After a dozen years, Salt Jax Beach is closing.
In a social media post on Monday, the oceanfront bar and grill said that it will close its doors at 333 1 st St. N. in Jacksonville Beach following a farewell party on Labor Day weekend.
The decision to close comes weeks after the building that houses the restaurant was sold.
But the decision to close came “not from [Salt’s] failure,” but from plans by the new owners “to develop this beloved spot into a hotel,” the restaurant’s owners wrote in the social media post.
Evan Rajta, manager of Salt Jax Beach, told the Times-Union that he and his sister, Manjola Rajta, who owns the restaurant, are still in shock.
“It’s terrible but what can you do? Someone else owns the building now and they don’t want any tenants in here, so they are getting everybody out,” he said.
According to Duval County property records, the sale to Ocala-based Ocean Crown LLC includes two buildings at the site: a 3-story, 34,291-square-foot oceanfront structure built in 1932 and the second, a two-story, 5,004-square-foot building dating back to 1938.