Sushi Jo restaurant moving to new location where it will have full liquor bar, event space

For 20 years, the hip restaurant Sushi Jo has anchored a time-worn plaza near downtown West Palm Beach, but plans for new development at the site are pushing the acclaimed eatery south onto the burgeoning Dixie Corridor.

Chef Joseph Clark, the namesake and owner of Sushi Jo and Jo Bistro, said he’ll remain open at the landmark location of 319 Belvedere Road through at least this winter season, but renovation is underway on a colossal new restaurant and event space in the popular south of Southern Boulevard community nicknamed SoSo.

Clark said he’s both excited and saddened by the move to 6200 South Dixie Highway. While he’ll have a full liquor bar and a second floor that can accommodate large parties at the new spot, he has a sentimental attachment to the restaurant's location at Belvedere Road and Olive Avenue near the historic El Cid neighborhood.

“We were the first ones in El Cid, the first restaurant, and now it’s crowded in that area,” Clark said. “My heart is with El Cid, and I love that area, but you can’t stop progress.”

An affiliate of The Frisbie Group of Palm Beach bought the shopping center at 319 Belvedere in early 2022 for more than $6.7 million. The plaza was built in 1938, according to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, and had sold previously in 1999 for $1.49 million. The 350% increase in price for an aging structure is indicative of the booming value of land south of downtown following a pandemic-triggered spasm of construction and homebuying.

"As you all know, the South Dixie corridor has changed a great deal over the years," said Frisbie Group representative Josh Martin during a September meeting with the city's Planning Board.

Martin said the Frisbie Group wants to "raise the bar" for architecture at the site.

Plans call for razing the shopping center and building a three-story mixed-use development that would include retail on the ground floor facing Dixie Highway tapering to residential townhomes abutting Olive Avenue and the homes in El Cid.

The lot, which is about 1 acre, is at the busy northeast corner of Belvedere and Dixie, a key entrance from Interstate 95 to both downtown West Palm Beach and historic districts including El Cid, Prospect Park and Southland Park.

In addition to Sushi Jo, the plaza houses the Kitchen restaurant, Advanced Eyecare Specialists, Vertu Salon and an Edward Jones Financial Advisor office.

Approval to change the zoning to allow for residential construction was given last month by the planning board, although nearby residents raised concerns about the architecture, parking spaces and height of the project.

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“The property is one acre and just barely one acre,” El Cid resident Amanda Skier told the Planning Board at its Sept. 23 meeting. “It is surrounded by historic properties, which are contributing structures, and they can’t exceed two stories.”

Designs for the project, which Martin said will be Spanish Colonial or Spanish Mission style, must still pass muster with the Planning Board and City Commission.

Martin said the development won't proceed without community support.

“If the neighborhood doesn’t want what we are proposing, we are not going to do it. Plain and simple,” Martin said at the Planning Board meeting.

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Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach has experienced a renaissance of development in recent years, especially since the pandemic when Northeasterners flocked to South Florida with newfound freedoms to work from home and to escape COVID restrictions.

Pricey commercial real estate sales on Dixie have transformed no-frills warehouses and office spaces into art houses, boutiques and design showrooms.

This week, the Hamptons and New York-based Mabley Handler interior design group announced it was opening a home furnishings and lifestyle store at 3512 S. Dixie Highway across from a Mobil gas station and a Dunkin' Donuts.

It will compete with the expanding Hive empire, which is opening a contemporary furniture store in a building south of Southern Boulevard that a Miami-based company paid $5.75 million for in October 2022. The building that houses Gil Walsh Interiors at 5505 S. Dixie was purchased for $2.47 million in September 2022. The nearly 50-year-old Braille Club at 4801 S. Dixie sold in August 2021 for $1.45 million and is now a barbecue-style Tex-Mex restaurant called Austin Republic.

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George's Paint & Hardware at 4616 S. Dixie was bought by developer Sam Fisch in 2021 for $2.35 million. And interior designer Chelsea Viau bought 5710 S. Dixie for $1.5 million in October 2022.

“There are so many incredible things happening on Dixie Highway,” said Gabriel Isasi, a Realtor who owns the Park Plaza shopping center at 6200 South Dixie where Sushi Jo is moving.

Isasi's parents built the plaza in 1979. He said he was shocked at how many businesses wanted to lease space there when it came open this year.

“I have never had so many people contact me. It was mind-boggling,” Isasi said. “I paid $400 to put up rental signs and that same day all these people came.”

The space Sushi Jo is renting is about 4,000 square feet downstairs and has 3,000 square feet on the second floor, Isasi said.

Clark said many of the diners at his Belvedere Road restaurant live full time in the SoSo community, whereas El Cid has more seasonal residents.

With plans for Frisbie Group’s mixed-use development at Belvedere and Dixie still in the early stages, Clark said he’s not sure whether he will move back to the 319 Belvedere location when it's completed. He’s signed a 20-year lease with Isasi at the new spot.

Maybe he’ll set up shop in both locations, he said.

“There are so many people moving to this area, we could go back on Belvedere when they reopen and still have a place on Dixie,” he said.

Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today. 

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Sushi Jo restaurant moving to SoSo neighborhood on Dixie