Two years after Beach Road Fish House and Chicken Dinners was demolished along Atlantic Boulevard, land owner Corner Lot proposes to add commercial uses to the site along with the apartments it proposes.
“This is one of our active multi-family development sites and we are looking at complimenting it with some commercial uses,” Corner Lot Development Group Executive Vice President Billy Zeits said Oct. 15 by email.
He said Oct. 23 there is no anticipated timeline for construction to start that he could share.
City utility JEA issued a service availability letter Oct. 3 to Jacksonville-based Corner Lot responding to the service availability connections and conditions for the project.
A 2023 availability letter supported 285 multifamily units. The 2025 letter is to add commercial uses to the current Planned Unit Development to include multifamily, retail and food uses.
Zeits said amending the PUD is “an option we are reviewing internally at this point.”
The eight properties specified total 6.6 acres. Plans indicate an almost half-acre parcel within the property outline is not included in the JEA letter.
Zeits said there is an existing JEA lift station on the site which iould be that parcel.
The entire almost 7.1 acres is at southeast Atlantic Boulevard and Arletha Road, west of Art Museum Drive.
Almost two years ago, it only took a few hours to turn the more than 80-year-old, 4,500-square-foot Beach Road Chicken Dinners, as it was known for decades, at 4132 Atlantic Blvd. into rubble.
The restaurant, which started in 1939, served its last fried chicken and fish in February 2023.
Through St. Nicholas MF Partners LLC of Jacksonville, Corner Lot bought the property in February 2023 for almost $2.8 million among four sales to assemble more than 7 acres.
Restaurant owners and spouses Nathan Stuart and Margo Klar sold the restaurant property through Fish House Holdings LLC.
Stuart and Klar took over Beach Road Chicken Dinners in 2019, leasing the property from owners Ken and Tena Ferger.
The couple bought 1.43 acres of an almost 4-acre parcel from the Fergers in October 2021. Fish House Holdings LLC bought the restaurant site, while the Fergers kept the remaining undeveloped property and sold it to Corner Lot.
Two other property owners also sold their land for the development.
Jacksonville City Council approved legislation Nov. 9, 2022, rezoning the property to planned unit development.
A concept plan dated July 25, 2022, shows an outline for 285 apartments in a five-story building that wraps around an amenity area with a pool and plaza. There also is a dog park.
Corner Lot is an active apartment and residential developer in Jacksonville with apartment, housing, hotel and mixed-use projects.