It might not take long to lease the closed Corner Bakery Café locations in Riverside and the Southpoint area.
Discussions have begun for the Brooklyn Station on Riverside location, one of the area’s two Corner Bakery Cafes that closed Friday.
Regency Centers Corp. spokesman Eric Davidson said he did not know the identity of the potential tenants, but said the space would be leased “as quickly as possible while being responsible.”
The Bonneval Road location near Southpoint, an area under significant road construction, also appears close to landing a new tenant.
John Ergisi, director of leasing for Murphy Land and Retail Services Inc., said a letter of intent has been sent to the landlord for a high-end Mexican fusion restaurant.
If that lease isn’t signed, he said other restaurants are interested.
As soon as Corner Bakery Café closed its doors, calls and emails began, he said.
Ergisi anticipates the space could be filled and opened in two to four months, depending on the concept.
Two years after Corner Bakery Café opened its two Jacksonville locations, the restaurants closed Friday in redeveloping Riverside and the increasingly restaurant-dense Southside area near Butler Boulevard and Interstate 95.
A sign posted on the door at Brooklyn Station on Riverside thanked customers for their support. It directed visitors to the cornerbakery.com website, which had removed the locations from its listing of restaurants.
Davidson said Regency Centers had been told of the decision, but he did not know specifics about when the franchisee, Lee Wesley Group LLC of Orlando, notified the landlord.
Ergisi also said the landlord was aware in advance of the closing.
Breana Whalen of Fishman PR said Monday the “difficult decision to close” the locations was not an indication of the overall health of the brand.
“We are continuing to grow and currently have nearly 200 company-owned and franchised locations around the country,” Whalen said, representing Lee Wesley Group.
Whalen said economic conditions and other factors often force a restaurant to close, and those circumstances are difficult to control.
“Restaurant sites that might have seemed ideal when first opened can become less desirable locations, due to changes in traffic flow, nearby construction or even a shift in the primary commercial area,” she said.
Whalen said the Riverside and Southpoint Corner Bakery Cafe locations are locally owned and operated and a decision to close them was made mutually with Corner Bakery Cafe’s home office.
Dallas-based Corner Bakery Café opened its first Jacksonville location in September 2014 at 7111 Bonneval Road. The second opened in December 2014, at 192 Riverside Ave. in Brooklyn.
The Riverside location is more than 4,000 square feet, while the Bonneval Road restaurant is about 4,300 square feet.
“The Brooklyn location should be highly desirable and should lease up fairly quickly if it’s not already leased,” said Collis McGeachy, vice president of the CBRE real estate firm. He focuses on retail and advisory transaction services.
The site is in the Riverside-Brooklyn neighborhood near Downtown, an area experiencing a resurgence of apartments and retail space to serve them as well as the larger residential and commercial neighborhood.
McGeachy said the Bonneval Road location might be more challenging because of the existing restaurants in the area.
Also, he said that location primarily services the area breakfast and lunch crowd Monday-Friday, while the restaurant hours are breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.
Retail leasing and managing agent and broker Geneva Henderson, executive vice president of Lat Purser & Associates Inc., said both are good locations and should backfill quickly.
She thinks whoever leases in Brooklyn will have to re-train customers to visit because it still is a relatively new market and the nearby established Five Points area “still rules,” despite its parking challenges.
Competition in the Bonneval area has increased with the addition of several newcomers, including Newk’s Eatery and Chicken Salad Chick, she said.
In addition, “they also have suffered through the expansion of Butler Boulevard for the past several years.”
Road construction continues.
In 2013, Corner Bakery Café said it planned to open as many as 10 restaurants in the area as part of a multiunit restaurant franchise agreement with Lee Wesley Group LLC.
The group also owns and operates several Panda Express, Burger King, Nathan’s Famous, Auntie Anne’s, Taco Bell and Shula’s Bar and Grill restaurants in Jacksonville, Orlando, Norfolk, Va., and Fayetteville/Fort Bragg, N.C.
Corner Bakery Café representatives were not available for comment Monday.
Corner Bakery locations are similar in size to Panera Bread. Both companies serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Panera operates at least a dozen restaurants in Jacksonville and the Beaches.
A Panera representative did not respond to an email to see if the company would be interested in either site.
More than 190 Corner Bakery Cafe company-owned and franchised locations operate around the country.
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