More changes coming to Fernandina Beach’s 8th Street corridor

Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
October 2, 2018 11:00 a.m.

Development along Fernandina Beach’s 8^thStreet has always proved to be challenging. Although 8^thStreet is also State Road 200, it is a narrow thoroughfare that carries heavy commercial traffic including log trucks destined for local mills and trucks destined for the Port of Fernandina.  The state has been working to repair the road surface and beautify the corridor with landscaping.  But those efforts cannot change the fact that the road narrows from 4 to 2 lanes and no shoulders north of Lime Street, once the southern boundary of the city.

Residents, 8^thStreet businesses and tourists have not considered the street a destination over the years.  But now, slowly but surely, that streetscape is changing and bringing new life to what was once just a place to pass through on your way downtown or to the beach.  Older businesses have spruced up; new businesses like Gilbert’s have sprung up.

Eagerly anticipated is the arrival of the Mocama Brewing Company, destined for 629 S. 8^thStreet.  This business will occupy the west side of the block bordered by Gum and Fir Streets. Although it is outside the Historic District, the business will incorporate the existing building, once the home to a Ford dealership and more recently occupied by Trawick Tile and Imetry.

According to the Jacksonville Business Journal the company plans to build a 16,217-square-foot, two-story brewery. The ground floor of the site would include a brewhouse and cellar room, a barrel room, a walk-in cooler, two roughly 1,000-square-foot tasting areas, a coffee bar, 40 parking spaces, a 300-square-foot outdoor patio and a courtyard. Upstairs would have office and conference room space.

The company has also purchased an undeveloped piece of property across Gum Street for additional parking.

The company has been working through the permitting process with the city of Fernandina Beach and has applied for a permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District.

Follow progress on the company and the building on the company’s website www.mocama.com.