A conjoined V Steakhouse and V Pizza, with a Sidecar Jax lounge between them, are expected to open in June or July in The Palms at Gate Parkway.
“It’s central to seven V Pizza locations,” owner Paul Scott said Dec. 18.
That’s by design, he said, because future V Steakhouses will be developed central to where V Pizza has five or more locations.
Northeast Florida is the first area with that density of V Pizzas.
It’s the first V Steakhouse for Jacksonville-based V Pizza, which launched its initial restaurant in 2014 in San Marco.
Scott said a previous attempt to open the first V Steakhouse at the former Lulu’s Waterfront Grille in Ponte Vedra Beach did not work out.
The Gate Parkway investment is several million dollars, Scott said.
A sign for V Pizza “coming soon” has been posted at the site as the city reviews a permit application at the new building at northwest Gate Parkway and Burnt Mill Road.
The area is at southwest Interstate 295 and Butler Boulevard, south of St. Johns Town Center and about a half-mile north of Ikea.
The permit application shows a 12,296-square-foot project in Building 3 for conjoined V Pizza, V Steakhouse and Sidecar Jax spaces on the ground floor of a two-story building at 7510 Gate Parkway.
Plans show V Steaks LLC as the project owner.
V Steakhouse, V Pizza and Sidecar will have separate entrances.
The only interior connection will be inside access between V Pizza and Sidecar Jax, Scott said.
Each restaurant has a dining room and patio seating.
V Pizza has dining and an open kitchen.
V Steak, as it is called on the permits, has an exhibition kitchen, dining, wine room and private dining as well as a bar. Scott said V Steakhouse will take on a new name that he hopes to announce early next year.
The Palms at Gate Parkway build-out cost is shown as $1 million, but that can change as the permit proceeds.
Plans show a combined 520 seats for the three concepts comprising 231 dining room seats, 67 lounge seats, 98 bar seats and 124 patio seats.
Codes-ABC Inc. of Orange Park is handling code compliance. Connors Design Group LLC of Ponte Vedra Beach is the architect.
Bravo Zulu Group of Jacksonville Beach is shown as the contractor on a notice of demolition or asbestos renovation.
The permit indicates the three concepts will take most of the ground floor in the 33,360-square-foot building.
The landlord is Jacksonville-based Ash Properties, which is developing the three-building Palms at Gate Parkway.
The Palms at Gate Parkway comprises three office, retail and restaurant buildings totaling 119,362 square feet. Buildings 1 and 3 are 33,360 square feet each and Building 2 is 52,386 square feet.
Plans to bring V Steakhouse to the former Lulu’s site failed because the company couldn’t come to terms with the property owners, Scott said in February.
Scott said then that the V Steak concept was not being abandoned.
“We are actively looking but nothing solid.”
Owners registered the business name V Steaks LLC with the state in April 2021. It is led by David Villmow of Jacksonville and KNP Veloce LLC and PNK Veloce LLC, both of Ponte Vedra Beach.
KNP Veloce and PNK Veloce are led by Scott, Villmow, Kris Williams and Jonathan Mark Turner.
The V Pizza restaurant chain, which features pizza cooked in wood-burning ovens, operates 12 locations, according to vpizza.com
The site shows seven in Northeast Florida and one each in Gainesville, Orlando and St. Simons, Georgia, and two in North Carolina.
The Northeast Florida sites are in San Marco, Mandarin, Jacksonville Beach, Palm Valley, St. Augustine, Fleming Island and Fernandina Beach.
Gate Parkway will be the eighth.
V Pizza launched its concept at the San Marco location at 1406 Hendricks Ave. in spring 2014.
In November 2021, as the lease expiration was coming up in about two years, a V Pizza executive said it planned to lease the former Knights of Columbus building at 1509 Hendricks Ave., a larger space.
Scott said Dec. 18 he negotiated a 20-year lease on the current V Pizza and Sidecar Jax and is renovating the space, including new flooring and exterior painting, for completion in January.
The V Steaks owners also own Jacksonville-based V Pizza Franchising LLC. Scott said the two North Carolina locations are franchised but the others, and all future locations, will be corporate-owned.
“Although it is rumored that V stands for Very, Very good Pizza the truth is V stands for Veloce, which means ‘fast’ in Italian. Our 900° ovens cook your pizzas in as little as 90 seconds — now that’s fast,” says vpizza.com.