Daily Record Financial News &
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 243 • Two Sections
Little disagreement from committee on appointments
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
By David Chapman Staff Writer
James Batteh works wherever he’s needed at his Atrium Café & Grill, including delivering food from the kitchen and grill area through the window to the front counter.
James Batteh’s roots in family business
“
He always instilled in me that I can do it. He believed in me.
“
James Batteh double-majored at Florida State University in multinational business and marketing. With his degree, the Jacksonville native and Bishop Kenny High School graduate worked in the insurance world for less than a year. When Batteh headed out to college, he hadn’t expected to return to the family business, but he did. His roots were in Jacksonville and in food. He followed those roots into running the Atrium Café & Grill at the Wells Fargo Center Downtown. His dad is Jamal “Jimmy” Batteh, who retired in 2012 at the age of 79 and sold the Bay Street Café Downtown after almost 40 years in the grocery and restaurant busi-
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Panel backs Curry’s choices
Serving breakfast, lunch and a family legacy
By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor
35¢
James Batteh About his father, Jimmy, at right
ness around Jacksonville. James had worked with him for as long as he can remember. “It was the hands-on experience from growing up in the family business that pre-
pared me the most,” Batteh said. Jimmy Batteh immigrated from Ramallah, Palestine, as a teenager, as did Mariam, who became his wife in 1956. They had three children — Joy Batteh-Freiha, Jerry and James. Jimmy Batteh, along with family members and associates, ran a grocery store and then several restaurants, including a Loop Pizza Grill franchise at Beach Boulevard and San Pablo Road they later sold. James Batteh worked at most of them. Starting in 1991, he joined the businesses full-time and began driving his father to work each morning before heading to the other locations. His mom had been driving his dad, but he wanted to relieve her of the early schedule. The elder Batteh has visual limitations, Batteh continued on Page A-7
Last week, there was lengthy community pushback about the removal of Lisa King and Joey McKinnon from the Planning Commission. On Tuesday, City Council members put up much less. Members of the Rules Committee effectively decided to back Mayor Lenny Curry’s latest decisions on boards and commissions appointments. They voted 4-1 in separate measures to move forward with the mayor’s choice of replacements, Abel Harding and Donald Adkison. Curry asked King and McKinnon last month to resign from the commission, citing his desire for people who align with his vision. Sure, there was some resistance Tuesday. Rules member Tommy Hazouri said while he liked Harding and Adkison personally, he wasn’t going to support either. He wasn’t in favor of people being booted with time left on their terms, calling it an “unprecedented” move by Curry. Council member John Crescimbeni isn’t on the committee, but sat in to ask questions. For all of the appointees, he wanted to know whether they’d previously served on boards. From Harding and Adkison, he wanted to know if they considered themselves “business-friendly.” Being a quasi-judicial board, he said, it meant following the commission’s standards. Both men said they would follow the standards and not necessarily always back business. Harding is a banker and Adkison owns a towing company. McKinnon and King also had the opportunity to speak at Hazouri’s behest. McKinnon said although he and Harding are neighbors, he’d put his credentials up against Harding’s for the board that Appointments
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Tesla opening St. Johns Town Center showroom
Tesla Motors, the luxury allelectric automaker, intends to set up a small showroom and a charging station at St. Johns Town Center. Tesla says on its website that the showroom is at 4663 River City Drive near Anthropologie and Altar’d State, although the St. Johns Town Center website doesn’t show it as a tenant. Tesla, based in Palo Alto, Calif., has not responded to emails for comment. However, the city is reviewing building-permit applications for a 2,058-square-foot showroom and a charging station at 4663
Public
River City Drive, space 109. Plans show the showroom location and the charging station behind it. The station is a conversion of parking spaces to an electrical vehicle charging area with six stations. Tesla’s website says the showroom parking is most convenient in front of its display or behind Anthropologie in the Dick’s Sporting Goods parking lot. The site invites people to schedule a test drive. The construction plan shows the space will include a showroom, with space for at least one car, along with storage and office
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space. No contractor is listed for the estimated $65,000 build-out of an existing tenant space. Tesla’s website refers to a “popup” center at St. Johns Town Center. Fortune.com reported in May that Tesla’s pop-up stores “bring the Model S to where the wealthy play.” However, Fortune’s report focused on mobile container
stores, which the site says are made up of two shipping containers with steel beams between them and a canvas roof that can fit on a flatbed truck and be unfolded to double its size in a few hours. The site plan for the St. Johns Town Center store shows an inline store. A Town Center spokeswoman did not respond to an email Tuesday afternoon. Teslamotors.com also reports that a service center is “coming soon” to Jacksonville, but does not say where. Tesla says it has a supercharger station at the St. Augustine Pre-
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mium Outlets. It says it also has two Tesla connectors at the Four Points by Sheraton Jacksonville Beachfront at Jacksonville Beach.
Gate to build at River City Marketplace
Gate Petroleum Co. is expanding into the River City Marketplace trade area. Jacksonville-based Gate bought more than 3.5 acres along Airport Center Drive in September 2014 and has filed plans with the city to build a convenience store and 20 fueling positions on the site. Mathis
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consecutive weekdays