The developers of The HUB Brooklyn, a multiuse restaurant, office and event space, broke ground Nov. 14 at 400 Riverside Ave. in Downtown Jacksonville.
The 0.21-acre lot is at Riverside Avenue and Forest Street. It is across the street from FIS headquarters and the Morgan & Morgan law offices in the 501 Riverside Ave. building.
The project has been almost four years in the making. It is planned to open in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Mark Janasik, owner of Southern Grounds coffee shops, and Joe Cronk and Cliff Duch of Cronk Duch Architecture & Planning, are developing the project.
A Cronk Duch subsidiary, CD+urban studio, will focus on development.
CD+urban studio focuses on consulting, planning, designing and branding urban infill projects with an emphasis on re-emerging neighborhoods.
The city issued three permits Jan. 3, 2023, for Danis Construction LLC to build three shell buildings at 400 Riverside Ave. at a construction cost of almost $2.46 million.
The HUB Brooklyn tenant improvements would be under separate permits.
RPC General Contractors of Atlantic Beach are the contractors. The 2024 construction budget is still unavailable, Cronk said.
Cronk and Duch formerly worked at Haskell, the Jacksonville-based design-construction company whose headquarters are nearby, between 1989 and 1996 when Riverside Avenue was a much different stretch of road.
What had been a strip of car dealerships many years ago had evolved into a mishmash of industrial buildings and small storage facilities. Today, Brooklyn features stores, restaurants, apartments and offices.
At the groundbreaking, Cronk spoke of Haskell company founder Preston Haskell’s vision for the area.
“Mr. Haskell saw a revitalization of Brooklyn. The highway (Interstate 95) really cut and cleaved the energy from Brooklyn when that came through. It cut it off from Five Points and the residential neighborhoods and that started its struggle. It’s perfectly situated to really be a part of the growth of Downtown.”
“This was a missing tooth that has been left after its growth for the last 10 years,” Duch said of one of the last pieces of vacant land on Riverside Avenue.
The project is a back-of-the-napkin plan that was drawn in the Avondale Southern Grounds store. Janasik knew his regular customers well as they often would camp out in the coffee shop using it as a satellite office, Cronk said.
Delays were caused by having to inspect the ground for petroleum contamination because of its use as a car dealership. The coronavirus pandemic also slowed progress, Cronk said.
“So those challenges tend to be outweighed by the opportunities. When we started, Brooklyn was a very different place,” Cronk said.
With multiple restaurants, Brooklyn has become a dining destination. It also has a Fresh Market. The former Florida Times-Union building has been razed; a Whole Foods and apartments adjacent to the Haskell Building will be in its place in the One Riverside development.
Southern Grounds, the Sky Bar and Alder & Oak will anchor The HUB.
The Sky Bar will serve craft cocktails and small plates. Alder & Oak will feature wood-fired entrees.
Cronk Duch Architecture also will move its offices to The HUB.
The HUB is meant to be a gathering spot. There are outdoor dining spaces and the event space will be available to the public.
The HUB will have multimodal transportation accessibility. In addition to customers traveling by vehicle, Duch envisions pedestrians, bicyclists and even boaters making The HUB a destination.
Its location near McCoys Creek and the Emerald Trail also will allow for accessibility.
“The HUB will activate the neighborhoods between San Marco and Riverside and Avondale. So I think it’s a tremendous connection and epicenter of those three great neighborhoods,” Janasik said.
The Downtown Development Review Board approved plans in October 2020 that called for a three-level building and 2,593 square feet of outdoor space.
Southern Grounds will use 1,534 square feet of space on the ground floor. The second-level event space will be 1,318 square feet.
Janasik cited the importance of the project as a public and privately funded venture.
On Oct. 18, 2023, the DIA approved two Basic Retail Enhancement Program Grants for the coffee shop and restaurant for a combined $150,350.
Each award is structured as a forgivable, no-interest grant that will amortize at the rate of 2.778% each month after closing for three years with the condition that Alder & Oak and Southern Grounds remain in business at the location for three years.
While not eligible for additional DIA funds, Cronk said the group wants to work with other groups and agencies to beautify the right of way and add shade tree canopy to sidewalks.
In October 2022, Janasik and his Restaurant & Hospitality Investment Group paid $285,000 for the site through Hospitality HUB LLC.