San Marco Theatre is expected to add a new name to its marquee – Iguana San Marco.
Al’s Pizza founder Al Mansur said Aug. 9 he signed a lease to open a San Marco Square restaurant in the 85-year-old closed theater for his Flying Iguana concept, which operates locations in Atlantic Beach and Avondale.
He hopes to open in the first quarter of 2024. He expects to staff it with about 70 full- and part-time employees.
“We are going to keep the art deco look on the exterior and carry that look into the interior,” Mansur said.
“I just love being in a neighborhood that has a true town center feel,” he said.
Flying Iguana Taqueria & Tequila Bar opened in 2013 at 207 Atlantic Blvd. in Neptune Beach and Iguana on Park opened in 2021 at 3638 Park St. in the Avondale area of Jacksonville.
The Iguana concepts feature Latin American fusion cuisine with tacos, entrees, spirits and cocktails, including tequilas and local craft beers.
Mansur also owns Al’s Pizza, opening the first in 1988 and now with five locations in Baymeadows, San Pablo, Riverside, Ponte Vedra and Neptune Beach.
In Beaches Town Center, he also developed COOP 303 and Mezza Luna.
‘I fell in love’
Mansur said he had not thought of doing another restaurant, “but I fell in love with it when I walked it.”
Mansur is working on the plans. He intends to lease the 5,000-square-foot theater space and create a 150-seat restaurant and bar. There is another space next to the theater that will be available for retail lease.
Iguana San Marco will have a bar on the first level and Mansur will create a secondary bar and seating on a mezzanine level where the projection room and an office had been. It will cantilever over the ground floor.
He said the theater’s 21-foot-high ceiling will dominate the main dining room hall. “It is very beautiful,” he said.
Outside, “we will keep the marquee up,” he said, and the restaurant signage will be incorporated into that.
Mansur said the exterior will keep the theater architecture and nothing will change other than some color.
Mansur said he is using the same architecture team he engages for his other restaurants – Form + Space Inc. architects Hope Van Nortwick and Julianne Overby.
KMH Design Inc. is the interior designer.
“The whole team is based in Neptune Beach. They have been doing my work for 30 years,” Mansur said.
Eastern Shores Construction Inc. of Atlantic Beach is the contractor.
Mansur said the theater property already is zoned for the use. In 2016, he proposed a Flying Iguana in San Marco where Fore Score Golf Tavern is now, but it required a zoning exception, waiver and administrative deviation to create a 150-seat restaurant that was opposed by the neighborhood.
“I don’t think the neighborhood was ready for it,” Mansur said. “I thought we will wait until the right spot came along.”
He said he was looking forward to serving the neighborhood and bringing in a new concept to San Marco Square.
“It is going to be very cool.”
Meanwhile, Mansur said the Flying Iguana in Neptune Beach will close at the end of the month for several weeks of renovations to the kitchen and bar.
TSG makes changes
Jacksonville-based TSG Realty announced Sept. 8, 2022, that it bought the San Marco Theatre and adjacent spaces, including that leased to Stellers Gallery, for $3.35 million.
Stellers Gallery continues to lease its store at 1900 San Marco Blvd.
The spaces at 1992-1996 San Marco Blvd. are being prepared for use.
The buildings were developed in 1938 and together sit on 0.28-acre.
TSG Realty bought the properties from San Marco Real Estate Partnership LLC.
TSG quickly began interior removal work of walls and flooring. The theater seating already had been removed.
The city is reviewing building permits for the property to add two storefront openings for the 6,906-square-foot total space, including one for Flying Iguana, and for interior demolition and other work.
Building Dynamics Inc. of Jacksonville Beach is the contractor. Doherty Sommers Architects Engineers of Jacksonville Beach is the architect
Plans show the restaurant space is 4,939 square feet of space and the retail side is 1,967 square feet.
The Colliers Urban Division team of Matthew Clark, Sam Middlekauff and Olivia Steinemann represent the landlord in lease transactions for what is marketed as the San Marco Theatre Building.
Clark said Aug. 9 that the last 1,950-square-foot space has been leased and the tenant would be announced soon.
The previous owners of the two-screen theater announced Dec. 28, 2022, that the venue would close Jan. 1 because of a changing industry where theaters increasingly compete with streaming services for patrons, as well as the coronavirus pandemic’s negative effect on attendance.
Pam Howard, property manager and agent for Jacksonville-based TSG Realty, said upon the purchase that the historic building and facade will remain.
“We would never demolish this building. It’s structurally sound and looks fantastic,” Howard said.