THURSDAY
The Mathis Report: TEA moving across the river
December 2, 2021
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
FIRST COAST SUCCESS
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UF Health to combine ER, urgent care in new centers
‘YOUDaily HAVE TORecord CHANGE’ JACKSONVILLE
Restaurateur Al Mansur shares his inspiration, strategy — and his No. 1 problem.
The concept is coming to 3 Jacksonville locations.
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Photo by Dede Smith
Restaurateur Al Mansur launched Al’s Pizza in 1988 and now also operates concepts including Mezza Luna Ristorante, Coop 303, Flying Iguana Taqueria & Tequila Bar and Iquana on Park. BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
F
or more than 30 years, Al Mansur has been opening and operating restaurants in Jacksonville. He started in 1988 with the first Al’s Pizza at Beach Boulevard and San Pablo Road and now has five locations around Northeast Florida. He opened the Flying Iguana Taqueria
& Tequila Bar in Neptune Beach in 2013 and he built the Coop 303 classic contemporary food and cocktails restaurant in 2018 at a former Al’s Pizza location in Atlantic Beach. Near that he bought the Mezza Luna Ristorante in Neptune Beach and in August he opened Iguana on Park in Avondale, near Downtown. Mansur, 56, and his parents and siblings moved to the U.S. in 1978 from Turkey. They soon relocated from New York
to Jacksonville. He lives in Atlantic Beach with his wife, Suela Lekaj-Mansur, a Watson Realty Corp. real estate agent who also was the 1992 Miss Shkodra, a city and cultural center in northern Albania. They have three daughters and a son. Their oldest daughter graduated from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, with an MBA. She plans to stay in SEE MANSUR, PAGE 8
BY DAN MACDONALD STAFF WRITER
UF Health Jacksonville, with Dallas-based Intuitive Health, is bringing a new emergency health care concept to Jacksonville. The centers combine the facilities of an emergency room with those of an urgent care center. Health professionals triage patients to determine if their circumstances warrant emergency or urgent care treatment. “Time and time again, patients present to emergency departments for non-emergency needs simply because they don’t know where to go,” said Thom Herrmann, CEO of Intuitive Health, in a news release. The hybrid health facility also is designed to cut patient medical costs, according to the release. It estimated that up to 70% of patients can be treated in less expensive urgent care facilities. The three Jacksonville locations will open in fall 2022 at New Kings Road near Dunn Avenue; along Lane Avenue south of Interstate 10; and near Baymeadows Road East off I-295. The UF Health and Urgent Care Centers have full 24-hour emergency room care. The urgent care is open seven days a week in the same building. “Our emergency physicians will be able to quickly diagnose how serious a patient’s condition is and then get them to the right place as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Steve Godwin, chair of the department of emergency medicine at the UF College of Medicine – Jacksonville. “We think this will change how emergency care is delivered moving forward.”
DMACDONALD@ JAXDAILYRECORD.COM (904) 356-2466
THE BASCH REPORT
Maple Street Biscuit boosted by Sunday sales Plus: FIS closing in on $2 billion sale. PAGE 5 VOLUME 109, NO. 13 • TWO SECTIONS