St. Johns Town Center lighting of the tree was Saturday night

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It may not feel like the Christmas season yet but it sure is starting to look like it in Northeast Florida.

Saturday night was the lighting of the tree at the St. Johns Town Center.

Holiday shoppers were treated to live music and children’s events culminating in the tree lightning and fireworks show.

Families said it was fun to get the holiday season started.

“The kids love watching the Christmas tree get lit and do all the jumpies and look around for all the things that light up that they can hold in their hand, pretty much everything, take it all in, enjoy it,” Tara Blenden said.

“I like it cause it’s fun. I like it when Santa Claus was singing,” said Xavier Willis.

In downtown St. Augustine, revelers gathered in the Plaza de Constitution for the 17th annual Night of Lights festival.

The white-light tradition was originally a way to spark business in the nation’s oldest city.

It will run through February.

St. Johns Town Center area Zaxbys opens Nov. 22, 2010

The 13th Zaxby’s restaurant in metro Jacksonville will open in the St. Johns Town Center area Nov. 22, employing about 50.

The 3,200-square-foot restaurant is located at 4875 Gate Parkway and will be one of the first in Jacksonville to feature the company’s new store design.

The licensees who will operate the restaurant, Chip Hults and Chris Manwell, also operate the Zaxby’s off Interstate 95 and Old St. Augustine Road.

Zaxby’s, based in Athens, Ga., operates more than 510 fast-casual restaurants specializing in chicken dishes in 12 states throughout the South.

Read more: Zaxby’s opens near St. Johns Town Center | Jacksonville Business Journal

Trademark, Copyright, & Patent Lawyer launches in Fleming Island Town Center

Patent lawyers near Fleming Island Town Center at IPmalpractice.com help their clients in every aspect of patenting. They can also assist you with filing for patents, patent litigation, and researching patent databases.

A patent lawyer is an attorney who has specialized qualifications for representing their clients in obtaining patents and acting for their clients in all matters and procedures relating to obtaining a patent.

While it is not necessary to have a lawyer present when filing a patent, it is recommended for first-time filers. Filing a patent is not a simple process. You may need someone familiar with the process to aid you with all of your questions.

Patent lawyers do just that.

St. Johns Town Center brings new job opportunity

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The St. Johns Town Center is opening up several new stores before the holidays, giving people a new job opportunity.
Librettos Italian Eatery opens in early December. They will be open until 3 a.m. most nights, catering to the late night crowd.

• Suite Nightclub is an upscale lounge, set to open in early December.
• Pollo Tropical, chicken on the grill opens on November 22.
• Zaxby’s, near Toys R Us opens early December
• Tiffany & Co. Jeweler store set to open Dec. 10.
• Omege, an upscale store that sells luxury watches is set to open this week.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/25806702/detail.html

Tiffany & Co. Jeweler in Jacksonville Town Center

Suite, a premium lounge and restaurant in Jacksonville Town Center

Adjacent to St. Johns Towncenter
4880 Big Island Drive Suite 1
Jacksonville, Florida 32246
904.493.9305

www.SUITEJacksonville.com

Suite Nightclub Jacksonville Town Center

Step out of the ordinary and into sophistication at Suite, a premium lounge and restaurant in Jacksonville Town Center that stimulates the senses. Suite serves an extensive list of unique cocktails, spirits and select wines that compliment chef-driven small plates, crafted for a mature palate. Strict attention to detail is evident throughout, with exceptional service and hospitality provided at all times. Rich surroundings and stunning décor create an ambience fitting for a casual evening after work or night out on the town, while world-class entertainment provides late-night inspiration for guests.

Suite serves light fare comprised of chef-driven small plates, crafted for mature palates. Our innovative dishes fuse American favorites with global flavors, created with fresh ingredients. Choose from an assortment of hot and cold plates, salads and flatbreads to assemble a multi-course feast, simple snack or to satisfy a late night craving.

MENU TO BE RELEASED SOON

Suite boasts four unique VIP areas, for those seeking a taste of our sophisticated nightlife, while enjoying a more intimate setting and personal attention for their group. These VIP areas are ideal for any type of meeting or gathering – professional or social – you are hosting. All VIP Suites also feature customizable options, including a full menu of our chef-driven small plates and bottle service.

Suite

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latitude 30 near Jacksonville Town Center

Jacksonville’s only all inclusive entertainment center located in the ideal southeast section of Jacksonville, Florida. We offer an unmatched entertainment experience for all who come. Enjoy our luxury movie theatres, where you can sip on a glass of wine paired with the perfect appetizer in the comfort of your own recliner. Or put your bowling shoes on and go for a strike in our boutique bowling lanes, unlike any you have seen before. If games are your thing, step into our arcade offering all the latest in arcade and video games. When you have worked up an appetite, have a seat in our ultra elegant, yet casual, dining bistro – pleasing to all pallets. Then enjoy a cocktail in our sophisticated sports bar and lounge while sizing up the year’s line-up in sports – showcased on multiple HD plasmas and our jumbotron. At Latitude 30, you can take your pick.

Latitude 30 is conveniently located in the Southeast section of Jacksonville. Located on US 1, it is easily accessed from three nearby major highways – I-95, I-295 and JTB (SR 202).

You can find us just north of The Avenues Mall and Southside Boulevard, and just south of the I-95 interchange, in the old Toys R Us space.

Suite Nightclub in Jacksonville Town Center

The nightclub Suite opens Dec. 3 in St. Johns Town Center. The club appears to be fashioning itself as a sophisticated place of cocktails and small plates

Intuition Ale Works opens its tap room at 720 King St. on Saturday, Nov. 20. The brewery’s beer is already in some area restaurants and bars

Latitude 30, the multi-purpose entertainment center near The Avenues mall, opens Dec. 14, with bowling, a restaurant, sports bar, club, theater and game room.

Levy Jewelers in Jacksonville Town Center loses a ring

Levy Jewelers
10281 Midtown Parkway, Suite 191
Jacksonville, FL 32246
Directions from Google

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A St. Johns Town Center jewelry store is hoping concerned citizens will help them find the person who took a ring worth nearly $50,000.

Someone went into Levy Jewelers Monday night, asked to look at several items, and then ran off with one of them, a three-and-a-half carat round diamond ring, according to owner Lowell Kronowitz.

“It’s disappointing to see that that’s what young people turn to for anything they need or want. It’s not the way I was raised or the way most people are raised,” Lowell said in response to the theft.

Levy Jewelers has been a staple in Savannah, Ga. and recently opened its Jacksonville location.

Lowell said he understands that times are tough, but he’s disappointed that someone would steal from him. He turned the store’s surveillance video over to detectives with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and said he has faith that they’ll find the thief.

Commercial Real Estate Women Jacksonville at Maggiano’s Little Italy in St. Johns Town Center

11/03/2010
by Karen Brune Mathis

Economist Sean Snaith doesn’t think the recession of 2007-2009 will leave the same psychic imprint on consumers today that the Great Depression had on its survivors.
“No, it won’t be a lifetime-altering experience,” said Snaith, director of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida College of Business Administration.
That doesn’t mean it won’t have an effect.
“This will be a 5 to 10-year period” of austerity and frugal spending, he said.

That also means businesses and consumers shouldn’t expect a significant improvement in jobs and construction for another few years.

Snaith was the keynote speaker for Commercial Real Estate Women Jacksonville Tuesday at Maggiano’s Little Italy in St. Johns Town Center.

More than 50 members heard Snaith, who regularly visits Jacksonville from the UCF campus in Orlando, present a forecast long on facts and short on immediate optimism.

Snaith said that the economy has been growing since the third quarter of 2009, following the recession that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009.

“It was the worse recession since the Great Depression,” said Snaith, who said that consumers lost $12.2 trillion in wealth during the economic carnage as the value of real estate and investment accounts plunged.

In addition to using the term “carnage,” Snaith also referred to the “scar” of unemployment as one that reminds him of Frankenstein.

National unemployment remains near 10 percent while state and area unemployment has been 12 percent or higher.

When Snaith talks about recovery, he talks about various indicators recovering in 2011, 2012, 2013 and even 2015.

Snaith said as far as jobs, he sees an improvement in 2012-13 but doesn’t think payrolls will reach pre-recession levels until 2015, an eight-year stretch from the start of the recession.

Snaith said he doesn’t see a V-shaped recovery, in which the economy recovers as steeply as it plunged. Instead, he sees what he has been calling the “gravy-boat” recovery, a shallower and longer recovery before the economy grows strongly again.

He called the strong economic boost at the end of 2009 “a lump in the gravy boat.”

Snaith didn’t talk about political party predictions on Election Day, but he did talk about a U.S. forecast relative to what he called the “SkyMall policy.”

SkyMall is the airline and online catalog of gadgets that Snaith said he is convinced he really needs until he’s off the plane and heading for his luggage.

He said he was enticed with the gadget that allowed a griller to sear his or her initials into the steaks, and was piqued by the inflatable pillow that nestles onto the seatback trays, although he wonders what happens when the passenger in front leans back.

He said he actually bought a clothes steamer, but found himself with a still wrinkled but soggy suit. The appliance now sits in his garage, gathering dust.

“I have my suspicions there is a SkyMall catalog with economic policies floating around the Beltway” in Washington, D.C., he said.

He referred to several government programs, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, health care reform and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, as “SkyMall policies.”

They look good, but did they or will they work as advertised?

And, he said, “neither party has the magic wand” when it came to Republicans and Democrats.

Snaith said the Florida economic recovery began in the first quarter of 2010, but that it will be slow because of the “floundering” labor market as well as a change in demographics.

Formerly a strong population growth state, Florida has not been attracting as many out-of-state retirees because they can’t sell their homes and they lost retirement wealth.

Similarly, the state also is not attracting as many job seekers because there aren’t many employment opportunities and the seekers might not be able to sell their homes to make the move anyway.

Snaith told the commercial real estate practitioners that he expects “a couple more difficult years.”

At the same time, he said, “Those that survived the recession came out stronger.”

kmathis@baileypub.com

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=532229