Shown as “Coming Soon!” on its website, Habit Burger & Grill is preparing to build-out another of its first three Jacksonville restaurants.
The city issued a permit Aug. 15 for Falcon Franchise Construction LLC of Fort Lauderdale to renovate the former Arby’s at 9171 Baymeadows Road at a project cost of $843,504.
The 3,517-square-foot restaurant and drive-thru was built in 1985 on a 0.8-acre site east of Interstate 95 between a Daily’s gas station and a Bank of America branch office.
Habit Burger & Grill is a chain based in Irvine, California. It says its menu features freshly chargrilled burgers, chicken and tuna “all cooked-to-order over an open flame.”
It also has salads and shakes.
R.I.C. Properties of San Diego owns the Baymeadows property. It is part of Realty Income Corp. commercial real estate investment company.
Plans show that the project scope is the conversion and tenant improvement of the building.
The exterior work will include paint finishes and landscaping. The interior work will include new equipment, furnishings and finishes.
Habit Burger & Grill will seat 76 customers in the dining area, plans show.
Lingle Design Group of Lena, Illinois, is the architect. Commercial Development Resources of Costa Mesa, California, is the civil engineer.
There are two other Habit Burger & Grill sites in development, at a closed Bojangles restaurant in Beach Haven at Beach and Hodges boulevards and in North Jacksonville near River City Marketplace.
Beach Haven
The city issued a first permit May 6 for Habit Burger & Grill to build-out in South Jacksonville at the closed Bojangles restaurant at 13559 Beach Blvd. at northwest Beach and Hodges boulevards in the Beach Haven area.
Falcon Franchise Construction will convert the 3,875-square-foot freestanding restaurant and drive-thru on a 0.83-acre site at a cost of $715,518. It was built in 2008.
The city issued a permit April 8 for landscaping and site work at a project cost of $10,000.
River City Marketplace
Plans for Habit Burger & Grill are taking shape near River City Marketplace on land next to BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse.
BJ’s Restaurant Inc. of Huntington Beach, California, owns the 0.8-acre site at 15022 Max Leggett Parkway at Skymarks Drive. The outparcel of Parkway Shops is east of I-95.
Municipal utility JEA issued a service availability determination letter April 29 for a 2,063-square-foot building with a mobile pickup lane.
The project comprises the 30-seat restaurant and a drive-thru lane that can stack at least 10 vehicles. Surface parking for 27 vehicles is allocated for Habit Burger, but additional parking is available on the shared lot with BJ’s Restaurant.
Commercial Development Resources is the applicant.
The St. Johns River Water Management District received a pre-application March 10 for an environmental resource permit for “Habit Burger, Max Leggett.”
Jacksonville Beach-based Florida Retail Group has been marketing the “surplus pad site” as available for lease, showing it can accommodate up to a 4,200-square-foot building.
What Habit Burger says
Habit Burger & Grill said in November it is opening in Jacksonville in the second half of 2025 because the area’s food culture is growing, with an interest in comfort foods and innovative dishes.
That is “making it a welcoming spot for a Habit Burger & Grill restaurant,” the company said in an email.
“We’ve got Habit Burger & Grills sprinkled across the Sunshine State, and we’re pumped to fire up the grill in Jacksonville,” said chef Jason Triail, director of Culinary Innovation at Habit Burger & Grill, in an email Nov. 7.
HabitBurger.com shows 12 Habit Burger & Grill locations in Florida, mainly in South Florida, with one in Clearwater.
The HabitBurger.com site says the company began in Santa Barbara, California, in 1969 and “has been chargrilling California’s freshest flavors for over half a century.”