WEDNESDAY April 15, 2020
BEAT
jaxdailyrecord.com • 35 cents
the virus
support your lo to
yo u
by Dai ly
LV1 88 34
d& cor nd Re
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: YOUR INSIGHT
cal er
g ou Br
ht
businesses! Record a
r se Ob
v
Economist: Recovery to take year after restart
Takeout, cooking classes boost chef Daily Record Dennis Chan, owner of the Blue Bamboo restaurant, is thankful for a surge in to-go orders, says plans are still on for a second location in Mandarin.
JACKSONVILLE
Daily Record Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
BY MARK BASCH CONTRIBUTING WRITER
BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
Albert Loh of UNF says workers will have less money to spend when businesses reopen.
COVID-19’s impact has slowed construction on chef Dennis Chan’s second restaurant, Blue Bamboo II in Mandarin, but he said the project is still on. “It’s still a concrete bunker that they’re moving dirt around every day,” Chan said in an April 8 phone interview. Project contractor The Angelo Group Inc. kept crews working at the 10110 San Jose Blvd. site to convert a former law office into a $2.19 million, 7,401-squarefoot “Hip Asian Cuisine” restaurant. Chan, through Blue Bamboo Land LLC, paid $899,000 for the property in November. Chan has not received a project timeline update from Angelo Group, but he expects to open in early fall. The Jacksonville chef and restaurateur has been able to keep his business solvent and visible during the governmentordered coronavirus quarantine with expanded takeout and online cooking courses. He hopes both services will increase Blue Bamboo’s revenue after Mayor Lenny Curry and Gov. Ron DeSantis lift their state of emergency declarations. Blue Bamboo added Chan’s repertoire to Jacksonville Restaurant Reviews’ online cooking classes on jaxresturantreviews.com for $10 per course. Chan led in-person cooking classes throughout Blue Bamboo’s 15 years in business at 3820 Southside Blvd. His third online course through the local restaurant review blog was April 10 and he plans to do more. “We were looking for a way that we could still stay connected with and do something good for our community,”
JACKSONVILLE
Special to the Daily Record
Chef Dennis Chan, owner of the Blue Bamboo restaurant, is teaching cooking classes online for $10 a course and plans to do more.
KEEPING CLOSE – FROM A DISTANCE Since March 13, city event venues, stores, restaurants, malls, entertainment centers, churches and businesses shut down and laid off workers or sent them home to telecommute to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Daily Record will report how local small business owners are dealing with the imposed social isolation.
SEE CHAN, PAGE 2
Whenever the U.S. economy is restarted from the COVID-19 shutdown, it will be a while before it completely recovers, University of North Florida economist Albert Loh said. “The U.S. economy will probably take another full year after 2020 to get back where it was,” Loh said during a presentation streamed online April 13 to the Meninak Club of Jacksonville. The impact of the pandemic on the economy “is going Loh to be coming in several phases and right now we are probably in the first phase,” he said. Workers who have lost their jobs, either temporarily or permanently, will have much less money available to spend when businesses like restaurants do reopen. “They are not able to maintain the same consumption levels as before,” Loh said. The latest data from the U.S. Labor Department showed food and drink establishments were the hardest hit industry in March, losing 417,000 jobs nationally in the month, Loh said. Health care also was hard hit with 43,000 jobs lost. While hospitals have been overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases in some cities, physicians and dentists have had to put off elective SEE LOH, PAGE 2
Fresh Market requires customers wear face masks The Fresh Market is requiring customers wear face masks. The protocol, which started April 13, follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that recommend people cover their faces while out in public. The Fresh Market employees already were required to wear masks. The grocer previously introduced hours for high-risk customers from 8-9 a.m. weekdays. It installed Plexiglas shields at checkouts along with contactless credit payments. The chain also is limiting the number of guests allowed in the stores at one time.
VOLUME 107, NO. 106 • ONE SECTION