Site plan changes for First Coast Energy’s proposal to build a Daily’s gas station and convenience store with a restaurant and Bold City Brewery in Jacksonville’s LaVilla neighborhood are headed to final city review.
The Downtown Development Review Board is scheduled to vote on the plan and overall building design at its July 27 meeting.
First Coast Energy, the Daily’s convenience store chain’s parent company, modified the position of the building on the 1.4-acre block at Bay and Broad streets after protests from people and groups working to revitalize the LaVilla neighborhood and a muted response from the review board in January.
The board awarded conceptual approval to an earlier version of the plan March 9, following a workshop to address design issues.
The latest designs released by the city Downtown Investment Authority on July 20 show the convenience store and restaurant building has been relocated from the center of the site close to the sidewalk at Bay and Broad streets.
The review board staff reports say the developer moved the building footprint to better comply with Downtown design standards meant to cater to the pedestrian experience and safety.
“This is a significant improvement as it lends a more urban character, and offers a gateway, to this intersection and the LaVilla district,” the report says.
“To varying degrees, the street frontages along Forsyth, Jefferson, and Bay Streets are not consistent with this section of the code.”
Those inconsistencies will require the board to sign off on code deviations in order to approve the site plan and design.
The Daily’s would bring 16 fueling stations and a minimum 5,000-square-foot restaurant to an intersection that receives traffic from Interstate 95 via Forsyth Street, entering Downtown from Five Points or Riverside/Avondale via Broad Street, or are leaving Downtown to Interstates 10 and 95 via Bay Street or into Brooklyn/Riverside via Jefferson Street.
Brian Miller, owner of Bold City Brewery, told the board in March that his company is partnering with First Coast Energy to operate a microbrewery and the restaurant on the second floor and the rooftop bar.
Miller said he wants to close the brewery’s East Bay Street location, which is struggling because the site does not meet its needs, and move its Downtown operations to Daily’s in LaVilla.
The Downtown overlay zoning code approved by City Council in 2019 allows fuel stations in LaVilla by exception if it is part of a mixed-use development.
The overlay also discourages new surface parking lots.
The review board, which operates as the Planning Commission for Downtown, will have to approve that exception July 27 for the project to move forward.
The board’s staff recommends approval.
In December 2022, the site was labeled a gateway entry to LaVilla by the DIA’s LaVilla Heritage Trail and Gateways Committee.
The goal is to return housing, retail, restaurants, parks and trails to the once-thriving Black neighborhood.
LaVilla was once called the Harlem of the South and was a sanctuary for Black culture and commerce post-Civil War. The late 20th century saw a decline in LaVilla’s influence as many of its historic homes and buildings were demolished.
The staff said that the developer must work with stakeholders in LaVilla for a mural planned for the north-facing facade of the building to ensure it is in context with the neighborhood’s heritage.
“You need to involve the Black community in the 150-year-old neighborhood,” Ennis Davis, an urban planner and member of the heritage group, said during the March 9 meeting.
Three years of planning
First Coast Energy paid almost $3.3 million in August 2020 for the 1.4-acre block bounded by Forsyth, Jefferson, Bay and Broad streets.
The company paid nearly $2.4 million for five parcels that include the site of a closed bank drive-thru and $900,000 for the land where the now-demolished Kartouche nightclub once stood.
First Coast Energy bought the 0.23-acre nightclub site from Law Building LLC.
It bought the bank site and four vacant parcels, totaling 1.17 acres, from lawyer Mark L. Rosenberg.