Riverside “urban activation space” is back on the market at the Fidelity National Information Services Inc. headquarters in the Brooklyn area of Downtown.
Pet Paradise has closed the gate on plans to build a resort and day spa at the financial technology services riverfont office campus.
“We did not decide to move forward with the FIS deal,” Vice President of Real Estate Brian Franco said Sept. 24 by email. He said it “didn’t make sense ultimately.”
Franco said Oct. 4 the reason was “primarily the economics of the deal.”
Kim Snider, FIS senior vice president of corporate communications, said Oct. 2 that she confirmed with the facilities team that Pet Paradise decided not to move forward.
“The space is currently on the market for lease,” Snider said.
The plans
The city received applications in January 2023 for permitting review of an estimated $1.5 million project to add the pet care center at the FIS headquarters, but no work was started.
Pet Paradise would have built-out a pet resort in a ground-floor building and on the rooftop of the structure that is connected to the FIS parking garage.
Those plans showed an estimated cost of $1 million for tenant improvements for the 11,892-square-foot project.
Pet Paradise would have occupied the designated “urban activation space” that FIS built adjacent to its garage at 347 Riverside Ave. The resort would have faced Riverside Avenue.
The one-story, 6,000-square-foot space is an extension of the garage.
The urban activation space was developed for ground-floor office and retail use to serve the community.
For Pet Paradise, the ground level was designed as a check-in lobby, administrative and support space, grooming and boarding suites, a Tiny Town for smaller pets, play yards and dog-bone-shaped interior pool, among other features.
The roof of the extension would have served as a play yard and pool area for the pet resort.
FIS
FIS cut the ribbon Oct. 21, 2022, to open its $156 million headquarters at the Riverside address in Brooklyn.
When plans for the financial technology firm’s 12-story office building were unveiled in 2019, FIS promised to add 500 jobs to the 1,216 workers it already had in Jacksonville.
The project was approved for $29.9 million in city and state incentives.
FIS built an eight-level parking garage with 1,647 parking spaces connected to the office tower on the first and second levels with an air-conditioned garage elevator lobby.
Pet Paradise
Pet Paradise was founded in Jacksonville 22 years ago. It opened its first pet resort in 2002 in St. Augustine. It now has 61 locations in 11 states.
Petparadise.com shows seven locations and a hospital in Northeast Florida.
The resorts offer dog and cat boarding facilities, dog grooming services, veterinary care and doggy day camps. Amenities vary by location.