After more than a year of plans and negotiations, Mellow Mushroom is preparing to build its proposed Avondale restaurant in Jacksonville at 3601 St. Johns Ave.
The City is reviewing plans for the project to include site work, a "ground-up" building and interior build-out at a project cost of $1.4 million.
The seat count is limited to 204 seats "per City requirement," according to the documents.
Tenant Contractors Inc. is the contractor and Design Cooperative LLC is the architect.
Plans have called for demolition of the closed service station and redevelopment of the site, with the restaurant fronting St. Johns Avenue and parking in back where the station had been.
The restaurant owner and developer is MM Avondale LLC, led by John Valentino.
Valentino operates three area Mellow Mushrooms — Tinseltown at 9734 Deer Lake Court, Suite 1; 1018-2 N. Third St. in Jacksonville Beach; and 1800 Town Center Blvd. in Fleming Island.
His MM River City LLC recently bought a 1.2-acre outparcel at 15022 Max Leggett Parkway in the Parkway Shops near River City Marketplace for what would become his fifth area Mellow Mushroom.
MM Avondale bought the 3601 St. Johns Ave. property in March 2012. The Mellow Mushroom project was debated by Avondale neighborhood residents, supporters and the City, specifically about parking concerns in the neighborhood shopping district. They reached agreement early this year.
Food bites
• The City issued a sign permit for J.C. Dominican Restaurant at 1440 Dunn Ave. Liberty Lighting Inc. is the contractor for the wall sign at a cost of $900. JC Dominican Restaurants LLC filed with the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations on Feb. 22 and listed its address as 1440-32 Dunn Ave. The managing member is Daniel Jimenez.
• The City approved an awning for The Sweet Shop at the 4 Rivers Smokehouse under renovation at 9220 Baymeadows Road. The 4rsmokehouse.com site says the sweet shop desserts include s'mores brownies and regular brownies; cookie sandwiches; cupcakes; about a dozen cake varieties; and pecan pie.
Opening time for Walmart Markets
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which announced earlier this week it would open its three area Neighborhood Markets on Wednesday, says the Merrill Road and Middleburg stores will open the first day at 7:30 a.m. and the Old St. Augustine Road store will open at 8 a.m.
The stores will operate 6 a.m.-midnight daily.
Sam's Clubs renovating
The City is reviewing building permit applications and plans for Sam's Club to remodel its Jacksonville stores at 10690 Beach Blvd. and 6373 Youngerman Circle.
Each project is valued at $1.5 million and is described as a general remodel of the store to include restrooms, grocery, registers, snack bar, optical, tire and battery and offices.
No contractor was listed.
3 Chase banks approved for construction
The City approved Interior build-out for three Chase bank branches in Jacksonville:
• 4372 Southside Blvd., No. 200, Catamount Constructors Inc., $485,630.
• 1661 Riverside Ave., No. 129, D.C. Ecker Construction Inc., $436,351.
• 6012 San Jose Blvd., D.C. Ecker Construction Inc., $225,000.
The Daily Record reported May 20 that JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it would open more than a dozen branches in the Jacksonville market in the next 18 months. It said it would start construction immediately on branches at the three locations, which are expected to open in mid-October.
According to that report, JP-Morgan Chase became a major force in the Jacksonville economy when it acquired the failed Washington Mutual in 2008.
Washington Mutual had a large mortgage operation in Jacksonville that employed about 2,000 people and combined with JP-Morgan Chase's mortgage banking presence.
The company now employs about 4,000 people in Jacksonville.
However, the banking giant only had one actual bank branch in Jacksonville, at its mortgage center at 7301 Baymeadows Way.
The Daily Record reported in March that JPMorgan Chase had begun filing plans with regulatory authorities to open a number of bank branches in the area.
The company's consumer banking offices operate under the "Chase" name. It uses JPMorgan for its large corporate banking activities.
Chase has 338 branches and more than 17,000 employees in Florida, covering just about every major city except Jacksonville.
The company has filed applications for six branches, including two in St. Johns County, with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Each branch will have about a half-dozen employees.
Ally Financial hiring 20-30 people a month
Ally Financial Inc. said it will hire 20-30 full-time positions each month in Jacksonville for the rest of 2013 and into 2014, for a total between 140-280 employees.
The company, formerly General Motors Acceptance Corp., has 825 employees in Jacksonville at its two Flagler Center offices in South Jacksonville, said Amy Bouque with Ally Talent Acquisition in Detroit.
It sponsored a job fair Thursday for call-center and customer-service representatives, dealer service specialists and underwriters.
Ally expects to hire 40-50 employees from the event.
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