Customers grab coffee, bakery goods and sandwiches Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in JTA's Regional Transportation Center at LaVIlla. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on November 18, 2024 at 4:30 pm
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Coffee is brewing, and doughnuts and danish are cooking at the Jacksonville Transportation Authority hub in LaVilla.
Cinotti’s Bakery & Sandwich Shop joined Grounds of Grace on Monday in a shared cafe space on the ground floor of the JTA’s Regional Transportation Center, the main bus and Skyway station across from the Prime Osborn Convention Center.
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The shops bring bakery goods and fresh lattes to an area with multiple housing complexes under construction plus a new city park and the Emerald Trail’s initial stretch of urban core walkway, said JTA CEO Nat Ford.
“It is remarkable,” he said. “That was part of our planning with the (regional transportation center) — we always built it not limiting it to our public transportation customers, but also to make it a destination in and of itself.
“There are a number of nonprofits and organizations that also hold meetings here, and we also have the partnership with JAXUSA, and their innovation center is on our second floor. And now we have two new tenants.”
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Partnering with Cinotti’s and JTA could help revitalize LaVilla, said Grounds of Grace Executive Director Ron Armstrong. This and its other coffee shops offer employment in the coffee industry for young men and women in need and also help fund a nonprofit ministry that helps children dealing with poverty.
“When JTA said, ‘Hey look, we are in desperate need of somebody,’ it was a quick phone call to Cinotti’s owners, and would they be interested in this opportunity, and they said yes, absolutely” he said. “We believe in this area; we believe in the development; we believe in the opportunity; and we believe in the staff here, so it made sense for us.”
The $57 million transportation center opened in May 2020. Its 67,000-square-foot space is home to the JTA’s downtown bus transfer facility and administrative headquarters.
The center also has direct connections to the Skyway and Intercity Bus Terminal, which serves Greyhound and Megabus lines. On the ground level, there are indoor and outdoor waiting areas, restrooms, ticketing and space for food services.
The Downtown Investment Authority authorized JTA staff to negotiate a lease agreement with Grounds of Grace and Cinotti’s in the space vacated by Crazy Beans Coffee. Cinotti’s, in operation for 30 years, has its main restaurant on Penman Road in Jacksonville Beach, with smaller operations in the VyStar Veteran’s Memorial Arena and the Subaru Jax dealership on St. Johns Bluff Road South.
Grounds of Grace operates a coffee shop at 1601 University Blvd. N. It also operates with Cinottis at its Penman Road store and now side by side at the JTA hub.
“When you have a bunch of folks coming together to do a good deed, it can be accomplished,” said Cinotti’s owner, Mike Cinotti.
JTA officials say there is more than enough foot traffic through the Regional Transportation Center at LaVilla, with about 10,000 bus passengers daily, along with its 150 employees. They do anticipate Greyhound customers also will use the new cafe, along with visitors to the nearby Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing park, the adjacent Emerald Trail and other development nearby.
With all that foot traffic in the bus hub, it is a nice place to sell coffee and help raise awareness of the ministry helping children, Armstrong said.
“A lot of people come from a lot of different backgrounds, and they are faced with a lot of different things going on throughout the days and their lives,” he said. “If we can just give them a good cup of coffee, a good sandwich and a good experience, just good kindness, I think that could change somebody’s day.”
Other parts of the LaVilla neighborhood could be ripe for development, Ford said.
He points out that that their Forsyth Street parking lot next door is for sale for development for “retail, housing, mixed development.” And the city could study the possible restoration of the Prime Osborn Convention Center into a railway station as part of a Build America Bureau grant to help revitalize key transportation assets in the area.
“We are working very closely with the city as they develop future plans for the Prime Osborn,” Ford said. “And any use that creates activity, has a transportation nexus, we are supportive of. There’s probably a number of different options and directions that the Prime Osborn could go.”
