Design plans are beginning to take shape for the building intended to house a new restaurant in St. Johns River Park on the Southbank.
The restaurant would be adjacent to Friendship Fountain, with visitors passing it just as they enter the park from the roundabout near MOSH. While the restaurant would be run by a private operator, the building itself would be owned by the City of Jacksonville and leased to that third party. An example of this arrangement – municipal ownership with a third-party lessee – is Palms Fish Camp Restaurant on Heckscher Drive in the Palms Fish Camp Boat Ramp Park.
Representatives from CD+Urban Studio presented renderings to the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) Board at a public workshop at city hall on Wednesday, Jan. 15 depicting three different options for the St. Johns River Park Friendship Fountain restaurant building, ranging from a single-story structure with indoor/outdoor seating to a two-story structure with a fully-activated rooftop space for a bar and al fresco dining.
Three Concepts
CD+Urban Studio Partner Joe Cronk gave detailed descriptions of the three concepts his team had created for DIA’s review. These designs are currently at 30% complete. During his presentation, Cronk expressed his firm’s gratitude for being selected for this project.
“We’re excited to be a part of this movement of riverfront activation,” Cronk said. “We take that charge and that responsibility seriously.”
Concept A was a one-story restaurant/bar with 2,400 square feet of indoor space with an additional 1,000 square feet of outdoor seating under a covered porch and includes a detached and covered exterior bar.
The more elevated Concept B featured a two-story structure with roof-top terrace space for public viewing, with view finders installed along the perimeter of the terrace, and a ground-floor restaurant/bar. This design featured an interior bar that has an exterior wall for outdoor serving.This concept offers an extended lawn area that could be used as flex space for restaurant patrons or park goers.
Concept C included a two-story structure with a ground-floor restaurant and bar with “1,500 square feet open-to-sky dining and bar terrace” including an enclosed bar and covered dining space. Concept C also included the detached bar from Concept A.
The baseline for all three concepts is 2,400 square feet of indoor dining space with 100 seats.
The estimated base costs for each concept are $2 million (Concept A), $2.7 million (Concept B) and $3 million (Concept C).
DIA CEO Lori Boyer informed the board that the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) would be able to fund any one of these options in next year’s budget, which will include an additional $3.5 million as this year concludes that CRA obligation to the RiversEdge development.
Park amenity versus restaurant
Following the presentation, DIA board members and visiting City Councilmembers Joe Carlucci and Raul Arias shared feedback on the three options, with Concept C emerging as a favorite, though board members and council members shared questions and concerns for the architecture firm to address as it progresses toward final designs.
“The first thing is we’ve got to figure out what identity we want to do,” Arias said. “Right now I’m looking at, is the goal to bring a hospitality to Jacksonville or is it to keep it as a park for public use? We can’t have both.”
Arias raised a concern regarding creating flex lawn space within the restaurant’s footprint that people could use without purchasing food or beverage items from the restaurant.
While he appreciated the idea of creating more greenspace for public use, he argued that would work to the detriment of the restaurant operator, who’d be paying for space that could potentially cost revenue were it used as picnic space by park visitors not purchasing anything from the operator’s business.
“As an operator, I would not want anybody to bring their own food,” Arias said.
Arias added it could create a liability issue as well.
Between Concepts A and C, Carlucci said he would “lean full bore into Concept C,” which he believed, like Arias, offered the best opportunities for higher revenue for the incoming restaurant operator.
“Zooming out from the bigger picture, this is going to be one restaurant of many that are going to be coming online along our riverfront,” Carlucci said. “What we don’t want is people…to get to probably one of the best spots on Southbank or along the riverfront and it’d be a lesser kind of impression.”
Community Involvement
During public comment at the conclusion of the meeting, Scenic Jacksonville Executive Director Nancy Powell advocated for additional community involvement now that the conceptual designs have been presented to the board.
Alluding to a discussion the board had surrounding who would have control over the rooftop terrace – whether that would be under the restaurant operator’s purview or the City’s, by way of the Parks Department – Powell said community input could be helpful.
“We are excited about activating Friendship Fountain and food and beverage is something that people want,” Powell said after the meeting. “We feel that a good next step would be to allow the general public to also review these plans and designs and understand plans related to what’s public, what is accessible, what’s not and as the designs progress.”
Additional public comments included considerations like shade, parking and possible spray from nearby Friendship Fountain.
With the feedback from January’s workshop, Cronk’s team will begin fine-tuning the designs and return at a later date with a more refined vision for the project.
