The Downtown
Development Authority today will get a staff report on a longtime,
local optical company's request to build a new headquarters in
LaVilla.
United Optical Outlet, 237 E. Church St., is negotiating with St.
Johns Place LLC to buy its property. The 39-year-old company wants
to use the proceeds from the sale to help finance the purchase and
renovation of a 7,000-square-foot historic building at 326 Broad St.
The project is expected to cost about $408,484.
The Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund Advisory
Committee Monday approved lending United Optical $95,484 in addition
to the $151,500 it already awarded the applicant. Terms of the loan
require the company pay 3 percent interest for half of the loan's
12-year life span.
On top of the committee's grant and loan, United Optical will add
another $161,500 to the project.
The retail eye wear and manufacturing company owns five
locations, four in Duval County and one in Clay County. It employs
20 people, 12 of them at the headquarters. The new LaVilla facility
will not create or eliminate any jobs. United Optical has been at
the downtown location for 25 years. It grossed $1.2 million in sales
last year.
United Optical isn't the only company trying to build in LaVilla.
The historic neighborhood is undergoing a renaissance of sorts. The
following are some of the projects proposed for the neighborhood:
The Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund Advisory
Committee Monday also approved a $250,000 grant to Harmony Dental
Laboratory, which wants to build an 18,600-square-foot
dental/medical manufacturing and education facility in LaVilla. The
$1.8 million project is expected to add 147 new jobs averaging a
$30,000 salary, over the next 10 years.
Dialysis Clinic Inc. in the Riverside-Brooklyn area has its eyes
on a site in LaVilla to build a two-story, 19,000-square-foot
facility costing $2.5 million. The project is headed before the City
Council.
The Coffman Coleman Andrews & Grogan law firm, now based in
Riverside, was given conceptual approval for a proposed two-story,
20,000-square-foot building in LaVilla, at Monroe, Adams and Davis
streets.
Lee & Cates Glass Inc. in LaVilla was given the OK to build
15,155-square-foot and 7,509-square-foot warehouses at a
construction cost of about $825,000.
Hope Dental planners aspire for a summer 2002ng, while the
folks behind United Optical would like to be in their new digs by
March.
Both projects are expected go before the Jacksonville Economic
Development Council at its next meeting.
The Downtown Development Authority meets 9:30 a.m. today at City
Council Committee Room B, Jacksonville City Hall.
Staff writer Moshay Simpson can be reached at (904)
359-4311 or via e-mail at msimpson.
