When Alyssa Key headed to New York to launch her Love Brigade brand, the going-away part could only be at one place: Club TSI, then located on Main Street.
Over the more than 10 years Key has been gone, the building near 2nd Street turned into The Pearl and then into a vacant structure. Now, Key is back in town, and the building is hers.
Key closed on the property, for which she is paying $260,000, on Tuesday. The deal was brokered by Prime Realty’s Austin Kay.
Former owner Will Kaiser, who paid $195,000 for the building last year, had plans to turn it into a yoga studio and eatery. Kaiser said those plans collapsed due to problems obtaining support from the city’s Northwest Economic Development Trust Fund, which provides capital for project development in Northwest Jacksonville.
Key will be putting more money into the structure, which is fairly well stripped out, she said. Upstairs will be studio space; downstairs will be retail and food, both with an artistic flair.
“I want the building to be used for fun — one more building used for the arts,” she said. “There isn’t really a place you can go and purchase things from local artists and fashion designers.” Upstairs will take about three months to build out, she said, with downstairs taking six more.
This isn’t the first time that Key, who is financing the buildout on her own, has been involved with real estate, including rennovating places in New York. The money for this project, in fact, comes from the sale of other property.
“I’ve always had something I’m running on the property side of things,” she said. “Buildings and the body are very similar.”
Written by: Timothy Gibbons, Jacksonville Business Journal
Austin Kay
