FREE
April 16-22, 2020
The Basch Report: Earnings season begins amid shutdown PAGE 4
jaxdailyrecord.com
SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES! Br ou gh
tt oy ou
r ve er bs by th &O d r o e Daily Rec
JACKSONVILLE
Record & Observer
THERecord TECH BEHIND THE TAKEOUT & Observer
Starbucks, Aspen Dental to Regency
JACKSONVILLE
They’re planned for the closed TGI Fridays restaurant in the Regency Park Shopping Center.
JACKSONVILLE
Record & Observer BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
JACKSONVILLE
The closed TGI Fridays building in Regency is in review for conversion into an Aspen Dental office, retail space and a Starbucks Coffee shop. TGI Fridays closed more than a year ago at 9400 Atlantic Blvd. in the Regency Park Shopping Center. The St. Johns River Water Management District is reviewing plans to refurbish the almost 8,000-square-foot building, developed in 1988, as well as utility extensions, dumpster construction and parking lot improvement. A conceptual site plan shows a 3,814-square-foot Aspen Dental office on one end and a 2,605-square-foot Starbucks and drive-thru on the other, with 952 square feet of retail space in between. It is a 1.06-acre site. CPH is the civil engineer. Duval County property records show Brixmor IA Regency Park SC LLC is the owner.
Record & Observer Special to the Daily Record
Hazlnut co-founders Steven Edwards and Dick Sikes started the company in 2017. It’s part of PS27 Ventures and works with Larry’s Giant Subs.
Jacksonville-based website and app developer Hazlnut sees business surge 20% in March as dining rooms shut down and restaurants turn to to-go orders.
BY KATIE GARWOOD STAFF WRITER
A
s state and local governments began shutting down restaurant dining rooms across the country, establishments were left scrambling to set up takeout and online ordering for their customers. Hazlnut, a Jacksonville-based company that builds web-based ordering sites and mobile apps for restaurants, said the company’s overall sales increased 20% in March alone. “The phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Hazlnut co-founder and CEO Dick Sikes. “So it’s been pretty nonstop. It’s a lot of people who didn’t have something in place already.” Sikes said many smaller restaurants want to
offer online ordering like Starbucks or Chipotle, but can’t afford to hire developers to do so. Hazlnut creates an app or website for them and adds the restaurants’ branding and logos. The inquiries began coming from states where restaurants had been reduced to takeout and delivery only, and now Sikes said he is seeing them from all over. Hazlnut works with a point-of-sale platform called Clover Connect. Clients who use Clover have been finding Hazlnut through its app store and through word-of-mouth from Clover salespeople. Sikes and co-founder Steven Edwards started Hazlnut in late 2017 after scrapping an idea to
KMATHIS@ JAXDAILYRECORD.COM @MATHISKB (904) 356-2466
MATHIS REPORT Permits issued to transform the Roosevelt Square shopping center into Ortega Park. Page 3
SEE HAZLNUT, PAGE 5
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Time to shift the focus to reopening the economy Keep COVID-19 pandemic in perspective. PAGE 6 VOLUME 2, NO. 46 • ONE SECTION