Is Avondale Ready For A 7-Eleven?

[north miami]

Upstairs Gentleman's Club?Hey,this is Avondale-why not a Gentlewomen's Club?


Upstairs Sterlings/Bluefish can get................well,skip that,how would I know???

[logical]

I hear there is another player who has the $$ and is ready to put in a Gentleman's club, with parking on the ground level and the 'club' on the second level.  If the 7-11 opportunity dies the Gentleman's club is in, and RAP or the Ah-vahn-dale' elite can't stop it.  Anyone out there interested in some "lap-dancing" lessons

Seriously? You truly believe that somebody could open a gentleman's club at that location? COJ is presently staring at a petition for certiori to SCOTUS, or put another way the City is willing to go all the way to the US Supreme Court to close some existing gentlemens' clubs in other locations that are a lot more suited to that use than Avondale. You are out of your gourd if you believe for a second they'd even get the building permit, let alone a zoning variance or business license, to open up a strip club at that location.  Honestly, I'm hoping you were kidding. Otherwise, it's clear you don't understand land use and zoning very well.

Not a strip club, but a very nice "Gentleman's Club".  The Shell station could reopen tomorrow as a "Full Service Station"...the property is zoned CCG1, almost the bottom of the zoning chain.  I'm thinking that the club design would keep the middle hydraulic lift as is (in the 1st floor parking area) so that guests in stretch limos could drive onto the lift, be raised right up to the 'Guest Floor' and get "Full Service" without ever leaving the vehicle...maybe a lube job, wax job or full detail.

[fieldafm]

Not that it matters much in the conversation... but I know my dad talked about that gas station at Five Points quite a bit(where Derby House is now).  It was bugging the heck out of me, enough so that I searched for a picture.



Again, it doesn't matter one way or the other... but at least I am satisfied in knowing I wasn't talking out my backside when referancing Derby House earlier.

I am still in favor of a context-sensitive 7-11 here, and with a sales contract signed... the wheels are turning in that direction.

[ChriswUfGator]

Yes, where the Prudential is used to be a Lil Champ for many many years.  In fact, I can name about 5 places off the top of my head in the neighborhood that were once convenience stores(Walkers, Derby House, European Street, etc).

No one that runs a pet store can afford to buy that lot, construct a building and run a pet shop that maybe does 400k a year in revenue.

You guys simply aren't looking at this holistically.  A bright, clean 7-11 can activate continuous pedestrian activity on that spot.  The 15' setback allows for cafe style seating outside.  Clearly there is a market for quick convenient items(Publix, Walgreens and 14 other convenience stores).  There is nowhere on that strip that serves coffee, bagels, donuts and the like.  Just take a look at Margaret/Riverside.  The Einsteins and Starbucks create constant foot traffic on that corner.  That spills over to the surrounding business.  Foot traffic enhances retail vibrancy.  Anyone that tells you otherwise doesn't know what they are talking about.

I for one think that if a select few people run away a context sensitive 7-11, then our community as a whole loses.  It's attitudes like this that have killed downtown retail, created this ridiculous transient vendor ban which essentially kills legitimate and legal transient vendors(food trucks, hot dog carts, etc and does nothing to enforce the laws already on the books to squeeze out illegal transient vendors) and has made Jacksonville a place that seems bent on being hostile to America's number one jobs generator (small businesses) in an employment market that sorely needs a higher supply of employers.

Derby House has been what it is since the 50s or 60s. I think you're thinking of Carmine's, which used to be a 7-11...

I never thought you were talking out of your azz, but if you re-read the original comment that started our back and forth, one must note that we weren't just talking about gas stations generally, we were talking about convenience stores. Look at the title of this thread. Your comment that I corrected was that Derby House used to be a convenience store, which it never was. A Texaco station that went out of business in 1943 wasn't the original point of contention, was it?

That photo looks to be early/mid 1940s if I had to guess. And we already found another photo from 1944 showing the Derby House, which not coincidentally also has "Since 1944" on its sign out front. So it's been there since that time. I don't believe a 1920s/1930s era service station would be what you'd call a "convenience store." It would have had a cashier's booth, attendants, and a couple gas pumps, nothing resembling a convenience store except some of them maybe had a soda machine.

PS: I am in favor of the 7-11, and despite my shock at the price it was implied they are paying, I have been from the get-go. Just noticed this minor point of trivia over Derby House, and figured I'd correct the record.

[Dog Walker]

What ARE those things on the 5 Points beacon?

[Jimmy]

What ARE those things on the 5 Points beacon?

Apparently they're angels, which is sort of what I thought they were even before I found this:

http://www.5pointsjax.com/oldnew.html

[tayana42]

Saw a 7-11 in Chicago in an historic building; it had no exterior sign at all.  You could look in and see the logo inside.  Well done.

[acme54321]

So is there any news on the 7-11 deal?

[JeffreyS]

They are probably holding to see if there is a Mobility Fee Moratorium. 

[north miami]

/quote]

[If_I_Loved_you]

"Is Avondale Ready for a 7-Eleven" I say Yes besides Avondale is just another part of Jacksonville.

[CG7]

Oh, but we are so the best part.

[cline]

I believe Lake mentioned in another thread that the Avondale 7-11 is dead.

[fieldafm]

It is dead, 7-11 backed out (unfortunately)

[JHAT76]

It is dead, 7-11 backed out (unfortunately)

Do you happen to know why?  Was it the resistance from tho select merchants / residents?  As a resident within walking distance I was in full support of a 7/11.  Not a fan of the jumbled parking lot that takes shape in front of abandoned gas station.