A St. Johns County-based maker of vanilla-spiced rum has plans in review to develop a two-story restaurant, bakery, distillery and greenhouses on 6 acres in Saint Johns.
MAI Engineering Services submitted project plans to the county June 4. The firm met with the St. Johns County Development Review Committee on July 10 to discuss them. Project co-owners Shane Shetler and Travis James also attended. The brothers own and operate Madi Rum.
The application calls for more than 46,000 square feet of improvements on Florida Road 207, west of Interstate 95, at Deerpark Boulevard.
Site plans show a two-story, 11,000-square-foot restaurant with an attached gift shop; a two-story, 10,000-square-foot distillery; a two-story 10,000-square-foot bakery; and a 5,500-square-foot maintenance building.
The plan shows a pond at the center of the development with a waterfall. The outline of an ornamental plane is at the center of the pond, which is consistent with the branding on Madi Rum bottles.
James said the menu for the restaurant will be tropical-themed and developed in-house.
The brothers’ family owns St. Augustine restaurants Pizzalley’s Chianti Room, Prohibition Kitchen, Sidecar on St. George and PK’s Roosevelt Room.
A 7,000-square-foot “Green House Madagascar Experience” also is part of the plan, which James described in its early conceptual phase.
“But our goal is for people to experience the tropical and dry vegetation of Madagascar,” James said.
Also shown on the plan is a 2,800-square-foot vanilla orchard greenhouse; sugar cane and cactus fields; a tortoise area; a cactus field; numerous cabanas; and bench seating.
A large parking lot for the development is along Florida 207. A smaller lot is along Deerpark Boulevard. Access to both lots is from Deerpark.
The county found the lots to be too narrow and has asked for plans to be revised. It also requested a Wetland Delineation Report be submitted, which would characterize and map wetlands on the property required by law.
The county also said it would need a copy of an Environmental Resource Permit issued by the St. Johns River Water Management District when it is issued.
Madi Rum co-founder Sheltra is the landowner. He bought the property in 2021 for $625,000. He founded Madi with James in 2016, according to its website.
James said the project could take more than two years to develop, but “a more aggressive timeline” is desirable.
The brothers also operate Madi Rum cakes in St. Augustine that will be made in-house at the project site’s bakery, James said.
Madi Rum specializes in rum spiced with vanilla beans farmed in Madagascar. It partners with vanilla importer Lafaza to source them.
According to its website, its “vanilla beans are hand selected at their ripest peak for maximum vanillin content.
“The Farmers use sustainable farming practices that help protect the unique rainforest biodiversity in and around the Mananara-Nord Region, which is on the northeast coast of Madagascar. Rather than growing vanilla in large mono-cropped plantations, LAFAZA vanilla comes from independent, small-holder farmers whose dense agroforestry systems act more like a healthy forest,” it says.
It says the southeastern African country is the “gold standard when it comes to Vanilla.”
It supplies 80% of the world’s vanilla.
A 750-milliliter bottle of Madi Rum retails for $29, according to Totalwine.com.
A follow-up meeting with the Development Review Committee is not scheduled.
