A vacant former steakhouse near Interstate 95 in Jacksonville's Bowden neighborhood is now in the running to become the site of a new Culver's restaurant. The 1.27-acre property at 5110 University Blvd. W. has surfaced in a utility filing that names the Wisconsin-based chain as the potential tenant, though no lease, sale, or construction permit has been finalized.
The site sits between I-95 and Philips Highway and currently holds a 9,589-square-foot commercial building constructed in 1974, along with a 5,940-square-foot prefabricated warehouse added in 2001, according to Duval County Property Appraiser records reported by the Jacksonville Daily Record. The property, owned by The Smith Family Trust, previously housed a Ponderosa Steakhouse. It's also being marketed for lease or sale, as first detailed by WhatNow.
Commercial listings on LoopNet show the parcel totals 55,500 square feet, sitting just minutes from an I-95 exit, with the owner open to subdividing the land or pursuing light industrial rezoning for the freestanding front building. That flexibility could matter if Culver's or a future franchisee decides to redevelop rather than reuse the aging structure.
What the Utility Filing Actually Means
The Bowden proposal surfaced through a service-availability request filed with JEA, Jacksonville's municipal utility, listing Culver's as the potential restaurant for the site. Civil engineering firm Kimley-Horn and Associates is the applicant on that filing, and the request is part of the standard utility review that happens well before any building permits are sought. As Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of a separate Culver's proposal, submitting a Service Availability Request through JEA's SagesGov platform is the initial design step required under the utility's updated guidelines, allowing developers to verify connection points and capacity within 15 business days before formal city permit applications can even be filed.
That distinction matters because a utility request signals site interest rather than a closed real estate transaction or an approved construction plan. No franchisee has been identified for the University Boulevard site, and the project has not been approved. Whether the 1974 building would be demolished for a standard Culver's prototype remains an open question that hasn't been answered in the filings reviewed so far.
A Second Jacksonville Site Already in the Pipeline
The Bowden filing isn't the only Culver's proposal moving through Jacksonville's development pipeline right now. Ormond Beach-based Newkirk Engineering Inc. filed a separate JEA request in late August for a 4,300-square-foot Culver's with a drive-thru, indoor seating, and a patio on a 1.29-acre parcel along Lem Turner Road in Northwest Jacksonville, a project Hoodline detailed earlier this month. Neither project has identified a franchisee or received final city permits, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record's reporting on the Lem Turner Road filing.
If both sites move forward, they would represent the 11th and 12th Culver's locations across the four-county Northeast Florida region, which currently counts 10 active restaurants: five in Duval County, three in St. Johns County, one in Clay County, and one in Nassau County. Local franchise growth in the region has previously been driven by multi-unit operators including The Barbaresco Group LLC and its affiliate, The Barolo Group LLC, which opened a Regency-area location on Monument Road in 2022 and secured city permits last year for a $1.8 million restaurant near River City Marketplace on Hyatt Road. No operator has yet been named on either the University Boulevard or Lem Turner Road filings.
Florida Is Culver's Biggest Growth Market This Year
The Jacksonville-area interest fits into a much larger statewide expansion. Florida represents Culver's largest growth market nationally in 2026, with 14 of the chain's 59 planned U.S. franchise openings slated for the state, a push expected to grow Florida's store count from 126 to 140 locations by year's end, per Men's Journal. That makes Florida the top destination for new Culver's restaurants of any state in the country this year.
Nationally, the chain added 45 new restaurants in 2025 to reach 1,041 locations spread across 26 states, ranking it the 29th-largest restaurant chain in the country by size, according to FinanceBuzz. The still-franchise-driven brand has continued that momentum with its 59 planned openings this year.
How Jacksonville's Culver's Footprint Grew
Culver's first arrived in Northeast Florida in July 2019 with a location in Middleburg in Clay County, before expanding into Jacksonville proper with a restaurant on Parramore Road in early 2021, according to First Coast News. The chain, known for its ButterBurgers, has built a menu that also includes chicken sandwiches, tenders, seafood, salads, sides like Wisconsin cheese curds and crinkle-cut fries, and its signature frozen custard lineup of concrete mixers, shakes, malts, sundaes, and a rotating flavor of the day. Its existing Collins Road restaurant in Jacksonville offers dine-in, drive-thru, and curbside ordering.
For now, the University Boulevard West site remains a proposed project requiring additional approvals and development steps before any dirt gets turned. Writers and residents tracking the filing should treat the JEA request as an early signal of interest rather than a done deal — the kind of due diligence that, in a market as hot as Jacksonville's for Culver's right now, doesn't always end in a drive-thru.
