If you haven’t been to the Landing lately, or if you have only headed straight for the food court for a quick lunch, you might have missed some new developments at Downtown’s riverfront retail center.
Ocean Water Bath & Gifts opened for business in October, offering a selection of artisan personal-care products.
Owner Tressa Troiano made the soaps, lotions and scrubs at her home, then packaged them and sold them in the store near the Visit Jacksonville Welcome Center.
Business has increased so much that Troiano has moved into a much larger space near the Nine West Outlet where she is able to manufacture her products in a space behind the retail showroom.
“The business grew to the point I needed to really be in business,” she said.
“Having more space is allowing people to discover things they never noticed I had before because everything was so close together,” said Troiano.
She said the decision to open her store Downtown has proven to be the right move. In addition to her growing local customer base, many of her soaps, lotions and gift packages leave town as take-home travel gifts.
“The Landing is such a destination. Being between two convention hotels has been very good for my business,” Troiano said. She is near the Hyatt and the Omni.
At the other end of the first-floor corridor, the Jacksonville Maritime Heritage Center is participating in the celebration of the 450th anniversary of French explorer Jean Ribault’s landing at Mayport.
The museum and education center is hosting “Sails of Reformation,” an exhibit of maps as well as paintings by local artists related to the French and Spanish colonization of the New World.
Curator Paul Ghioto said an exhibit of artifacts and history concerning the 25th anniversary of the missile attack on the USS Stark during the Iran-Iraq War is scheduled to open next week.
The guided missile frigate was stationed at Mayport at the time. Part of the exhibit is a letter from then-President Ronald Reagan, who delivered a eulogy at Mayport for the 37 U.S. Navy personnel killed in the attack.
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