Smalls Sliders is preparing to drop a “can” in Intracoastal Plaza in Jacksonville as the city reviews permits at an estimated project cost of $608,000.
It would be the second in the market. The first opened May 29 in Saint Johns in St. Johns County.
The Drew Brees-backed burger chain wants to set up another 800-square-foot building along with a patio and canopy, walk-in cooler and dumpster enclosure at 14452 Beach Blvd. There is no indoor seating.
Smalls Sliders franchises its locations, with each built around a modular shipping container it calls “the can,” equipped with walk-up windows, drive-thru lanes and outdoor patios instead of indoor dining rooms.
Stansell Construction of Odessa is the contractor for the Intracoastal Plaza location, at southeast Beach Boulevard and San Pablo Road.
CPH Consulting LLC of Sanford is the architect and CPH Inc. is the civil engineer.
Intracoastal Plaza at 14444 Beach Blvd. is anchored by Publix Super Markets Inc. The shopping center is near the western edge of the Intracoastal Waterway and across from Jacksonville Beach.
Jacksonville-based Ash Properties owns the center.
The city issued a Mobility Fee Calculation Certificate in February for an 800-square-foot fast-food drive-thru restaurant with no indoor seating on a 0.7-acre outparcel near the Le Petit Paris restaurant. A site dimension plan shows a single drive-thru lane and indicates outdoor seating.
There is right-turn-in, right-turn-out access into the shopping center at the Smalls Sliders outparcel.
“We are pleased to welcome Smalls Sliders to a long vacant pad at Intracoastal Plaza and look forward to seeing their unique offering accelerate the positive transformation of the center,” said Christian Oldenburg, chief operating officer of Jacksonville-based Ash Properties.
Grant Burt, a senior associate at SRS Real Estate Partners in Tampa, represented Smalls Sliders. Clint Murphy and Matt Cangiolosi at Murphy Land & Retail Services Inc. represented Ash Properties.
The Atlanta-based Smalls Sliders chain, whose investors include Brees, built its first area drive-thru in St. Johns County east of Interstate 95, across from the mixed-use development The Fountains at St. Johns.
Smalls Sliders operates seven restaurants in Florida in Clearwater, Fort Walton Beach, Ocala (2), Pensacola, Saint Johns and Tallahassee.
The menu features cheeseburger sliders with up to two patties and bacon; grilled cheese sandwiches; waffle fries; and milkshakes.
Smalls Sliders was founded by Brandon Landry, a former walk-on basketball guard at Louisiana State University.
Landry also founded Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux in 2003. The sports bar chain opened at The Pavilion at Durbin Park in St. Johns County in October 2025. Brees also is an investor in that enterprise.
SmallsSliders.com posted a story from QSR magazine from Sept. 5, 2023, that says Smalls opened its first “can” in September 2019 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, not far from the original Walk-On’s restaurant. It later moved its headquarters to Atlanta.