- November 21, 2024
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Site plan work has begun on Palm Coast Station, a retail building at the corner of State Road 100 and Town Center Boulevard, which will become the home of a Tijuana Flats restaurant, Jeremiah's Italian Ice and Affordable Dentures.
"This is one of the most important intersections in Palm Coast. We spent a great deal of time and effort refining our plans to ensure a first-class development that would be a fantastic addition to the community."
TARAZ DARABI, Palm Coast Station developer
"This is one of the most important intersections in Palm Coast," said Taraz Darabi, president and CEO of the Lote Group out of Gainesville, which is developing the property. "We spent a great deal of time and effort refining our plans to ensure a first-class development that would be a fantastic addition to the community."
The property faces SR 100. Its parking lot will connect to Panera Bread to the west and Hilton Garden Inn to the north of the property. The building will contain 7,915 square feet of space. Tijuana Flats will have 2,500 square feet of space with a patio. Jeremiah's Italian Ice will have about 1,400 square feet of space and Affordable Dentures will have about 4,000 square feet, Darabi said.
"It's a complementary lineup of uses for the community to enjoy," he said.
Darabi said he expects to begin construction soon after final building permits are approved. He hopes to complete construction by July or August with the tenants moving in by the end of the year.
Josh Fogarty will be the franchise owner of the Tijuana Flats and Jeremiah's Italian Ice. It will be his fifth Tijuana Flats restaurant and his second Jeremiah's Italian Ice, which serves authentic Italian ice and soft ice cream. Fogarty owns three Tijuana Flats Tex-Mex restaurants in Volusia County, including one in DeLand which will open in the next couple of weeks, he said. He also owns the franchises in Daytona Beach and Orange City.
Both Tijuana Flats and Jeremiah's Italian Ice value their community connections. Fogarty said his Volusia restaurants have been working with the Flagler Sheriff's PAL program and the Boys and Girls Club for several years.
"We're very familiar with the neighborhood," he said. "We're looking forward to becoming part of the fabric of the community."
Fogarty said when Tijuana Flats opens a restaurant it builds relationships with the community's schools, first responders, churches, hospitals, parks and recreation programs and other community groups.
"We don't do a lot of marketing. We do grassroots. It's who we are as a brand," he said.
"We felt like this was where we needed our first restaurant in Flagler County to be."
JOSH FOGARTY, Tijuana Flats franchise owner
Fogarty said once Palm Coast Station is turned over to its tenants, it will take 12 weeks to open the restaurant. He said during the staff's training period, Tijuana Flats will deliver free meals to schools, the hospital, first responders and the Boys and Girls Club.
"We're excited to be on (SR) 100," he said, noting that he originally wanted to buy the property, but Darabi beat him to it.
"We felt like this was where we needed our first restaurant in Flagler County to be," he said. "Taraz being the developer is a blessing on top of it. We're happy to have him as a landlord. He's a class act."
The Tijuana Flats will be in close proximity to Chipotle Mexican Grill, but Fogarty said the two restaurants are very different.
Wilkinson Construction LLC will handle construction for the project. Darabi said Kelly Pulignano and Stephanie McCullough of The Shopping Center Group helped identify the lineup of tenants.