Restaurateur and chef Tom Gray is taking over the San Marco Theatre space that Al’s Pizza founder Al Mansur had envisioned for another Flying Iguana concept.
The theater at 1996 San Marco Blvd. remains in place. Mansur intended to lease the 5,000-square-foot theater space and create a 150-seat restaurant and bar.
“The facade is not changing,” Gray said Jan. 26.
“Everybody loves that space and we want it to continue to be loved.”
Gray, who owns the Town Hall restaurant in San Marco and Prati Italia in the Town Center area, said he is launching a new pizza concept.
Mansur said he will be an investor in the project. He said he was having challenges with making the space work for the seating and layout for his new Iguana concept.
Mansur said he had not started construction in the space. The landlord has poured a new floor and done some interior demolition in preparation for the build-out.
Gray said he is working on the architectural and design plans for the pizza restaurant and also the name.
“We were very fortunate to have many other restaurants that wanted to occupy the space,” said property manager Pam Howard, an agent for the landlord, Jacksonville-based TSG Realty.
“Al and Tom Gray have a collaboration for the restaurant that they will announce soon,” Howard said Jan. 26.
Gray, Mansur and Howard said an announcement is pending with more details.
Howard also responded to rumors that the building was at risk.
"The theater building would never be demolished," she said.
Lease signed last year
Mansur said Aug. 9 he signed a lease to open a San Marco Square restaurant in the now 86-year-old closed theater for his Flying Iguana concept, which operates locations in Atlantic Beach and Avondale.
He said he had hoped to open in the first quarter of 2024 with a staff of about 70 full- and part-time employees.
The San Marco Theatre was expected to add a new name to its marquee – Iguana San Marco.
“We are going to keep the art deco look on the exterior and carry that look into the interior,” Mansur said.
Flying Iguana Taqueria & Tequila Bar opened in 2013 at 207 Atlantic Blvd. in Neptune Beach and Iguana on Park opened in 2021 at 3638 Park St. in the Avondale area of Jacksonville.
The Iguana concepts feature Latin American fusion cuisine with tacos, entrees, spirits and cocktails, including tequilas and local craft beers.
Mansur also owns Al’s Pizza, opening the first in 1988 and now with five locations in Baymeadows, San Pablo, Riverside, Ponte Vedra and Neptune Beach.
In Beaches Town Center, he also developed COOP 303 and Mezza Luna.
Mansur said he had not thought of doing another restaurant, “but I fell in love with” the theater space.
Iguana San Marco was designed to have a bar on the first level and a secondary bar and seating on a mezzanine level where the projection room and an office had been. It will cantilever over the ground floor.
He said the theater’s 21-foot-high ceiling would dominate the main dining room hall.
Outside, “we will keep the marquee up,” he said, and the restaurant signage would be incorporated into that.
Mansur said the exterior will keep the theater architecture and nothing will change other than some color.
Building sold in 2022
Jacksonville-based TSG Realty announced Sept. 8, 2022, that it bought the San Marco Theatre and adjacent spaces, including that leased to Stellers Gallery, for $3.35 million.
Stellers Gallery continues to lease its store at 1900 San Marco Blvd.
The spaces at 1992-1996 San Marco Blvd. were prepared for use – the restaurant and also Missy Riley Art & Pieces.
Missy Riley Art & Pieces already was on San Marco Square and relocated into 1,950 square feet of space at 1992 San Marco Blvd.
The buildings were developed in 1938 and together sit on 0.28-acre.
TSG Realty bought the properties from San Marco Real Estate Partnership LLC.
TSG quickly began interior removal work of walls and flooring. The theater seating already had been removed.
It added two storefront openings for the 6,906-square-foot total space.
Building Dynamics Inc. of Jacksonville Beach is the contractor. Doherty Sommers Architects Engineers of Jacksonville Beach is the architect.
The previous owners of the two-screen theater announced Dec. 28, 2022, that the venue would close Jan. 1, 2023, because of a changing industry where theaters increasingly compete with streaming services for patrons, as well as the coronavirus pandemic’s negative effect on attendance.
Howard said upon the purchase that the historic building and facade will remain.
“We would never demolish this building. It’s structurally sound and looks fantastic,” Howard said.
Gray a Jacksonville native
PratiItalia.com says Gray grew up in the Jacksonville area and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
After professional experience in New York, Los Angeles and the Napa Valley, he returned to Jacksonville.
With two James Beard: Best Chef South nominations and other awards, he spent time in the industry and now is the chef/owner of Prati Italia and Town Hall restaurants as well as through his hospitality management and consulting company, CuliVino.
He and his spouse, Sarah Marie Johnston, are business partners in the ventures.
Gray also was the owner and executive chef of Moxie Kitchen + Cocktails, which was succeeded by Prati Italia, and he was the executive chef and a partner at Bistro Aix for almost 14 years through December 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile.