A licensed Starbucks franchise is planned on the ground floor of Bank of America Tower at 50 N. Laura St. | Jacksonville Daily Record
Published on October 9, 2025 at 4:17 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Jacksonville’s Downtown Investment Authority is a step closer to awarding $133,200 in cash incentives to a Starbucks franchise to bring the coffee shop chain back to Downtown.
A committee for the city agency voted unanimously Thursday to advance a request by Starbucks Jax LLC and Bank of America Tower owner Jacksonville Tower Florida Realty LP for the taxpayer-backed forgivable loans.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
The money would help pay for the $579,550 Starbucks in a vacant, 2,363-square-foot retail space in the ground floor of the tower at 50 N. Laura St and a $24,215 patio project.
If the project comes to fruition, it would be the first Starbucks in Downtown Jacksonville since 2011, when the chain closed its location at the former Jacksonville Landing on the St. Johns River, according to a DIA staff report.
City officials, including Mayor Donna Deegan and DIA board members, say the presence of a Starbucks has become a bellwether for the vibrancy of an area and sends a signal to companies considering whether to relocate or expand there.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Speaking on First Coast Connect on WJCT News 89.9, the mayor responded to a caller Tuesday who questioned whether it was a good use of taxpayer dollars to incentivize a large corporation like Starbucks.
“Starbucks won’t come in unless they see it’s going to be supported. … That’s generally the rule. I understand the desire to have Starbucks Downtown,” Deegan said.
“Given what is provided for a lot of companies that want to come Downtown, it doesn’t seem like an enormous amount of money to me. But I understand the frustration. It is a rich company,” Deegan said. “But it could, I believe, help us to grow our Downtown.”
If approved, the $133,200 wouldn’t go to Starbucks’ corporate office but Starbucks Jax, a limited liability company controlled by Orlando-based businessman Jeremy E. Roberts.
According to DIA officials and Robert’s LinkedIn profile, Robert’s is the founder and owner of Orange County Brewers in Orlando and formerly owned five Little Caesars pizza franchises in Volusia County that he sold in 2024.
Roberts was awarded five special license agreements from Starbucks last year. DIA Project Manager Allan DeVault said Thursday that the Downtown Jacksonville Starbucks would be his first in operation.
The owner of the Bank of America Tower is listed as a co-applicant for the incentives on the DIA report. Orlando-based TD Barr is listed as the contractor for the project.
The cash loans would be awarded through the DIA’s Targeted Retail Activation: Food and Beverage Establishments Program and have to be used toward building improvement construction costs.
That funding comes from property tax dollars paid by property owners in Downtown’s Northbank and Southbank Community Redevelopment Areas, which the authority uses to entice companies and small businesses to locate Downtown.
The report says Starbucks Jax LLC will hire about 25 baristas to operate the business. Roberts is required to keep the coffee shop in operations for at least five years as a condition of the loan.
It will be forgiven over a five-year period. Once open, the Dowtown Starbucks will operate from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, the DIA repot says.
Starbucks not the first
The DIA created the food and beverage incentives program in 2020 as a way to draw more first-floor retail and restaurants into Downtown.
Ruby Beach Brewing Co. was the first business to receive city incentives through the program in June 2020 to move its beer operations and tap room from the Beaches to 228 E. Forsyth St., and has become a regular tool for the DIA.
More recently, the program has been used to help finance the buildouts of Pour Taproom and Pizza Dynamo in the VyStar Credit Union parking garage on North Laura Street.
The food and beverage incentives proram is designed to spark business in two districts: the Elbow and the Laura Street and Hogan Street corridors, Steve Kelley, DIA director of downtown real estate and development, told Jacksonville Today in an email.
The goal is to create clusters of businesses that encourage patrons to move from one location to another, he said.
The full DIA board is scheduled to take a final vote on the incentives at its Oct. 15 meeting. Because the DIA controls the community redevelopment area tax funding and due to the low dollar amount, the City Council and mayor will not weigh in. The final say on the Starbucks incentives will be up to the DIA.
“I’m just thrilled to see a Starbucks come Downtown,” DIA board member and retired Community First Credit Union CEO John Hirabayashi said Thursday. “It’s been too long. And for a major city it’s kind of odd not to have one, so I’m glad to see one coming.”
