Plans to sell a parcel of city-owned land on Mayport Road for a DG Market, a small-scale grocery store operated by Dollar General, drew both support and questions at Monday’s Atlantic Beach City Commission meeting. The commission will take up the proposal again Oct. 12.
At Monday’s meeting, community experts and residents weighed in on the need for fresh produce and groceries along Mayport Road, which has long been considered a food desert.
“We do need to understand what we’re going to accomplish, what the pitfalls are and any risks,” Mayor Curtis Ford said.
In August, the commission unanimously agreed to explore the sale of the 1.25-acre parcel at 2880 Mayport Road to Teramore Development, which builds DG Market stores, for a proposed $875,000. Former Mayor Ellen Glasser and others later questioned the process and the stock at an existing DG Market.
As president and CEO of Feeding Northeast Florida, Susan King is familiar with the needs of people experiencing food insecurity along Mayport Road. In an area with other small local operations, adding a small retailer would take business away from them, King said, but that doesn’t happen where no grocery store exists.
“We see food insecurity every day and it is not only whether someone can afford groceries. It is also whether they can reasonably get to them. Hunger has many, many causes and Mayport has a real gap in grocery access,” she said.
“It is not the concept of the store. It’s a great concept, but if people can’t get there for whatever reason, it is a problem anywhere. Mayport is unique in that it is not too far and you are not competing with other stores.”
When Food Lion closed in 2012, followed by Terry’s Country Store, traveling several miles for groceries became difficult for older adults and families without reliable transportation, King said. DG Market offers produce, dairy, eggs, frozen food and grocery staples that would be a meaningful addition to what is now available at Dollar General and other convenience stores, she said.
“I think it’s reasonable to ask as a body as you’re negotiating should you choose to do that is to say we really want to understand and have a commitment to what this looks like in the future because it’s very easy to sell property and have somebody decide they don’t want it to be a DG Market anymore,” King said.
“I don’t think that’s going to be the case here but those are really important conversations that we have around intent and you have an opportunity to do that.”
Resident Sarah Boren, who also serves on the city’s Environmental Stewardship Committee, said many questions remain about the site selection and its potential future uses, given its proximity to the water plant.
She said the pace of the process has limited community involvement, including the study of other possible locations. Exploring a partnership with the city of Jacksonville could also help draw larger grocery chains to the area, she said.
“Why this location? There are plenty of vacant retail spaces in the area, specifically in the Pan Am Plaza and the Reef Shopping Plaza,” she said. “The distance is farther for Atlantic Beach residents to the proposed location than to Aldi. It is not located within the [city] boundary. I understand the attraction to sell the land to reduce debt but if there’s no recurring cost to keeping the land, why give it up?”
King, a former executive director of Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministry, or BEAM, where she established its food pantry, described Dollar General as a compassionate ally to those in the region working to end food insecurity. The DG Market model also works on a smaller footprint, such as the proposed 1.25-acre parcel at Mayport Road and Wonderwood Drive, she said.
“I’ve been fighting the fight to get grocery stores into communities for so many years and if it doesn’t make economic sense, it is not going to happen. And if it hasn’t happened in the 14 years since we had Food Lion, it is not going to happen unless there are massive incentives which the city of Jacksonville has been forced to do and has often lost,” King said.
“So I think this is a perfect situation for a DG Market. It’s not too rural so that people still can’t get there. It’s a reasonable distance for people of the Mayport area to access fresh food.”
After the August 2023 shooting that killed three people at a Dollar General on Kings Road in Jacksonville, the company’s corporate headquarters reached out to Feeding Northeast Florida to offer aid to families in the area who were left without reasonable access to groceries, King said.
“They said what can we do to assist families in that neighborhood because as most of you know, Dollar Stores tend to be the only food support in a lot of communities,” King said, adding that the company provided financial support for nearly two years to help fund mobile pantries for residents of the New Town area.
“In the 12 counties that we serve, there are a number of DG Markets and they are mini grocery stores. And yes, their prices are often higher but if you imagine they are working on small margins with much less population to support them, it’s inevitable but it does put produce, proteins and things available in communities.”
During a recent visit to the DG Market on Normandy Boulevard, Boren said she found that many of the store’s 15 aisles had limited stock, including fresh produce.
“In some instances the prices were cheaper at DG Market but oftentimes they weren’t,” Boren said. “To be clear, I’m not for or against this. I just have genuine questions.”
She said she would support the project if the community wants it.
