If all goes as expected, Gate Petroleum Co. could buy the former Two Doors Down restaurant site in Brooklyn in April.
The Jacksonville-based company has a contract to buy the property and is within its investigation and approval period.
Gate will buy the 400 block of Park Street, which is a little less than 2 acres.
Gate Vice President Becky Hamilton said the site plan and architecture must be approved by the Downtown Development Review Board and the Downtown Investment Authority.
Operator Norm Abraham closed the restaurant at 436 Park St. in anticipation of its lease expiration Dec. 29. Printing and Promotional Partners at 444 Park St. moved to 6320 St. Augustine Road.
The Johnstone Supply operation on the block is consolidating into the 500 block, where the company has a branch.
Johnstone Supply owner Chris Ware is the trustee of Ware Family Realty LLC, which is selling the 400 block of Park Street.
Gate has been expanding around town with new gas station-convenience stores. The Brooklyn site takes it into the heart of the redeveloping Brooklyn-Riverside area, near Downtown, as well as providing access off of Interstate 95.
Newk’s Eatery confirms Town Center area location
Newk’s Eatery confirmed Tuesday it will open in the Town Center Exchange, a development planned along Town Center Parkway.
The Jackson, Miss.-based restaurant chain expects to open there by early 2017. It recently bought two existing franchised stores in Jacksonville and intends to open a San Jose Boulevard location in January and add another five restaurants in Northeast Florida within several years.
The Town Center Exchange property is under contract to Core Property Capital, which wants to develop apartments, a hotel and retail and restaurant space.
Town Center Exchange is adjacent to the proposed Strand retail center. That property is under contractor to Preferred Growth Properties. An apartment community and the Hobby Lobby chain have confirmed plans to open there. Hobby Lobby wants to open in mid-2017.
Carrie Smith, regional managing partner with Franklin Street, represents Newk’s Eatery in its site transactions in North Florida.
Bluetique relocating to Jax Beach
Bluetique, the Goodwill Industries of North Florida thrift boutique in Ponte Vedra Beach, will move to Beach Boulevard to join an existing Goodwill store and Job Junction.
COO Karen Phillips expects the move in mid-March after the buyer returns from the February off-price sale in Las Vegas. A re-grand opening will highlight the move and the new spring merchandise.
Bluetique opened in November 2011 to feature designer and other higher-end donated clothing, shoes, purses and jewelry as well as items bought from sources that carry close-outs and overruns. It carries items for women, men and children.
Items are sold at 50 to 90 percent off retail prices. The store is displayed and merchandised like a boutique clothing venue.
“The concept has been well received. We feel that the new location will only add to its success,” Phillips said.
However, she said, it needs more foot traffic to be successful long-term. “After four years in Ponte Vedra with very little foot traffic, we must make this move or discontinue the concept entirely,” she said.
The shop will relocate from Tournament Plaza at 832 Florida A1A N. in Ponte Vedra Beach to 1036 Beach Blvd. in Jacksonville Beach.
Phillips said the Jacksonville Beach store will be remodeled with a new entrance in the center of the building. It will feature an in-line checkout and a look and feel more like a department store, including a “Treasure Island” center area with cases showcasing jewelry and accessories.
A Job Junction is next to the store.
The move downsizes Bluetique to 3,500 square feet of space, about half the size of the Ponte Vedra location. It will have a separate entrance and separate signage.
The Ponte Vedra Donation Center will remain in the Shoppes at Ponte Vedra Pointe at 220 Valley Circle. Goodwill is working with its real estate broker to sublease the Bluetique space.
Goodwill focuses on job training. The nonprofit raises funds from sales at its Goodwill stores, which are thrift shops that sell donated goods. Job Junctions are career centers that provide employment leads, interviewing and job retention skills, career counseling and other services.
Flagler spec building moving ahead
International Management Co. LLC continues taking steps toward developing a speculative office project in Flagler Center in South Jacksonville.
The company, through Oakridge Realty LLC, applied to the St. Johns River Water Management District for construction of two commercial buildings on 5.07 acres at Flagler Center Boulevard and Gran Bay Parkway.
International Management Vice President Raja Saoud said previously the 51,000-square-foot project likely would be split among two single-story buildings. He said construction should start in mid-2016 and the development could take 12-18 months.
England, Thims & Miller Inc. is the engineering consultant and Environmental Services Inc. is the environmental consultant. Quinton Perry, president of Perry Development Co., is the agent.
International Management also is building a 63,000-square-foot spec office building in Nocatee that should be completed in July. CBRE Inc. Senior Vice President Lou Nutter is the tenant representative for both projects.
Medical updates
• Baptist Health proposes to build a Baptist Primary Care Inc. medical office at 8355 Merchants Gate Drive in OakLeaf. The 5,532-square-foot office is planned on about an acre. Pavilion Health Services Inc. would own the structure and serve as the landlord. A permit application shows the project would be $900,000.
• St. Vincent’s HealthCare is moving its OakLeaf primary care office to a larger location within the same office complex at 9560 Crosshill Blvd. Brasfield & Gorrie LLC is the contractor for the $350,000 project.
• Site plans were filed for the United Therapeutics Corp. lung-restoration project at Mayo Clinic Florida at 4500 San Pablo Road. The 90,000-square-foot building is planned on 1.64 acres next to the Griffin Cancer Research Center building. It will accommodate Lung Biotechnology PBC, which does business as Lung Biotechnology Public Benefit Corp. Mayo Clinic and United Therapeutics expect to complete construction in late 2017. The center will preserve and restore selected marginal donor lungs to make them viable for transplants.
• UF Health Oncology will open three more locations — in Orange Park in February; Fernandina Beach in March; and at UF Health North in the next few months. Two locations opened in Baymeadows in March and in La Villa in September. They operate in partnership with 21st Century Oncology. The oncology clinics and infusion centers will round out UF Health’s three-pronged approach to cancer treatment, with the other two being cancer surgery and the Proton Therapy Institute.
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