For a decade, the Edgewood Avenue South corridor has run on a familiar rhythm. A new sign goes up, neighbors walk over to try the place, and eighteen months later the paper covers the windows again. What is happening this year is different in kind, not degree. Three of the biggest addresses on the strip are changing hands at once, and the people taking them over are spending real money and signing long leases.
The through-line for anyone who already lives between Post Street and Plymouth is this: the churn era is quietly being replaced by a commitment era. Below is what that looks like block by block, with the addresses and dollar figures that actually tell the story.
The Corner That Kept Failing, And The People Betting It Won't
The building at 1198 Edgewood Ave. S. has been the neighborhood's most reliable comeback story and its most reliable disappointment. In a Murray Hill building where three bars and restaurants came and went in the past 10 years, the last three occupants were Mustang's Whiskey Bar & Grill, The Stout Snug and Magnolia's Pub. The recent lineup at that address:
- Mustang's Whiskey Bar & Grill
- The Stout Snug
- Magnolia's Pub
The Forge Restaurant & Bar now occupies 1198 Edgewood Ave. S., near Plymouth Street in the Murray Hill town center, taking over the space where those three prior concepts came and went. What separates this attempt from the last three is the size of the check written before the doors opened. Turning the century-old building into a modern gastropub did not come cheap; the owners put roughly $1 million into the interior build-out, including new electrical systems and plumbing, with Starke-based Jeffrey A. Kerr Construction as general contractor.
The 1917 building near the corner of Edgewood Avenue South and Plymouth Street received a full interior build-out, and the 3,888-square-foot space now has a bar and high-top tables at the front entrance, a dining area with a pool table and tables for four, a stage at the back, and a covered patio. Co-owners Mathew Bush and Kevin Parrish opened quietly in June. The partners say the mix of food, music and late-night hours is designed to build a base of neighborhood regulars instead of chasing one-off weekend crowds.
Bush, a Navy veteran and former federal law-enforcement officer, told the Jacksonville Daily Record that he does not exactly plan for a short run. "I'm not used to failing," he said.
Whether the room actually stays lit past midnight three years from now is a question only regulars will answer. What matters for the block is that the operator finally has the capital, the concept, and the discipline to give the corner a fair shot.
Why The Old Maple Street Space Is Reopening As Tacos
Two blocks north, the story is different but the pattern rhymes. Maple Street Biscuit Co. closed at 1171 Edgewood Ave. S. on June 15, and Kaneco Construction LLC of Atlantic Beach is remodeling the interior of the 4,393-square-foot space. The concept moving in is not a first-time restaurateur testing an idea on Murray Hill. It is a proven operator opening a second location.
The city issued a permit for Calico Cactus to renovate the former Maple Street Biscuit Co. restaurant in Murray Hill at a project cost of $218,678, and Scott Moore, founder and seller of Maple Street Biscuit Co., is taking over the space for the second location of Calico Cactus, which focuses on soft tacos, queso and coffee. "Our contractor believes we can be done and open by December 1st," Moore said in October.
The layout tells you who the room is being built for. Moore expects about 86 seats and a pickup window on the side for mobile orders and online food delivery services, with a few bistro tables by the window. The first Calico Cactus opened in a former Tijuana Flats restaurant at 833 S. Ponce de Leon Blvd. along the San Sebastian River in St. Augustine, seating 82 people inside and 24 on the patio. Bringing that formula to Edgewood is a bet that the strip has enough weekday breakfast and lunch traffic to support a proven concept, not just weekend rehab crowds.
There is a continuity piece worth noting for anyone who was a Maple Street regular. Amanda Urbizu, Calico Cactus director of mission and model, had been Maple Street's community leader in Murray Hill, and Moore said she will come up and get this one going and get the team going. The same face at the counter, a different menu behind it.
The Bakery Corner Finally Has A Plan
The largest change on Edgewood is the one that has taken the longest to arrive. Community First Credit Union purchased the Murray Hill location at Edgewood Avenue and Post Street in 2024, and the bakery closed in 2016, leaving the building vacant since. The credit union bought the property for $1.65 million.
What is going in there is deliberately not a standard branch. Community First anticipates the branch to be complete by the end of 2026, with a floorplan configured inside the existing building structure on one floor, a refreshed and redesigned parking lot, a drive-thru, full exterior updates, and an interior mural depicting historical photos of the neighborhood. The new branch will include a front lawn and social area with a food feature, a community room, and other Murray Hill-specific design elements driven by the bakery building.
The project team is public record and worth knowing if you live nearby. TTV Architects designed the branch, Auld & White Constructors is the building contractor, NAI Hallmark is the development partner and Kimley Horn is performing civil engineering. The January 2026 announcement from Community First laid out the timeline. Expect construction traffic on Post Street through the fall.
The context matters. The renovation launch event included former bakery owners Gary and Sandy Polletta, District City Councilman Jimmy Peluso, and the Murray Hill Preservation Association, whose president Greg Beere called the Edgewood Bakery site "a cornerstone of the revitalization of the Murray Hill retail corridor." A branch bank is not a bakery. What replaces the bakery, though, is a building actually occupied for the first time in nine years, with a lawn and a community room that will host events instead of a plywood facade.
What The New Arrivals Are Landing Into
The recent openings sit inside a strip that already had a working core. If you have lived here long enough to have a usual, you know it. If you are newer, the anchors are worth naming.
La Cena at 911 Edgewood Ave. S. is a warm Italian restaurant and wine bar featuring modern Italian cuisine and family-style meals; The Walrus at 948 Edgewood Ave. S. is a vegan spot open late; and El Jefe at 947 Edgewood Ave. S. is a Tex-Mex option. Murray Hillbilly, the vegan Southern comfort restaurant at 1044 Edgewood Ave. S., is open Wednesday through Sunday. Foxtail Coffee sits in the Edgewood pedestrian-friendly business district and also serves Kelly's Ice Cream, scooping signature flavors along with new limited-time featured flavors each month.
Read that block of addresses together and the pattern of the new arrivals makes sense. Calico Cactus is landing between a proven coffee shop and a proven vegan kitchen. The Forge is opening at the far south end of a strip that already has a late-night drink option in The Walrus and a sit-down dinner room in La Cena. Community First is turning the middle of the block into a daylight-hours anchor with a lawn. Nobody is trying to build a scene from scratch. They are all filling gaps in a working one.
The Fall Marker Everybody Circles
If you have lived here for more than one autumn, you already know the date. If you have not, put it on the calendar now. Murray Hill-O-Ween returns October 25 in partnership with Community First Credit Union. It is the one evening a year when the same block that hosts your morning coffee turns into a costume parade, and it is also the best low-effort test of how a new neighbor plans to show up. Watch which storefronts staff the sidewalk and which turn off the lights.
The Short Version
Three of the highest-traffic addresses on Edgewood Avenue South are turning over in a single year. The operators taking them on are spending more money, bringing proven concepts, and signing longer commitments than the last cycle of tenants. The Preservation Association is at the table. A credit union with $3 billion in assets is anchoring the middle of the block. The change is not that Murray Hill is being discovered. The change is that the people already here have started building for the version of the neighborhood that stays.
If you are already a Murray Hill resident and you would like to know how these corridor changes are shaping value along the 32205 blocks north and south of Edgewood, The Newcomer Group tracks this street the way you do. Start Your Home Journey — Request a Free Market Valuation.
