The 1000 Block of Park Street Is Where Five Points Gets Rebuilt This Fall

"As a neighborhood, we just want to see these stores be filled because everybody does better when there are more people walking around."

Seth Darmata said that last winter. He owns Waffle Cone on Post Street with his wife, Cassidy, and at the time a Ben & Jerry's was preparing to open a few doors down. Cassidy Darmata had already posted a statement to the shop's social media asking neighbors for the opposite of a boycott: "Just keep coming, keep supporting."

That quote fits Five Points better than any headline from this year. The closures made the news. The new arrivals, meanwhile, are clustering on a single stretch of Park Street. The merchants who stayed on that stretch are now the people running the association and the new business improvement district that will spend money on the district's future.

One Block, Most of the Change

Lay the 2026 news over a map and it piles up between roughly 1017 and 1045 Park St. In order of address, this is the block as it stands on Oct. 4:

Dalmoros is the first Jacksonville location for owners Tyler and Alyssa Gilmore. It's a 1,280-square-foot room serving fresh pasta, and it plans late hours on weekends. Jeni's has filed for a 1,238-square-foot shop. Neither has announced an opening date, so treat both as coming soon. Neither is a dinner plan yet.

A few doors off the block, Bartaco has taken over the former Black Sheep Restaurant.

Fat Tuesday Returns on a Busy Friday

Fat Tuesday was one of the original tenants at the Jacksonville Landing when it opened in 1987, on the riverfront site that is now Riverfront Plaza. It left in 1997 when its lease wasn't renewed. The New Orleans-based chain comes back Friday, Oct. 9, with a VIP event the night before.

It's opening two businesses side by side. Fat Tuesday Kitchen & Bar fills 2,300 square feet at 1043 Park St. and will be open daily, serving wings, loaded nachos, smash burgers, seafood baskets and tacos along with frozen drinks. Fat Tuesday Social Lounge, at 2,700 square feet next door at 1045 Park St., is a Thursday-through-Sunday nightclub with a DJ host, live music, themed nights and late-night small bites.

Across the street that same Friday, FIVE has Holding Absence and Arm's Length on its calendar. If you live within walking distance, expect Oct. 9 to be one of the fullest nights the 1000 block has seen this year. It's a good night to walk over.

The Closures Were Mostly on Margaret Street

The losses that defined the summer happened a short walk away. Prospect Five Points at 1521 Margaret St. closed June 28. Its owners said the past year had been rough and the slow season was coming. Clarke Bros. closed June 20, and Mossfire had closed the year before. Then, on the evening of Aug. 25, Al's Pizza announced it had closed its location at 1620 Margaret St. after 23 years.

No replacement has been announced for any of those four spaces. That's why the year can read two ways depending on which street you walk. On Margaret, it looks like a district losing longtime tenants. On Park, it looks like a district filling up.

Folio Weekly's Oct. 1 look at the district puts it plainly. The buildings are the same, but the businesses inside them "have clearly been recast." The writer describes a shift toward "a much more polished, corporate and chain aesthetic" and also says vacant storefronts are "generally bad for business" and that new tenants will bring more foot traffic. Sydney Holmes, a former Mossfire server quoted in the piece, framed it this way: "I don't think Five Points is disappearing. I think it's changing."

The Ice Cream Math

The clearest example of the new density is dessert. Once Jeni's opens, there will be three ice cream shops within less than a two-minute walk of each other: Jeni's, Ben & Jerry's and Waffle Cone. Screaming Cat Ice Cream and Coffee is also nearby, at Park and King streets.

The way that played out tells you something about the district. Justin and Daiana Renaldo own the Ben & Jerry's franchise locally. When some residents objected to it, they answered directly. "We're not here to tell anyone not to go to Waffle Cone," Daiana Renaldo said. "If that's where you've been going and you've got history, absolutely keep going." From Post Street, the Darmatas made the same point from the other side: filled storefronts help everyone. The newcomer and the local owner ended up saying nearly the same thing in public.

Waffle Cone is younger than many people assume. A Jax Today profile in October 2025 said it had opened about two and a half years earlier.

The Merchants Who Stayed Are Now in Charge

Here's the part of the story that rarely makes the opening-date roundups. In October 2025, Jacksonville City Council approved a Five Points Business Improvement District, which leaves out 11 properties whose owners didn't want to be included. Its boundaries take in Riverside Avenue, Copeland Street and Post Street. It is only the second BID in the city, after Downtown Vision, Inc.

The five-member supervisory board met for the first time on July 20:

• Lon Walton, president, a Five Points property owner
• Dori Thomsen, vice president and secretary, a Five Points business owner
• Cheryl Croft, treasurer, owner of Edge City at 1017 Park St.
• Andre Green and David Wingard, members
• Ashley Kendrick and Cody Mashni, alternates

Croft took over Edge City in 2024 when Gunnel Humphreys, whom Resident News calls a Five Points icon, retired. On Aug. 10, Croft also succeeded Thomsen as president of the Five Points Association. So the owner of a longtime shop on the busiest block of the turnover now sits on both the merchant group and the district's budget board.

The two groups are splitting the work. Thomsen described the BID as a way to "let the merchants be merchants." The district takes on cleaning, safety and security so individual shops don't carry them alone. Croft said the association can then put its energy into community events and projects that help preserve the district's bohemian culture.

The money is still mostly ahead. Commercial property owners inside the boundaries will see a special assessment starting next year. Until then, District 7 Council Member Jimmy Peluso plans to ask council to send $200,000 of his district's Community Benefits Agreement funds to the BID. That's a request, not approved spending. The association has already put a separate $50,000 city grant toward sidewalk pressure washing.

The association's monthly merchants meeting is free. The next two are Oct. 12 and Nov. 9 at Riverside Presbyterian Church.

October on the Block

FIVE itself shows how a newcomer can settle in here. When it replaced Sun-Ray, the online backlash was loud. Folio's assessment now is that the venue has worked its way into the community and brings people who stay to enjoy the rest of Five Points. Its October calendar is one of the busiest on the street:

• Oct. 6: Thundercat
• Oct. 9: Holding Absence and Arm's Length, on Fat Tuesday's opening day
• Oct. 10: Lauren Alaina
• Oct. 11: Spite
• Oct. 13: Candlebox
• Oct. 14: Toadies, with Local H and Emily Wolfe
• Oct. 16 to 18: a three-night run that includes The Living Tombstone and Clutch

Two dates just outside Five Points round out the season. Murray Hill-O-Ween fills Edgewood Avenue with a block party and a Halloween parade at dusk on Oct. 24. Riverside Avondale's 42nd Luminaria is set for Sunday, Dec. 20. For a pre-show dinner on a FIVE night, the 1000 block now offers Rodrigo's, which is advertising a limited-time La Verde pizza, and Fat Tuesday's kitchen starting Oct. 9. Waffle Cone is a short walk away on Post Street.

The Five Points Association's next free merchants meeting is Oct. 12 at Riverside Presbyterian Church.

Changes like the BID's first-year budget and which empty storefronts on Margaret Street fill next affect what it's like to live a few blocks from Five Points. They also come up when Riverside and Avondale homes are priced and compared. If you'd like a local read on what this year's shifts mean for a home near Park Street, Jean Pickett follows the district closely and is glad to talk it through. Schedule a free consultation, or browse more of the city on the Jacksonville neighborhood guide.