Culver's is exploring a 1.29-acre site on Lem Turner Road in Northwest Jacksonville, a quarter-mile north of Interstate 295, where site plans call for a 4,300-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru, indoor seating and a patio. The vacant land is owned by John Grant-Dooley, Jean Grant-Dooley and Robert Gittings, and no franchisee is identified on the plan.
The filing comes from a request to JEA to determine service availability for the project, according to Jacksonville Daily Record, whose reporter Karen Brune Mathis covers the restaurant beat for the outlet. Newkirk Engineering Inc., based in Ormond Beach, is listed as the project applicant. Under JEA's design guidelines updated in January, submitting a Service Availability Request through the utility's SagesGov platform is the first formal step developers take to verify connection points and capacity before they can apply for city building permits, according to JEA, which conducts preliminary service availability reviews within 15 business days.
That means the Lem Turner Road project remains in an early due-diligence phase rather than a completed real estate deal, as the Daily Record's reporting makes clear. A JEA request signals a company is exploring a site, not that a lease or purchase has closed.
Northeast Florida's Growing Butterburger Footprint
If built, the restaurant would become Culver's 11th location in the Northeast Florida area. The chain currently operates five restaurants in Duval County, three in St. Johns County, one in Clay County and one in Nassau County, giving it at least 10 restaurants across the region already. The area's first Culver's opened in Middleburg in July 2019.
Culver's is a Wisconsin-based chain known for butterburgers served on buttered, toasted buns alongside frozen custard. The menu also includes chicken sandwiches and tenders, seafood sandwiches and dinners, and salads, sides and soups. Founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in July 1984 by George, Ruth, Craig and Lea Culver, the privately held company has grown to more than 1,000 open locations across 26 states as of April 2025, according to Wikipedia. The chain is headquartered in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, and roughly 98% of its restaurants are owned and run by independent franchisees, though the company still requires store managers to complete corporate culture and hospitality training at its Support Center in Wisconsin, per a company post on Facebook.
Why Northwest Jacksonville, and Why Now
The Lem Turner Road push fits into a much larger statewide expansion. Florida is Culver's top growth market in 2026, with 14 of the chain's 59 planned national openings slated for the state this year, a push meant to grow Florida's location count from 126 to 140, according to Men's Journal. No state is getting more new Culver's restaurants than Florida this year.
The Lem Turner Road corridor near I-295 has become a magnet for commercial development, anchored in part by the 42-acre Airport 295 Logistics Park north of the highway, which brings daytime employee traffic from nearby distribution facilities, per Jacksonville Today. Commercial real estate disclosures along the corridor put average daily traffic counts between 15,200 and 30,000 vehicles near key intersections and interstate access points, according to PropertyShark, underscoring the drive-thru appeal for chains scouting sites there.
Culver's isn't the only chain circling the area. Convenience store operator Circle K filed preliminary plans in March 2025 to explore two separate development sites along Lem Turner Road, the corridor's report notes, a sign that fast-food and retail interests keep targeting the same high-visibility parcels near I-295.
A Familiar Franchise Playbook in North Jacksonville
The Lem Turner Road proposal echoes a similar buildout that unfolded elsewhere in North Jacksonville last year. In April 2025, city permits were issued for a $1.8 million, 4,276-square-foot Culver's at 14011 Hyatt Road near River City Marketplace, developed on 1.68 acres by franchisee The Barbaresco Group LLC. That same ownership group's affiliate, The Barolo Group LLC, had already built the Regency-area Culver's at 101 Monument Road back in 2022, showing how established local franchise groups tend to expand into adjacent submarkets once their first stores are running.
No franchisee has been named for the Lem Turner Road site, so it isn't yet clear whether the same ownership group is behind this latest filing. The heavier vehicle volume drawing chains to the corridor has also intersected with public safety concerns; Duval County's Vision Zero initiative has put a sharper focus on Lem Turner Road's traffic conditions following a fatal crash near I-95 and more than 100 countywide traffic deaths recorded earlier this year.
