the Mia-Lanta lots would be about the same size as those at Mill Creek.
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