WEDNESDAY January 8, 2020 jaxdailyrecord.com • 35 cents
Top 10 commercial real estate sales of 2019
PAGE 3
Public legal notices begin on page 4
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
THE MATHIS REPORT
Executive led The Charter Co. to the Fortune 500
Daily Record
Southern Grounds & Co. moving quickly in Avondale
JACKSONVILLE
Raymond Knight Mason died Jan. 2 at age 92.
Daily Record Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
BY MARK BASCH
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
7,200-square-foot building. Jones applied to the city Dec. 5 for a permit to build a one-story, 8,000-square-foot building on the site at a cost of $1 million. The permit is in review. The Angelo Group is the contractor. Group 4 Design Inc. is the architect. Jones, who leads Avondale Sogro LLC, bought the structure in November 2018 for $763,000. It was developed in 1958. The building is a noncontributing
Raymond Knight Mason, who built one of Jacksonville’s biggest companies and became a national and international figure, died Jan. 2 at age 92. Mason ran The Charter Co., which generated big revenue from the oil business but was a diverse company with more than 180 subsidiaries at its peak. M a so n , a Jacksonville native, was just 36 when he became president of Charter, the new name of a company that traced its Mason history to the Mason Lumber Co. in 1919. Charter’s interests included insurance, banking, convenience stores and popular magazines Redbook and Ladies Home Journal. The company ranked 61st in the Fortune 500 list of America’s corporations with 1983 revenue of $5.6 billion. However, a drop in the oil market and problems with Charter’s insurance businesses sent the company into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 1984. That was preceded by a July 1982 helicopter crash in Ireland that killed four of Charter’s top oil executives. They were traveling from Ballynahinch Castle, where Mason had a retreat, to Shannon International Airport to board a plane for a Paris business meeting. Mason’s published obituary says he and his wife spent their summers at a home they built on the grounds of the Ballynahinch Castle for 45 years.
SEE MATHIS, PAGE 2
SEE MASON, PAGE 3
JACKSONVILLE Photo courtesy of Chris Goodin
Realco Recycling Co. Inc. works Jan. 7 to demolish the closed, vacant buildings at 3562 St. Johns Ave. for construction of a Southern Grounds & Co. coffee shop. Demolition started in the back of the structure Jan. 3 and is expected to be completed by Jan. 14.
Southern Grounds & Co. business owner Mark Janasik, property owner Edward Skinner Jones and Chris Goodin, a consultant, at 35623564 St. Johns Ave. in the Shoppes of Avondale. Realco Recycling Co. Inc. is demolishing the building for construction of a Southern Grounds coffee shop, a market and an art gallery.
KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
Coffee shop says its third location at 3562 St. Johns Ave. should be completed by late summer. Historic Avondale will soon experience new construction. Realco Recycling Co. Inc. started demolition Jan. 3 in the Shoppes of Avondale toward construction of the area’s third Southern Grounds & Co. coffee shop at 3562 St. Johns Ave., next to Biscottis Restaurant. It isn’t expected to take long. Property owner Edward Skinner Jones said Jan. 2 that demolition could take several days, followed by construction with a targeted completion in late summer.
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
Demolition is expected to be completed by Jan. 14. “Avondale lends itself to being a community gathering space,” Jones said previously of the established neighborhood. “People can walk here; they can ride their bikes. We felt like it was a good fit.” Demolition started from the back of the building, leaving the street-front façade to be taken down last, he said. The city issued a permit Sept. 23 for Realco Recycling to raze the
Famous Amos closes on University Famous Amos closed its 3911 University Blvd. W. location Jan. 7 after nearly 40 years in operation. Co-owner Josephine Phelan said the restaurant was performing well, but leasing the property she and her husband, John, own was a better financial choice. They will lease the space to La Nopalera Mexican Restaurant, she said. Famous Amos operates two other locations, at 8265 Normandy Blvd. and 11565 N. Main St. and there are no plans to close them. “They perform really, really well,” she said. Phelan didn’t have a timeline for when La Nopalera would move into the space.
VOLUME 107, NO. 36 • ONE SECTION