Darden Restaurants Inc., the company that owns several chains that operate in Northeast Florida, bought three lots totaling 1.83 acres in South Jacksonville to develop an Olive Garden Italian Kitchen.
The company paid $2.7 million for the lots on Jan. 31.
The property is at Glen Kernan Park, the residential and commercial development at northwest Butler and Hodges boulevards.
It would be the first area Olive Garden built in at least a dozen years.
The seller was Joyce Development Group of Jacksonville through Glen Kernan Park LLC.
The buyer was GMRI Inc. a subsidiary of Orlando-based Darden Restaurants Inc., through Olive Garden Holdings Inc.
GMRI operates Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52.
It was reported in July that Darden was looking to build an Olive Garden in Glen Kernan Park.
The planned restaurant will be next to a seven-story, 174-room Embassy Suites hotel.
According to its JEA service availability request the restaurant will seat 237 customers. The request stated it was going to be built on 1.32 acres.
This will be the fifth Olive Garden restaurant in the area. Locations in Regency, Argyle and Avenues were built in 1990-91 and the fourth was built in 2009 in River City Marketplace in North Jacksonville.
The Regency location was rebuilt in 2015 after a fire.
Olive Garden makes up 44% of Darden’s total sales and 45% of its restaurant locations. Its May Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed Darden having 2,031 restaurants.
Darden also operates LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, The Capital Grille, and Eddie V’s.