Darden Restaurants Inc. wants to be ready to put up the signs for its Olive Garden Italian Kitchen in development in Glen Kernan Park at northwest Butler and Hodges boulevards.
Orlando-based Darden applied for six permits to put up wall signs on the restaurant and a monument sign at the entrance of Glen Kernan Park as it builds first area Olive Garden in more than 15 years.
Contractors are listed as Media Resources USA Inc. and Florida Sign Erectors LLC for the six signs at a total estimated project cost of $29,100 at 4995 Sweetgrass Place.
The signs say Olive Garden Italian Kitchen and Olive Garden To Go!
The project is moving along since the land was bought Jan. 31.
On Jan. 31, GMRI Inc., a subsidiary of Orlando-based Darden Restaurants Inc., bought the site through Olive Garden Holdings Inc. It paid $2.7 million for three lots totaling 1.83 acres for the restaurant. Joyce Development Group of Jacksonville sold the property through Glen Kernan Park LLC.
On. Feb. 12, Darden Restaurants Inc. landed a site-clearing permit from the city to clear almost 2 acres at a project cost of $20,000.
On Feb. 24, the city issued a construction permit for Venture Construction Co. to build the $2.4 million project.
According to its JEA service availability request, the restaurant will seat 237 customers. Plans show five dining rooms, a bar and a to-go area.
Glen Kernan Park is a retail, hotel, commercial and residential development at northwest Butler and Hodges boulevards.
Olive Garden is planned next to a seven-story, 174-room Embassy Suites hotel in Glen Kernan Park.
It would 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.
As of the end of its second quarter Nov. 24, 2024, Darden operated 2,152 restaurants comprising Olive Garden (925); LongHorn Steakhouse (580); Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen (181); Chuys’s (104); Yard House (88); Ruth’s Chris Steak House (82); The Capital Grille (70); Seasons 52 (45); Bahama Breeze (43); Eddie V’s (30); and The Capital Burger (4). Most of those brands operate in Northeast Florida.
Olive Garden makes up about 44% of Darden’s total sales and almost 43% of its restaurant locations.