RH, previously known as Restoration Hardware, appears to be closer to construction at St. Johns Town Center.
The city is reviewing a permit for the store’s foundation construction at 4831 Village Shops Way.
RH was unable to comment.
J.E. Dunn Construction of Kansas City, Missouri, is listed as the contractor for the three-story, 48,426-square-foot home furnishings retail store that also will offer a rooftop restaurant and bar.
RH is designed as part of the center’s fourth phase at the southeast corner of the property.
The RH site is east of the shops that include Tesla and Apple. Parking lot pavement has been removed and the site is fenced.
The foundation permit carries a job cost of $150,000.
The city was reviewing permit applications for the $18 million construction of the store by other contractors, but J.E. Dunn is now listed as the contractor contact.
St. Johns Town Center owner Simon Property Group announced Feb. 25 – just weeks before the pandemic state of emergency - that RH Jacksonville, The Gallery at St. Johns Town Center, will open in late 2020.
That time frame apparently has been adjusted because of the pandemic.
The Town Center closed March 18 because of COVID-19 and reopened May 4, although not all stores and restaurants immediately resumed operations.
Simon said in February the three-story RH will offer 50,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space and offer luxury home furnishings, lighting, textiles, decor and more.
RH will feature a signature glass-covered Rooftop Restaurant and a Barista & Wine Bar that will open to a landscaped park.
St. Johns Town Center is at northwest Butler Boulevard and Interstate 295. The fourth phase is at the southeast part of the shopping center property.
Previous plans indicated RH will occupy 3.77 acres of the 41 acres designated for the fourth phase.
“Our goal is to continually enhance our visitor’s experience by delivering the exclusive, first-to-market brands the Jacksonville market craves. We are confident the addition of RH will give the community an even more compelling reason to visit,” said Ashlee Schneider, director of marketing and business development at St. Johns Town Center, in the February news release.
RH changed its name from Restoration Hardware in 2017.
The company is based in Corte Madera, California, near San Francisco, and operates 68 RH Galleries and 38 Outlet stores in 31 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.
Additional plans filed for the St. Johns Town Center fourth phase, which have not been officially announced, show a theater, hotel and additional retail space.
In April, although St. Johns Town Center was closed at the time for the pandemic, engineers filed plans for a 118-room AC Hotels by Marriott on the Southside property. Lisa Giaimo is vice president of sales and marketing with OTO Development LLC of Spartanburg, South Carolina, the identified developer.
“It is our intention to bring the AC by Marriott brand to Jacksonville,” she said by email Aug. 4. “That is our location,” she said of the Town Center.
She said OTO Development did not have a construction timeline.
The pandemic affected theaters and hotels that had to adjust to social distancing and fears of the spread of COVID-19.
Large theaters continue to delay reopening, and hotels are operating at low occupancy with the slowdown in business and leisure travel and group events.
Simon and Atlanta-based developer Ben Carter built St. Johns Town Center in 2005. Carter sold his 50% ownership in mid-2014 to a Deutsche Bank group.
Nordstrom opened in October 2014 to anchor the Town Center’s third phase.
RH and two other Phase 4 parcels are planned behind J. Alexander’s, True Food Kitchen and the stores in that corridor of the center. Another parcel is near Nordstrom.
Simon has not commented about the fourth phase.
