Five historical facts about Fernandina Beach

[thelakelander]

Located about 25 miles northeast of Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach is a historic city of 13,000 residents that spans the northern half of Amelia Island. Here are five fascinating facts about this vibrant walkable community.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/five-historical-facts-about-fernandina-beach/

[jaxlongtimer]

Nice coverage. 

Centre Street in Fernandina clearly outshines Downtown Jax and rivals St. Augustine's St. George.  Jax is surrounded by two smaller towns with more vibrant centers.  What do they do that Jax doesn't?  Preserve historic buildings, maintain continuous retail frontage and support an eclectic group of smaller businesses.  Like lots of historic small towns across America.  No multi-million gifts to big time developers and billionaires.  Instead of going to far away cities and coming back with un-implemented lessons learned, maybe the Chamber and City leaders should look closer to home for how to develop Downtown.

[urban_]

Nice coverage. 

Centre Street in Fernandina clearly outshines Downtown Jax and rivals St. Augustine's St. George.  Jax is surrounded by two smaller towns with more vibrant centers.  What do they do that Jax doesn't?  Preserve historic buildings, maintain continuous retail frontage and support an eclectic group of smaller businesses.  Like lots of historic small towns across America.  No multi-million gifts to big time developers and billionaires.  Instead of going to far away cities and coming back with un-implemented lessons learned, maybe the Chamber and City leaders should look closer to home for how to develop Downtown.

Couldn't agree more.
On a similar note- do we have small venues for retail/businesses to lease in our downtown, like they have in St. Augustine? I've noticed that many new builds that have ground-floor retail seem to have large spaces for one or two anchor businesses, but it would seem intuitive that smaller venues would function more as a small-business incubator as individuals can lease the space for much less up-front cost. I'd love to see some incentives from the city council to encourage building some smaller commercial spaces for this purpose.

[jaxjags]

Although I totally agree DT has not done much to help itself, both FB and St Augustine are tourist destinations that helps with foot traffic.

One thing I want to comment on that DT did do, was the one-way streets. Huge difference on how that area looks and feels. I was there a few weeks ago. Traffic was slow, streets were busy, and I thought I was in a real city.

PS - Never saw one person on or waiting for NAVI.

[Zac T]

Nice coverage. 

Centre Street in Fernandina clearly outshines Downtown Jax and rivals St. Augustine's St. George.  Jax is surrounded by two smaller towns with more vibrant centers.  What do they do that Jax doesn't?  Preserve historic buildings, maintain continuous retail frontage and support an eclectic group of smaller businesses.  Like lots of historic small towns across America.  No multi-million gifts to big time developers and billionaires.  Instead of going to far away cities and coming back with un-implemented lessons learned, maybe the Chamber and City leaders should look closer to home for how to develop Downtown.

Couldn't agree more.
On a similar note- do we have small venues for retail/businesses to lease in our downtown, like they have in St. Augustine? I've noticed that many new builds that have ground-floor retail seem to have large spaces for one or two anchor businesses, but it would seem intuitive that smaller venues would function more as a small-business incubator as individuals can lease the space for much less up-front cost. I'd love to see some incentives from the city council to encourage building some smaller commercial spaces for this purpose.

There are plenty of existing vacant storefronts along Adams, Laura, and Forsyth that could house smaller businesses. Just need the property owners to step up and do something with them

[jaxjags]

Although I totally agree DT has not done much to help itself, both FB and St Augustine are tourist destinations that helps with foot traffic.

One thing I want to comment on that DT did do, was the one-way streets. Huge difference on how that area looks and feels. I was there a few weeks ago. Traffic was slow, streets were busy, and I thought I was in a real city.

PS - Never saw one person on or waiting for NAVI.

Oops meant to say going to 2 way streets getting old is tough

[Tacachale]

Nice coverage. 

Centre Street in Fernandina clearly outshines Downtown Jax and rivals St. Augustine's St. George.  Jax is surrounded by two smaller towns with more vibrant centers.  What do they do that Jax doesn't?  Preserve historic buildings, maintain continuous retail frontage and support an eclectic group of smaller businesses.  Like lots of historic small towns across America.  No multi-million gifts to big time developers and billionaires.  Instead of going to far away cities and coming back with un-implemented lessons learned, maybe the Chamber and City leaders should look closer to home for how to develop Downtown.

Couldn't agree more.
On a similar note- do we have small venues for retail/businesses to lease in our downtown, like they have in St. Augustine? I've noticed that many new builds that have ground-floor retail seem to have large spaces for one or two anchor businesses, but it would seem intuitive that smaller venues would function more as a small-business incubator as individuals can lease the space for much less up-front cost. I'd love to see some incentives from the city council to encourage building some smaller commercial spaces for this purpose.

The reality is Jax has many neighborhood centers at that level or much better, and mostly not dominated by tourists. They just aren't Downtown. One problem with becoming a tourist destination is you lose a lot of uses even as it becomes more vibrant. I grew up in Neptune Beach when it was a real community and the Beaches Town Center had a pharmacy, a hardware store, a bike shop, a surf shop, etc. Even though it's more vibrant now than it was, it lost all of that.

[thelakelander]

^ That is something that is noticeable in Fernandina. Downtown is a tourist district. It appears that local residents don't frequent this strip on an every day basis.

[jaxlongtimer]

Nice coverage. 

Centre Street in Fernandina clearly outshines Downtown Jax and rivals St. Augustine's St. George.  Jax is surrounded by two smaller towns with more vibrant centers.  What do they do that Jax doesn't?  Preserve historic buildings, maintain continuous retail frontage and support an eclectic group of smaller businesses.  Like lots of historic small towns across America.  No multi-million gifts to big time developers and billionaires.  Instead of going to far away cities and coming back with un-implemented lessons learned, maybe the Chamber and City leaders should look closer to home for how to develop Downtown.

Couldn't agree more.
On a similar note- do we have small venues for retail/businesses to lease in our downtown, like they have in St. Augustine? I've noticed that many new builds that have ground-floor retail seem to have large spaces for one or two anchor businesses, but it would seem intuitive that smaller venues would function more as a small-business incubator as individuals can lease the space for much less up-front cost. I'd love to see some incentives from the city council to encourage building some smaller commercial spaces for this purpose.

The reality is Jax has many neighborhood centers at that level or much better, and mostly not dominated by tourists. They just aren't Downtown. One problem with becoming a tourist destination is you lose a lot of uses even as it becomes more vibrant. I grew up in Neptune Beach when it was a real community and the Beaches Town Center had a pharmacy, a hardware store, a bike shop, a surf shop, etc. Even though it's more vibrant now than it was, it lost all of that.

If there is a silver lining to Downtown, it is that it doesn't have a pharmacy, a hardware store, a bike shop, a surf shop, or much of anything else to lose at this point  .  It should be so lucky as to have some tourists interested in it given the increasing absence of office workers and yet-to-be hordes of residents. 

Unfortunately, much of the historic character of Downtown has been leveled and replaced by nothing or uninspired buildings with little to offer or support small business retail corridors.  At this point, most streets Downtown need to have their building faces, if they have any, replaced, reconfigured or rebuilt to inspire any kind of ambiance/charm to support a character driven retail corridor.  Other than a few broken sections of  some streets, I don't see that developing at scale other than maybe when Gateway builds out its development.

I will add again, too, the lack of worthwhile urban core mass transit is a major impediment to achieving the above potential.