According to News4JAX, a wellness club opened in September inside a restored 1926 building at 1520 Prudential Drive. Casa Vive describes itself as Jacksonville's first social wellness club, a space built to sit somewhere between a gym, a spa and a doctor's office.
San Marco has spent the last year adding to its dining scene, one storefront at a time. This corner of the Southbank adds recovery and health services on a block that's about to get a lot busier.
The Building Had a Different Life Before This
The address sat as a 1926 structure before Casa Vive moved in. The build-out was handled by 820 Group, another Hispanic-owned business in the city, and a June 2026 commercial permit put the tenant renovation at $150,000 across 5,500 square feet. That's a real investment in an old building rather than a teardown, which tells you something about how the block's owners are betting on reuse over replacement right now.
Founder Alejandra Amegin is a U.S. Navy veteran who came to the United States from Mexico as a child. In describing Casa Vive, she has emphasized the role of community:
"Community is core to our business. We really believe that healing is done best in community." — News4JAX
What's Actually Inside
Casa Vive isn't a single-service storefront. The space combines:
- Yoga
- Chiropractic care
- Functional medicine
- Lab testing
- Sports rehabilitation
- Coworking and gathering areas for use before or after appointments
Clinical direction comes from Dr. Daniel O'Leary, a chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner with more than 15 years of experience. That range of services under one roof is what separates a wellness club from a standalone studio. A resident doesn't need four different addresses for a yoga class, a lab draw and a chiropractic adjustment. They need one.
The Sports Connection Nobody's Advertising
Casa Vive and Jax Natural Healing serve as recovery and performance partners for the Jacksonville Sharks, the Jacksonville Armada and the Jacksonville Icemen. That's not a coincidence of branding. It's a sign that San Marco's Southbank edge is quietly becoming a place where professional recovery work happens, not just where residents grab brunch.
The Block Is About to Get a Lot More Neighbors
Casa Vive didn't open into a quiet stretch of Prudential Drive. The Downtown Investment Authority has a $202 million project planned nearby called Southbank Residences, set to bring 395 residences across two towers along with roughly 4,500 square feet of ground-floor retail, including a planned riverfront restaurant and a speakeasy. Completion is targeted for late 2028 to early 2029.
| Prudential Drive corridor | Right now | By 2028-2029 |
|---|---|---|
| Casa Vive | Open, 5,500 sq ft wellness club | Established anchor tenant |
| Southbank Residences | Planned, $202M project | 395 units across two towers |
| New ground-floor retail | Not yet built | ~4,500 sq ft, riverfront restaurant and speakeasy planned |
Nothing in the available reporting confirms a direct relationship between the two projects. But the timing lines up in a way that matters for anyone watching this stretch of the Southbank. A wellness club with lab testing and sports rehab doesn't need foot traffic from tourists. It needs a residential base close enough to walk over between appointments, and 395 new units two blocks away is exactly that base.
What It Means If You Walk This Stretch
San Marco's restaurant scene got the headlines this year. This corner of the Southbank added a different kind of business. A club offering functional medicine, lab work and sports rehabilitation depends on repeat visits, which suits a location close to where people live and work.
The Prudential Drive stretch between San Marco Square and the river has spent years as a mix of older buildings and quiet redevelopment talk. Casa Vive answers a question that's been sitting on this block for a while: what does a 1926 building become when someone decides it's worth saving instead of replacing. In this case, the answer was a place to recover.
If you're curious what this kind of shift on a single block tends to do to the surrounding streets over time, that's the exact read Ernie McKinney puts together for San Marco buyers and sellers. Reach out and ask what it means for the block you're watching.
