Vilano Beach project revived?

St. Augustine Record
Plans revived for Vilano Beach Town Center
This time, funding is not the issue; getting the tenants is.

By JENNIFER EDWARD

The proposal for a town center in Vilano Beach is back, a couple of years after a bigger plan died, the victim of the sour economy.

The new plan calls for a grocery store and two small buildings for retail space. The town center will be south of the east end of the Usina Bridge, the same location of the original proposal.

"For our community it's the right time because the streetscape -- water, sewer, drainage, all the infrastructure -- was finished in October 2008," said Vivian Browning, chair of the Vilano Beach Main Street group and the long-time leader of revitalizing Vilano Beach. The streetscape was a $12 million project funded by St. Johns County.

The developer of the project, Vilano Beach Town Center Partners LLC, said through a spokesman that the new plan calls for a 29,160-square-foot grocery store and about 14,000 square feet of retail space in two buildings.

"There's a definite need for this small commercial development," said company spokesman Bob Bentz. "And we have tremendous support from the community. We think it will be a successful retail center."

Bentz said funding, which killed the earlier proposal, is no longer an issue.

"Funding isn't the problem, it's getting the tenants," he said. "Funding is tied to the tenants. As long as we have the tenants," the project will be funded, he said.

Bentz didn't foresee any problems filling the spaces, though.

"We've had a number of phone calls and a lot of interest," he said.

The developer is in talks with a grocery store chain, but won't say which one, Bentz said.

"We hope to know in the next six weeks whether the grocery store is going to come in or not, or who it will be," he said.

It's hard to say whether Publix, Winn Dixie or Food Lion are interested in a store smaller than most of what they have now.

Publix regional spokesman Dwaine Stevens said the chain was interested in the Vilano Beach site a couple of years ago, before the real estate bust sunk financing for the project.

"When the developer's financing doesn't go through, the deal doesn't go through," he said.

He declined to comment on whether the chain is revisiting plans to locate a Publix in Vilano Beach.

Christy Phillips-Brown, Food Lion external communications director, also said she couldn't comment on possible future locations. A spokesman for Winn Dixie could not be reached for comment.

As the developers negotiate to get a grocery chain contract, changes nearby are improving the look of the neighborhood. On Thursday, construction crews demolished a mobile home park, long an eyesore on the streetscape. Browning said that change, along with the new streetscape and the pavilion, is an indicator of more improvements to come.



How it will look

Architecture in Vilano Beach differs from downtown St. Augustine because the community sprang up centuries later. Buildings on this peninsula, bordered by water to the east, south and west and Ponte Vedra Beach to the north, do not generally reflect the Mediterranean Revival or Spanish Colonial styles.

Instead, they are a variegated collection of Art Deco, mid-century modern and Florida vernacular styles.

The retail center would reflect those influences, said Bob Bentz, a spokesman for Vilano Beach Town Center Partners, LLC, the developer of the proposed town center.

"The community indicated they'd like to see a blending of the art deco style as well as the Florida vernacular," Bentz said.

To that end, the grocery store would have an art deco look, and the smaller buildings housing six to nine more tenants would be fashioned after the Florida vernacular style.

The smallest tenant space would span 1,000 square feet, and there would likely be a 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot space to accommodate a restaurant.

"There will also be outdoor patio and dining," Bentz said.

The abandoned buildings on the property would be demolished, he said, as would the current buildings now housing a surf store and a dry cleaner.

The majority, though, is just vacant land.

"Vilano Beach is a very unique location," Bentz said. "We're very excited about the project."



The way it was

The Vilano Beach area, a peninsula surrounded on three sides by water and bordered to the north by Ponte Vedra Beach, doesn't look the way it did 10 or 15 years ago.

Then, a wooden bridge funneled traffic over from the mainland and there wasn't a unified feeling. Since then, the streetscape has been revitalized and accented with recycled glass for a more "art deco" feel.

The bridge where seagulls used to roost is now a pier jutting out over the water and features modern accents.