Three months after presenting initial plans for 46,000 square feet of improvements, including a rum distillery, bakery and restaurant, the makers of Madi Rum will return to the St. Johns County Development Review Committee with project updates Nov. 6.
The county is requesting that Madi Rum’s presentation include a cultural resources assessment, paving and drainage plans, and fire flow and pump station reports.
MAI Engineering Services Inc. met with the St. Johns County Development Review Committee on July 10 to discuss the requests. Project co-owners Shane Sheltra and Travis James also attended. The brothers own and operate Madi Rum.
“Just making sure we’re getting this right,” project partner Travis James said Oct. 10.
The plans
The site map for the 6-acre Madi Rum development shows a restaurant, rum distillery, greenhouses and a sugarcane field. An airplane designed after the rum maker’s logo anchors the project.
It is planned along 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 also features a pond at the center of the development with a waterfall. The outline of an ornamental airplane is at the center of the pond, consistent with the branding on Madi Rum bottles. It is not designed for public access, according to Jacksonville-based MAI Engineering Services.
James said in July the restaurant will feature a tropical-themed menu developed in-house.
The brothers’ family owns several St. Augustine restaurants including Pizzalley’s Chianti Room, Prohibition Kitchen, Sidecar on St. George and PK’s Roosevelt Room.
‘Madagascar Experience’
A 7,000-square-foot “Green House Madagascar Experience” is part of the plan, which James described as being in its early conceptual phase.
“Our goal is for people to experience the tropical and dry vegetation of Madagascar,” James said.
Also shown on the plan are a 2,800-square-foot vanilla orchard greenhouse, sugarcane and cactus fields, a tortoise area, numerous cabanas and bench seating.
A large parking lot for the development is along Florida 207, with a smaller lot on Deerpark Boulevard. Access to both lots is from Deerpark.
The county found the lots too narrow and requested that plans be revised. It also asked for a Wetland Delineation Report to be submitted, which would characterize and map wetlands on the property as 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 once it is available.
Madi Rum co-founder Sheltra, the landowner, bought the property in 2021 for $625,000. He founded Madi with James in 2016, according to the company’s website.
Project timeline
James said the project could take more than two years to complete, though “a more aggressive timeline” is desirable.
The brothers also operate Madi Rum Cakes in St. Augustine, which 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, Madi Rum’s 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,” the site says.
It also notes that Madagascar is the “gold standard” for vanilla production, supplying 80% of the world’s vanilla.
A 750-milliliter bottle of Madi Rum retails for $29, according to TotalWine.com. A Madi Rum cake costs $4.99, according to Broudy’s Liquors.