The Downtown Development Review Board is scheduled to consider final approval Aug. 24 of First Coast Energy’s plan to build a three-story Daily’s with a convenience store, restaurant and Bold City Brewery on a vacant lot in LaVilla.
The project was deferred from a vote in July at the request of Mayor Donna Deegan and City Council member Jimmy Peluso.
Since January, the project has come up against criticism from people and groups working to revitalize the historic neighborhood and Downtown advocates concerned about a gas station’s effect on future pedestrian safety and accessibility plans in LaVilla.
"We requested this deferral to allow First Coast Energy/Daily’s another month to solicit public opinion on this significant development within an historic neighborhood," Deegan Chief Communications Officer Philip Perry said in an email Aug. 17. "The goal was for stakeholders to have the chance to voice their opinions and help ensure the project will benefit both the neighbors and Downtown as a whole."
The proposed Daily’s would sit on a 1.4-acre block at Bay and Broad streets.
It 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.
The DDRB staff is recommending approval of the project.
First Coast Energy has been working to develop the site for nearly three years.
The company paid almost $3.3 million in August 2020 for the block bounded by Forsyth, Jefferson, Bay and Broad streets.
First Coast Energy 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.
The DDRB meeting is at 2 p.m. Aug. 24 in the Main Library Multipurpose Room Downtown.