by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Imagine walking along a boardwalk in Mayport Village enjoying the waterfront view and watching fisherman unload their boats after enjoying an evening of dining in an upscale seafood restaurant and shopping along the waterfront.
If developers have their way, that’s exactly what evenings could be like soon in Mayport Village.
As developers start snatching up valuable pieces of waterfront property in Mayport Village, the community is anticipating a major overhaul of the area resulting in maybe a mini-Key West, Savannah or Cedar Key environment.
“Mayport Village is going to go through a redevelopment,” said Edward Lukacovic, senior environmental planner/project manager of the Mayport Waterfront Partnership created by the cities of Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville in 1997 to bring economic revitalization to the eastern shore area of Duval County. “We always knew that was going to happen. We are a small waterfront community and now have several real estate companies very interested in buying up some of this commercial property and redeveloping it. That’s going to happen. We always knew it was going to happen, we just didn’t know when.”
The Vestcor Companies has announced plans for a two-and-a-half-acre development in Mayport Village. Lukacovic said Vestcor is planning on creating a condominium community with about 50 units built on top of 15,000 square feet of retail shop space. He said the units should sell for around $300,000 or $400,000 and could appeal to retirees or be bought as a second home.
Lukacovic said another developer, Paul Fletcher, principal of Fletcher Management Co., is also interested in developing a condominium project in Mayport Village with retail on the first floor as well, but no formal plans have been announced.
How to happened
John Meserve, a spokesperson for Vestcor and past chairman of the Mayport Waterfront Partnership, has been a longtime champion for the area and is was very instrumental in making this deal happen.
“I recently resigned from the Partnership to give me a little more freedom to maneuver,” said Meserve. “I just want to be able to do things that won’t get me in trouble with the Partnership. I’m doing what I am doing because we have always had a vision while I was the chairman of the Partnership for eight years.
“We always had a vision of retaining the fishing industry in the village and maintaining public access to the river. If you look at the community today, it is basically a dying community. It’s a beautiful area with wonderful potential as a fishing village. But, if you go look now it is mostly boarded up and the commercial sector is trash and there are some drug problems out there.”
In recent years, the Partnership oversaw the installation of a $4.2 million sanitary sewer line and the upgrading of water lines in the commercial section of Mayport Village.
“You can’t have a redevelopment, businesses can’t expand and restaurants can’t expand if you can’t take care of your sanitary needs,” said Lukacovic.
Meserve realized that someone outside of the Mayport Village community needed to look at it for redevelopment.
“About two years ago, I came to the conclusion that the owners of the waterfront properties had neither the vision nor the money to do any kind of development,” said Meserve. “A development, if we are going to do it right, should be a coordinated development instead of a bunch of individuals doing their own thing.
“At that point, I decided we needed to get somebody from outside of the community interested and see the vision. I was part of a group trying to find a known, respected developer to come out and take a look at the village and see if they shared the vision and could see the potential for the future.”
It was about two years ago that Vestcor CEO Mark Farrell came out to meet with Meserve and take a look at the community.
Meserve told them he knew all of the property owners on the river and that he would help them negotiate to buy the land they needed.
“It took a year and a half from the first offer on a property to close,”said Meserve.
Now, Meserve said, Vestcor owns almost all of the land needed to do its project except for a few bits and pieces.
Realtors in the area are excited to see the redevelopment happen.
“This type of development was bound to happen,” said Mark Dilworth, a Realtor with The Dilworth Realty Group of Vanguard GMAC and Mayport Waterfront Partnership board member. “The area itself is so unique for its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the river, the ferry, and Amelia Island is just to the north. Mayport Village is close to major access routes, yet not so close that they are a hindrance; it is very close to some wonderful state parks. Because of all this, we all knew at some point a developer was going to try and develop this area.”
Tourist destination?
Lukacovic said the developer claims that there is a market for people who would love to live in a little fishing village, so part of the plan includes creating a boardwalk with shops and restaurants for the public to be able to enjoy the waterfront as well.
“It would run along the river and go out over the river a little bit,” said Lukacovic. “A good example is Savannah. That’s the kind of idea that we’d like. People could look at the boats as they walk by. The fishermen could tie up and maybe even sell their fish right there on the boardwalk. The whole idea is that we’d like to keep this as a fishing village if we can and attract people here to spend their money.”
Fishing industry
Meserve is working with the developer and the Parks Service to ensure there is public access to the river and try to keep parking available for the commercial fishing boats as part of the whole deal.
Currently, the property that Vestcor Companies and Fletcher Management Co. are interested in or have purchased will not displace any of the existing businesses because the land they purchased is vacant. However, some of the other existing businesses have been approached and are considering selling to make room for new development.
“One of the things that the board is wrestling with is that we want to keep our fishermen here,” said Lukacovic. “The problem is that our fishermen depend on two fish houses and one of them, Mat Roland Seafood, may be sold. (Meserve said this has not happened yet, and probably won’t.) The other one, Safe Harbor Seafood, may sell in the future if the money is right.”
Other ideas the Partnership is coming up with to encourage the fishing industry to stay is that other areas like Tarpon Springs allow their fisherman to moor their boats for free, which can get expensive for the community, but makes it easier on the fisherman.
“If we can allow the fishermen to moor their boats for free, then we hope economically it will help them stay,” said Lukacovic. “We hope that this village stays as a fishing village. We may lose our shrimp fishing industry, but maybe it could be converted to long-line fishing industry.”
To help protect the fishing village, the Partnership did a re-zoning for Mayport Village, which resulted in The Mayport Village Working Waterfront Zoning District.
“It’s unique,” said Lukacovic. “It allows certain things that are unusual. For example, if you buy a condominium or want to build something, you will be asked to sign a clause knowing that this is fishing village. There are going to be sights, sounds and smells associated with a fishing village. If this is not something that you want, then maybe you shouldn’t buy or build here. The worry was that people would move in, not like all that and want to change it. Well, they can’t do it.”
Dilworth agreed that the fishing industry needs to be protected.
“The Mayport Village is a wonderful place,” said Dilworth. “However, it is important that the shrimpers and fishermen aren’t pushed out. It is a working waterfront where people make a living and it should stay that way.”
Lukacovic said the area is now a blighted community with a lot of rundown and closed businesses and they welcome the opportunity for change.
The community used to be a thriving community when fishing was very lucrative, but the net ban imposed by the state of Florida in 1994 has hurt the community greatly.
“When they imposed the net ban, that seriously reduced the income of commercial fisherman,” said Lukacovic. “Most all of the fisherman here are shrimp fisherman and they need a net. They can use the net to catch shrimp, but they can’t use those nets to go after mullet, whiting or other fish.”
Mayport has mainly been made up of families of fisherman but, over the years, real estate values have increased and a new type of community of people are moving in.
“I came here in 1998 and you could probably pick up a single family house lot for $6,000 or $8,000. Now they are going for about $70,000,”Lukacovic said. “Also, people are moving in and buying the old rundown houses and redeveloping them. You are getting type of people here that have a little money.”
The new condominium community would bring even more money to the community and encourage more economical growth.
Others in the community include retired fisherman and Navy families.
“I believe the growth and redevelopment will strengthen Mayport and its economy,” said Debbie Herrera, a Realtor with Magnolia Properties and a Partnership board member. “Mayport is the last waterfront community in the Jacksonville area to be redeveloped, but the village will still remain a fishing village and keep its quaintness. Fernandina and St. Augustine have gone through changes in the last few years but people still flock to those areas to live and play. I believe the same will happen to Mayport. It has been asleep and neglected for so long but is now waking up to a fresh beginning which will enhance not only Mayport but the entire area.”
Merserve said the redevelopment of the area will bring taxes, jobs, shops and people to the village.
“It would help ridership of the ferry, which loses $300,000 or $400,000 a year and has to be subsidized through the city of Jacksonville,” said Meserve. “We don’t want that to go away. It will be a boom to Amelia Island because it will be another historic place to go to. It’s all part of growth.
“Right now, most of the places are trash and most of the riverfront is a dumping ground. It’s a dump. Nobody would go to that village today. There’s nothing to do and nothing to see. Singleton’s Restaurant is about it and there’s one other down the street, but there isn’t enough out there to make it a destination.”
Meserve said the redevelopment will also raise the amount of people coming to the area for ecotourism.
Mayport Road
In addition to the expected overhaul of the Mayport Village, Mayport Road leading to the area is also in for a change.
There are several new shopping centers, a redeveloped shopping center and the Island Club, a condominium conversion project, all intermingled with old dilapidated buildings and businesses.
“If you look at Mayport Road itself, it looks like a typical 1950’s commercial strip,” he said. “The Partnership would like to put a better face on it. The Partnership board is actively working and establishing a tree-lined boulevard. It is in the design stage now and we will be holding some public meetings probably starting next month to show what it’s going to look like.”
Lukacovic joked that the last chairman said it’s not that they don’t want tattoo parlors; they just want nice tattoo parlors.
“We would like business owners and property owners to take some pride in their property and put a little money to make their property look attractive,” he said. “We feel that the better the overall appearance, more businesses will be attracted to that area and therefore it will pay for itself.”
Lukacovic said construction of the boulevard should start next June and take about 15 months to complete.
“We’ll be doing some resurfacing as well and the state is improving the signalization by removing the overhead signals and putting in the newer hurricane-safe versions,” he said.
Since the Partnership was formed so long ago, one would wonder what has taken so long for any major improvements to happen.
It’s all about the money, or the lack thereof, said Lukacovic. “You just can’t come up with money like this that fast,” he said.
They could have allowed developers to come in and absorb some of the cost by letting them do the redevelopment along Mayport Road, but Lukacovic said they need to make the area more presentable first.
“If you have a dumpy-looking road, developers aren’t going to be interested,” he said. “But if you have a nice-looking road, then maybe we can have some redevelopment.”
Some developers who anticipate the improvements to the road have already started make the road look nicer by building new strip centers or redeveloping old ones.
Since Mayport is part Jacksonville and part Atlantic Beach, the partnership has tried to get both parts on the same page.
“Atlantic Beach established an overlay zone on their portion of Mayport Road, so now when they get redevelopment, there are certain guidelines that the developer needs to adhere to,” he said. “So what we are doing is working with Atlantic Beach and Jacksonville to get an overlay zone on the Jacksonville portion of Mayport Road so we can have something comparable to what Atlantic Beach has and ultimately have redevelopment that will fit a certain standard that will help improve the overall quality of appearances of Mayport Road.”