by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Besides the San Marco Preservation Society, another organization that’s shaped the San Marco area is the San Marco Merchants Association. Both organizations have a vested interest in keeping San Marco unique. Many of the businesses around the San Marco Square belong to the Association, which is an organized force in local politics. The main goal of the Merchant’s Association is to attract shoppers to San Marco, whether they live in the area or not. To that end, they also sponsor yearly events, such as the upcoming San Marco Art Festival.
The San Marco shopping area experienced a dip in sales because of the opening of the St. John’s Town Center, but their customers are coming back and others are rediscovering the area. San Marco is a great place for high-end shopping because it offers lower price points than the Town Center and more personalized service. San Marco has just about everything you might desire, from a long-standing used bookstore to local shops that carry designer labels, and everything in between. If you want to support local business instead of a homogenized mall, it’s a great place to shop.
Merchants that are part of the Association enjoy a range of services such as trash pickup, landscape beautification in the area and a network of information. According to the Association President and local business owner Jan Molyneaux: “We try to put out communication to other merchants about things like road improvements, traffic problems…anything that impacts the area…[such as] the big construction project that’s going to be starting in a six block area at Hendricks and Atlantic.”
The area she’s speaking about will soon be home to Jacksonville’s first urban Publix, among other things. At the moment, besides Matthew’s Marketplace, which has a limited (though high-quality) selection, the area doesn’t have a major food market that locals can buy from. For residents who want to live in an area largely free from a commercialized presence, it’s worth a little bit of a drive to the grocery store.
But there still is a demand for some kind of market in the area, and by 2010 San Marco will have a Publix. The buzz has already boosted the area’s desirability. Although in years past there has been a drive for a Whole Foods Market in the area, a Publix will fit the needs of residents. The San Marco Preservation Society, with input from the Merchant’s Association, worked closely with developers to ensure that the Publix wouldn’t commercialize the area too much. It won’t be a traditional Publix, with a massive parking lot in the front, but will instead be designed to fit the style and needs of San Marco. The project is slated to begin this year and be completed in 2009 or 2010 with a mixed-use facility of multiple retailers and five levels of 125 condos on the corner of Atlantic Boulevard and Hendricks Avenue. The Publix itself will be a little more than half the size of a regular Publix, at just 28,000 square feet. Because land is so dear in the San Marco area, and because parking can sometimes be scarce, the developers plan to build an adjacent four-story parking garage.
It’s hard to say if the Publix will have a positive impact on the merchants in the San Marco area. It will certainly impact the businesses in some way and will contribute to changing traffic patterns, as well as drawing more residents to the neighborhood.
With or without the new Publix, San Marco will remain a shopping destination for tourists and long-time residents that enjoy local flavor and upscale shopping.
|
