by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
Now that Berkman Plaza is filling with tenants, Portabella’s Gourmet Market plans to keep them fed and Daryl Powers’ Salon will keep them looking sharp.
Last minute details are being wrapped up for the upscale market. Glass bannisters are being installed on the mezzanine, a staff is being hired and the final coats of paint are being applied. The 4,000 square-foot facility will employ about 15 workers — delicatessen workers, cooks and counter help — operating on two shifts. Store hours will be from 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
“They [the residents] are anxious, excited and ready for us to open,” Portabella spokesperson Travis Holloway said. “Revitalization is going to explode downtown in a whole new way. We’ve been working on this two and a half years. There’s no doubt in our minds that this is going to work.”
Portabella’s will serve as the on-site grocery store/eatery for the complex, featuring display cases of delicatessen meats, breads, salads and all the other non-perishable sundries shoppers find at a supermarket.
“We’re going to carry items that they don’t normally carry in a grocery store,” said Holloway. “We’ll have a full-line butcher shop, full meals to go, 20 different salads a day and seating for 50 upstairs.”
Service will not be provided at the tables because they won’t have a wait staff.
Independent from the property ownership, Portabella’s management also expects to attract customers from outside the building.
“We fully expect to pull business from the outside,” said Holloway. “We will do catering and corporate lunches as well.”
Just down the corridor from Portabella’s is Daryl Powers Day Spa, which has been open for a few weeks.
“Revenues have been meeting our expectations,” said Daryl Strickland, the spa’s owner. “It’s been going really well. The feedback from our clients is that they love the building and the atmosphere. I picked up [hair dresser] John Mario from Jacobson’s [department store beauty shop]. We’ve heard a lot of comparisons to New York and Miami salons. It’s getting busier by the week. Once we get enough staff, we could handle almost 250 a week.”
According to Strickland, the new shop currently averages close to 100 patrons a week. An additional stylist may be hired next month if the trend continues.
To keep his stylists current on the latest hair styles, Strickland promotes education and training. For example, last weekend he and five of his staff traveled to New York City’s Loreal Soho Academy to train with a nationally renowned hair colorist.
He estimates that 10-15 percent of his clients live in the building.
“A lot of people are not familiar with downtown so there are the occasional mishaps [with directions],” he said. “Now we have signage on the building.”
Berkman Plaza is not the only location where Strickland is branching out. As part of his aggressive growth strategy, he is establishing another store at Gate Parkway and St. Johns Bluff Road. At 4,000 square feet, it will be the first free-standing building in his chain and twice the size of the Berkman store. November is the scheduled move-in date.
“The demand is there to open a third store,” he said. “I am looking at raw land and negotiating to secure the property. It will be a duplicate of what the building will be like in Ponte Vedra. [He is moving that store to a larger space]. We will be fine-tuning it to make it nicer. We’re still conservative in the size of the facility. The population base and economy are not there yet. Convenience plays a factor as well. I’d rather they have extra locations they can drive to.”