New Gate Petroleum Co. hires will soon be heading to “Gate University” along Philips Highway.
The center is planned at 9100 Philips Highway, where the Jacksonville-based company will train its convenience-store employees.
“The new space will allow a dedicated location for training, which is a critical component of our business to ensure our employees provide excellent customer service,” said Gate spokeswoman Misty Skipper.
A building-permit application shows an estimated $500,000 project to renovate the space, among two floors. Duval County property records show the roughly 25,000-square-foot building is owned by Gate Fuel Service Inc.
Those plans show Gate will use at least 5,500 square feet for the center, while existing tenant Stonecore will remain in the space it leases.
Most of the Gate renovations will be on the second floor. Plans show two training rooms, a multipurpose room, a break room, work room, offices for the director and manager, and a mock-up store, all part of “Gate University.”
Plans show the mock-up store will offer training, including for lottery machines and the fuel-dispensing station.
The plans explain that the contractor will demolish the interior of the second floor to build the training center. There also will be a two-story addition with stairs, an elevator and two multipurpose rooms providing access to the center.
The addition will include lobbies and multipurpose rooms.
Skipper said “Gate University” has been used to describe the training program.
Skipper said employees previously were trained in a dedicated center that has since been converted into a warehouse.
After that, Gate trained employees in conference rooms at corporate headquarters, she said. Gate is based at 9540 San Jose Blvd.
Current employees will take ongoing training at the center, too.
The convenience store division has about 1,000 employees. Skipper did not have a breakdown of how many work in the stores or how many are in Jacksonville.
Plans also show that Stonecore, an existing tenant, will remain. It has an office, showroom and storage.
The 9.5-acre site is along Philips Highway, south of Sunbeam Road.
Property records show the structure was built in 1986 and bought by Gate Properties II Inc. in 2006.
Gate Petroleum also applied to the city for a Certificate of Use to use the building for office and training space. It lists the enclosed size as 24,960 square feet.
In other Gate news, the city approved the demolition permit Thursday for Realco Recycling Co. Inc. to demolish the Gate store at 9540 San Jose Blvd. Gate will redevelop the site with a larger store.
Dollar Tree headed to Shops of Philips
Dollar Tree is the dollar store headed to the Shops of Philips, according to a St. Johns River Water Management District application.
A recent city application indicated that Dollar General would open there, but the district filing specifies a 9,973-square-foot Dollar Tree on a more than 1-acre site at 3100 Emerson St.
The site is along Philips Highway, south of Emerson Street.
Shops of Philips is under development by Jacksonville-based DBSB Inc., led by J.C. Demetree Jr. Thomas Engineering Group of Tampa is the agent and designed plans for Dynamic Commercial Real Estate Advisors, based in Virginia Beach, Va.
DBSB is redeveloping a former call-center site. It demolished the building and designed a multi-parcel retail project.
A Gate Petroleum Co. gas station and convenience store and a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant operate there.
Gate also wants to build a car wash at the site.
A mobility fee application for the car wash also referred to a Dollar General store as well as an unidentified self-storage project.
Corporate websites show almost 130 dollar-named stores within 25 miles of Downtown Jacksonville.
Those comprise 35 Dollar Tree stores and 50 Family Dollar stores within 25 miles; Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar in 2015.
There are also 42 Dollar General stores within 20 miles.
Auld & White gets permit for cyclotron building
The city issued a permit Thursday for Auld & White Constructors LLC to house a cyclotron at Mayo Clinic.
The $6.5 million building is at 14225 Zumbro Drive on the Mayo Clinic campus at 4500 San Pablo Road.
Mayo Clinic announced in March 2016 that it would invest $100 million in construction projects at its Jacksonville campus.
Among those projects, Mayo Clinic is building a state-of-the-art positron emission tomography (PET) radiochemistry facility.
It will house a radiochemistry laboratory and a cyclotron, which is a particle accelerator used in the production of radiopharmaceuticals.
Mayo Clinic said the facility will produce Mayo-developed choline C-11 used in certain PET scans.
The scans are advancements in imagery that “light up” prostate cancer when it is found and provide targets for therapy.
Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, said at the time that the facility will enhance Mayo’s clinical practice and play an important role in research.
The Mayo Clinic opened in 1986 in Jacksonville at 4500 San Pablo Road S. and has expanded since.
Retail notes
• Dollar General might be opening in Arlington. Property owner Hala & Chris LLC sold 1.48 acres at 5855 Fort Caroline Road to Concept Development Inc. of Gainesville. Concept Development previously filed plans for a 7,500-square-foot store at the address. Those plans didn’t identify it as a Dollar General, just as a retail store, but Concept Development develops Dollar General stores. Concept Development paid $600,000 for the property. The Duval County Property’s Appraiser’s Office shows the 2017 market value of the site at $203,200.
• PetSmart is closer to opening at the Mandarin South shopping center. The city issued a permit Wednesday for Hoar Construction LLC to build-out 17,479 square feet of space for PetSmart at 11700 San Jose Blvd. at a cost of $1.2 million. Mandarin South is being redeveloped. PetSmart will be joined by anchor tenant Earth Fare.
Food note
• First Watch Restaurants Inc.’s proposed 126-seat, 3,400-square-foot location at 13820 Old St. Augustine Road in the Shoppes at Bartram Park is in city permitting review. No contractor is specified for the estimated $300,000 project, which will consist of new interior partitions, HVAC, electrical and mechanical systems, commercial kitchen equipment, and interior finishes and furnishings. Architectural Group International of Covington, Ky., is the architect. A First Watch spokeswoman said it should open by year-end.
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