The owner of Scrubbles car washes in the area intends to buy the site of the closed European Street restaurant at 5500 Beach Blvd. for what appears to be development of its LUV brand.
European Street and property owner Andy Zarka confirmed May 26 the land is being sold.
City utility JEA received a service availability request for a proposed Scrubbles car wash at the site. Baker Design Build is the agent.
The Colliers real estate firm lists the 1.64-acre site and 6,146-square-foot restaurant for sale at $1.4 million.
Colliers Executive Director Jason Ryals and Senior Associate Gina Kline are representing the site.
LUV Car Wash, based near Phoenix, announced March 4 it closed on an acquisition to bring its first express car wash locations to Jacksonville.
LUV said it acquired 10 car washes from Tifton, Georgia-based Scrubbles. Four are open with six more in development and projected to open over the next 12 months.
On May 26, LUV announced it closed on an acquisition to bring an additional six car wash locations in the Jacksonville-St. Augustine metro area.
Four of the acquired locations will be upgraded and rebranded but remain open, while two will be redeveloped into brand new LUV Car Wash sites.
Scrubbles owner Todd Buckner, a Northeast Florida resident, said in March he will assist LUV in its expansion while he opens the Scrubbles concept in the St. Louis, Missouri, area.
He said May 26 that the 5500 Beach Blvd. property is under contract and he expects a late June closing.
“We are currently working on site design,” he said.
Buckner expects rebranding of the existing Scrubbles locations to LUV to be completed in July.
LUV said it has 52 operating car washes throughout Jacksonville, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Savannah, Georgia, with additional locations in the pipeline.
“LUV is a fast-growing brand led by some of the most impressive executives in the industry, so I have no doubt they’ll bring something special to Jacksonville as they build upon the Scrubbles car washes,” Buckner said in March.
Zarka closed the 5500 Beach Blvd. European Street restaurant in April after 22 years in operation.
“That restaurant relied primarily on lunch business from office workers,” Zarka said April 21.
“Post-COVID, a lot of people are still working at home instead of the office, so the numbers just didn’t come back. It didn’t make sense financially to keep it operating.”
The location is near southwest Beach and University boulevards, not far from HCA Florida Memorial Hospital.
Zarka said he was able to move all of the Beach Boulevard staff to the European Street locations in San Marco, Riverside and Jacksonville Beach.
“The other three are doing great and we were able to enhance the staffing levels,” Zarka said.
Associate Editor Max Marbut contributed to this report.