Indoor golf and bowling appear to be coming to St. Johns Town Center as national operators Pinstripes and Puttshack are shown on plans in city review.
Pinstripes wants to build at the site of the closed West Elm furniture store building along Buckhead Branch Drive at St. Johns Town Center.
The West Elm building is in review for demolition. It is near Nordstrom.
Pinstripes plans a two-story, 26,370-square-foot building on Parcel 4, which is part of the town center’s fourth phase of development.
In 2019, a news report showed that Pinstripes Bowling Bocce Bistro was interested in a Jacksonville location, but no site was specified.
Pinstripes, based in Northbrook, Illinois, has not responded to several calls and emails in recent weeks to respond to questions about its continued interest in St. Johns Town Center.
Pinstripes has 17 locations in 11 states, including two in Florida in Aventura and Orlando. Three more are coming soon, including Coral Gables.
Jacksonville-based England-Thims & Miller Inc. submitted civil engineering plans April 26 for Pinstripes at St. Johns Town Center.
Simon Property Group applied to the city for a permit to demolish the 12,787-square-foot West Elm building at 10274 Buckhead Branch Drive, No. 101, at a project cost of $394,500.
Fox Design Group of Twinsburg, Ohio, is the architect.
The work will be performed to maintain existing utility connections for future construction.
Puttshack
The proposed Puttshack is shown on a Jacksonville Planning and Development Department plan as a two-story, 29,534-square-foot building across Buckhead Branch Drive from Pinstripes.
That project is shown on a plan included with the Pinstripes submission.
Chicago-based Puttshack has 22 locations in 15 states, of which eight locations are opening soon.
Puttshack, which opened in 2018, has its global headquarters in Chicago with a United Kingdom HQ in London.
In Florida, it has a center in Miami and another to open in Dania Beach.
Puttshack says it is an “upscale tech-infused mini golf experience.”
“Our patented Trackaball technology drives our gameplay, but our innovative, globally inspired dining and drinking experience is a story all its own,” says Puttshack.com.
Fourth phase
St. Johns Town Center, at northwest Butler Boulevard and Interstate 295, is considered the primary central retail shopping center of Northeast Florida and includes retailers from discount to luxury, such as Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany and Nordstrom.
The West Elm demolition matches plans Simon Property Group filed in August 2019, several months before the March 2020 pandemic shutdown, for a fourth phase at St. Johns Town Center.
The fourth phase was designed among four parcels.
Two of those are built – RH Jacksonville, formerly called Restoration Hardware, and the AC Hotels by Marriott.
Another was a proposed 600-seat theater.
The fourth, Parcel 4, was shown as a 15,300-square-foot addition to a 14,700-square-foot building near Nordstrom.
The West Elm building demolition is in the location of Parcel 4.
The 207-acre St. Johns Town Center opened in 2005 with many well-known retailers already represented in the market, including a prototype Dillard’s department store, and the area’s first Apple store.
St. Johns Town Center added West Elm during its second phase of development in 2007.
The initial phase included Target, Staples and Ashley Furniture HomeStore. Staples has closed and was replaced with Marshalls.
It added a second phase in 2007, just before the 2007-09 recession. That phase brought in upscale retailers, like Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton and Coach. West Elm was in that phase.
Seattle-based Nordstrom opened a two-level, 124,000-square-foot department store in October 2014 as the anchor of the third phase.