BizBeat: Starbucks to open Jefferson City cafe on Valentine's Day

The Starbucks cafe at 505 Missouri Blvd. in Jefferson City is shown in this Feb. 11, 2019, photo.
The Starbucks cafe at 505 Missouri Blvd. in Jefferson City is shown in this Feb. 11, 2019, photo.

Good news is brewing, coffee lovers: Jefferson City's new Starbucks is set to open this Thursday - Valentine's Day - on one of the busiest corners in town.

The Starbucks at 505 Missouri Blvd. - near U.S. 50 and across the street from the former St. Mary's Hospital site under redevelopment - is expected to employ 25 people at its 2,100-square-foot cafe.

The cafe will offer Starbucks' Nitro Cold Brew coffee, its popular cold-brewed coffee that's infused with nitrogen and served out of a tap, a Starbucks spokesperson told the News Tribune in an email.

Jefferson City's first freestanding Starbucks comes in addition to locations within Target at 735 W. Stadium Blvd. and Hy-Vee at 3721 W. Truman Blvd.

The restaurant is part of the old St. Mary's Hospital redevelopment site. Farmer Holding Company subsidiary F&F Development gained approval from the Jefferson City Council in August 2017 to redevelop the property using tax increment financing. Starbucks is the first commercial development to begin operating on the redevelopment site.

Demolition on the old hospital building began last fall. FHC originally planned to maintain original parts of the 1905 hospital building, but F&F Development gained approval from the Jefferson City Historic Preservation Commission last summer to demolish the building and then clean and reuse the existing stone to construct a new building in the same style and location.