TUESDAY June 26, 2018
Duluth Trading Co. plans River City Marketplace store
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THE MATHIS REPORT
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In aftermath of disaster, Bleu Chocolat is rising
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KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
Ecoco buys EastPark building for $8.5M
Hair-products maker that plans to hire 150 workers is in City Council review for incentives.
wine bar in the former Three Layers Cafe at 1602 Walnut St. Neil and her partners are planning a mid-July opening. After the devastation in Tortola, returning to Jacksonville was a natural choice, she said. “This is home. It is where friends and family are. I need some sort of comfort. I
Ecoco Inc., a Chicago-based natural hair-products manufacturer, acquired property in EastPark and paid for a county business license. The company is code-named Project Blaze and is in City Council review for incentives to set up an EastPark manufacturing plant and hire 150 employees by year-end 2022. Liongate Investment LLC, based at Ecoco’s Chicago address and led by Ecoco President Aaron Tiram, paid $8.5 million for the almost 170,000-squarefoot building at 11650 Central Parkway. It bought the property from Global Tissue Group of Medford, New York. The deed was recorded June 22. The building was developed on almost 12.5 acres in 1988. The Duval County Tax Collector’s Office issued a business license to Ecoco Jax LLC and
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Special to the Daily Record
From left, partners and chefs Linda Evans, Erika Cline and Tanisha Guy plan to open the Bleu Chocolat restaurant at the former Three Layers Café in Springfield at 1602 Walnut St.
After hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed her restaurants in the Caribbean, chef Erika Cline returned to Jacksonville and is opening a chocolate and dessert-based restaurant in Springfield. BY DAN MACDONALD CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
he past year has been bittersweet for chef Erika Cline. September saw hurricanes Irma and Maria destroy the restaurants in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, that she owns with her husband, Neil, who also is a chef. That catastrophe forced the closing of
the chocolate and dessert-based restaurant, Bleu Chocolat; another restaurant, De Loose Mongoose; as well as a cafe they operated in a church. It also heavily damaged their home. While her husband remains in Tortola to rebuild, she returned to Jacksonville where she lived for six years working as pastry chef at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. She is recreating Bleu Chocolat in Springfield, a full-service restaurant and
Suspended council members plead not guilty Katrina Brown and Reginald Brown entered pleas of not guilty Tuesday to dozens of federal fraud charges. U.S. attorneys allege the suspended City Council members, who are not related, used a group of businesses to syphon money from a federal loan and a city-backed loan and grant using a failed barbecue sauce plant in Northwest Jacksonville, among other charges. They next face a status hearing 2 p.m. Aug. 20. Their trial date is set for Sept, 4. More at JaxDailyRecord.com
VOLUME 105, NO. 156 • ONE SECTION