Epic Theatres is laying the groundwork for a 14-screen theater it expects to open in early 2015 in the Oakleaf Station shopping center in Southwest Jacksonville
The DeLand-based company announced in May it signed an agreement to open the new movie theater at 8380 Merchants Way.
Oakleaf Station Land Trust, part of Sleiman Enterprises, is the developer. It filed plans for city review for the proposed 2,173-seat theater.
Developer Toney Sleiman said Wednesday the project, a build-to-suit for Epic Theatres to lease, was close to construction. He said construction typically takes six to eight months.
A site plan for Oakleaf Station on the Sleiman.com site shows space for a 76,700-square-foot building next to hhgregg and Bealls.
In the news release, Epic said the new theater will feature upscale amenities, stadium seating, wall-to-wall screens, enhanced sound systems, and digital presentation in each auditorium.
It also will showcase one EPIC XL stadium auditorium with a 65-foot-wide curved silver screen and state-of-the-art Dolby digital sound.
Kansas City-based TK Architects will design the project. It also designed Epic’s theaters in Deltona, Clermont, St. Augustine and Palm Coast.
Founded in 2003, privately held Epic Theatres operates 81 screens at seven sites: five in Florida, Hendersonville, N.C., and Butler, Pa.
The company plans to add more than 60 screens at five sites, including Mount Dora, New Smyrna Beach and Stuart.
Meanwhile, Sleiman also has said he wanted to develop a movie theater at Atlantic and Kernan boulevards, where Sleiman Enterprises owns three of the corners.
“My dream one day is to have a theater in there,” he said. He likes the new theater amenities, such as recliner chairs, restaurants, bars, amusement areas, 3-D, IMAX and new sound systems.
However, he doesn’t have a timetable.
Sleiman said an impact study would need to determine if a market existed to support a theater there.
Vistakon plans solvent tank farm
Jacksonville-based Vistakon, which employs almost 2,000 people at its Deerwood Park campus where it makes disposable contact lenses, filed plans with the city to add a solvent tank farm on the almost 69-acre property.
The proposed structure, at 8,640 square feet, boosts the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc. company’s expanding presence at 7500 Centurion Parkway to 796,928 square feet. It also leases space nearby for administrative offices.
Spokesman Gary Esterow said the tank farm houses ingredients used to make Vistakon’s Acuvue brand of contact lenses, which have been manufactured at the site for decades.
Esterow said Vistakon wants to relocate its existing system to an alternative location on the campus. All the necessary environmental permits have been filed, he said.
The construction should be completed next year.
Esterow said no additional Vistakon jobs would be associated with the relocation of the tank farm and he said the company does not disclose specific business or investment costs for such facility improvements.
England-Thims & Miller Inc. is the project engineer.
Plans in city review show the proposed tank farm on about 3.2 acres of the site now occupied by a sand volleyball court and a basketball court that will be removed.
The company has been expanding in Deerwood Park since its first building was developed there in 1993. It has developed a manufacturing plant, distribution center and research and development facility.
Vistakon has been expanding in several phases.
Just last year, City Council approved an incentives package for an expansion that would create up to 100 manufacturing jobs at an average wage of $65,000 plus benefits. That project should be completed by mid-2016.
The city approved a $6.9 million Recapture Enhanced Value grant, and the state provided a $1.5 million Quick Action Closing Fund contribution and a $225,000 Quick Response Training grant.
The new space and jobs are boosting Vistakon to almost 2,000 employees and close to 800,000 square feet of space.
Vistakon traces its origins to the Frontier Contact Lens Co. that started in Buffalo, N.Y., in the 1950s before its move to Jacksonville.
In 1987, Vistakon launched Acuvue, the first seven-day extended-wear disposable contact lens. Vistakon bought the Deerwood Park property in 1992.
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