Relief could be coming for Mayport residents, who live in an area long known to have no readily available access to a grocery store.
The Atlantic Beach City Commission unanimously supported moving forward with negotiations to sell a city-owned parcel at 2880 Mayport Road to the developer of a proposed DG Market, a smaller-scale grocery concept that offers fresh food and other essentials.
The proposed store could give residents north of Wonderwood Bridge access to fresh produce, meat, dairy and other groceries without a long drive or difficult bike ride. The sale also could give Atlantic Beach $875,000 for the surplus property.
Atlantic Beach Mayor Curtis Ford proposed selling the 1.25-acre parcel at Mayport and Wonderwood roads to Teramore Development, which develops DG Market locations for Dollar General.
Ford said the project could help address a serious gap in food access for residents with limited transportation options. The USDA classifies Mayport’s census tract as a low-access area or food desert.
“We’re trying to solve this food desert issue. It’s really a big issue for the people farther north on Mayport Road, and it’s certainly an issue for the people at Mayport Fishing Village,” he said. “It’s an issue for anybody that has mobility challenges on Mayport Road.”
The city acquired the property in 1991 for a possible utility expansion for the Buccaneer Mobile Home Park.
“The solution is an Atlantic Beach property in the city of Jacksonville,” Ford said. “We own a 1.25-acre parcel on Mayport Road at the intersection of Mayport and Wonderwood that we acquired a number of years ago.”
Ford said he is proposing that the city accept a written offer from the developer to purchase the property and build a DG Market that would serve north Mayport Road and Mayport Village.
The proposed $875,000 purchase price would provide a financial benefit to the city amid budget uncertainties surrounding the property tax initiative on the November ballot.
“I am the mayor and I am always concerned about the budget and cash flow,” Ford said. “What a win-win if I can solve this problem and put $875,000 in city coffers. We’ll see how that goes.”
Ryan Nix, an Atlantic Beach resident and real estate broker who handles site selection for Teramore Development, said the DG Market format is designed for communities without access to a full-service grocery store.
“Mayport Road is a food desert. We all know this. The Mayport Commissary is restricted to military families. The goal here is simple. Fresh food access on the corridor. Right now it doesn’t exist,” Nix said. “The solution is sitting right in front of us.”
Dollar General introduced the DG Market concept in 2003. The stores are slightly larger than traditional Dollar General stores and were developed as the retailer expanded into fresh meat and produce. DG Market stores account for about 1% of Dollar General’s total store count.
The format offers many of the same departments as a traditional supermarket but with smaller selections, including fresh meat, expanded produce, refrigerated and frozen foods, dairy products and general merchandise.
Nix said DG Market has existing building designs ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, allowing a store to fit on a single parcel without assembling additional property.
“They are able to put a store like that on a 1.25-acre parcel. You can’t put a grocery store on a 1.25-acre parcel. You need 3 to 5 acres to put in any of these large grocers,” Ford said.
“This is a solution to the food desert that is right in front of us. Lacking an Aldi or Publix raising their hand, it could be a decade before we ever get a grocer back out there.”
Nix said Teramore is the contract builder and development partner for Dollar General and DG Market projects throughout the Southeast.
“Roughly 70% of employees at or above the lead sales associate level were promoted from within,” Nix said. “Dollar General invests in the towns it operates in. Serving others is the mission the company was built on and is still the guiding force today.”
Ford said he has been working to find a grocery solution for Mayport Road for at least three years.
“I’ve been talking to realtors, builders and developers for at least three years now about our food desert,” Ford said. “I engaged Ryan Nix a few years ago, and he’s been working on this. He has brought a written offer to purchase our property and put a DG Market in that location.”
Residents have smaller convenience stores, drugstores and seafood markets in the area, but those businesses do not provide the same full-service grocery access.
The closest full-service grocery stores are Aldi in Neptune Beach, in the former Winn-Dixie location, about 3.4 miles by road from the proposed DG Market site and nearly 6 miles from Mayport Village, and Publix across the Wonderwood Bridge at Monument and McCormick roads.
“I’m very excited about this proposal,” said Commissioner Jessica Ring. “From the second I stepped in 2022, that was one of the things I heard the most in my area was the food desert.”
Ring said residents need access to fresh produce and meat, even if the limited size of the city-owned parcel prevents development of a traditional supermarket.
“They have two Dollar Stores on Mayport Road as it is. They need produce. They need fresh meat. They need a grocery store,” she said. “With 1.2 acres, you’re not going to get a large one, but this is an actual grocery store that fits the demographic just perfectly.”
The area lost its neighborhood grocery store when Food Lion closed in January 2012. Terry’s Country Store later closed its Mayport Road location in early 2023. A planned grocery and butcher shop called The Creative Cook was proposed for the site but never opened.
Ford said larger grocery chains are aware of the demographics and the demand for a store in the area but have not pursued the opportunity.
“They already know and they have chosen not to be there. If they wanted to be there, they would be there,” Ford said. “Of course, you have the issue of assembling a large enough parcel to put their store on, but there have been parcels large enough, but they all got eaten up over the last couple years.”
The property is currently zoned for mobile homes and would require a zoning amendment by the city of Jacksonville to accommodate the redevelopment. Ford said the surplus property can be transferred without putting it on the open market because the project addresses a public need.
“It is zoned the way it is because no one has asked to change it,” Nix said. “We expect zero pushback.”
“It has a great impact for Mayport Village,” Ford said. “I think we have something that will really resonate with the community and help at least split the difference and partially solve this food desert issue. After spending the last couple years learning what I now know, I think this is a big win.”
The Mayport Waterfront Partnership will host a presentation by Ryan Nix on the DG proposal at its Aug. 12 meeting, which begins at 8 a.m. The meeting is held monthly at the William "Bill" Gulliford Community Center in Mayport Village and is open to the public.
City Manager Kevin Hogencamp and City Attorney Jason Gabriel will negotiate a purchase and sale contract with Teramore Development for consideration by the City Commission. The property will be appraised to validate the proposed sales price.
Ford also proposed imposing conditions to ensure the site is developed as a DG Market. If approved, Nix estimated it would take three months to close on the property, with construction beginning within 30 days. Construction would take about 10 months. Hogencamp will present a status report at the next commission meeting.
