Poynter Unveils Downtown Fernandina ‘City Market’ Plan, Including Nana Teresa’s Site

Architect's rendering of City Market on N. Third Street

By Mike Lednovich/Editor

FERNANDINA BEACH - A proposal by downtown businessman Tim Poynter to demolish the building housing Nana Teresa’s Bake Shop on Third Street and replace it with a market-style retail complex took its first public step Thursday as city staff reviewed the concept before the Technical Review Committee.

The proposal, dubbed “City Market,” would redevelop property at 13 N. Third St. and an adjacent vacant parcel next to Timoti’s Seafood Shak — both owned by Poynter — into a cluster of small retail and mercantile buildings arranged around a courtyard. The project would require demolition of the existing late-1930s structure occupied by Nana Teresa’s Bake Shop, a building city staff said is considered non-contributing within the downtown historic district.

Jose Miranda of Miranda Architects, representing the project, told committee members the development is envisioned as a pedestrian-oriented “city market” featuring a larger central building surrounded by smaller storefronts.

“I'm working with the Poynter family to improve the property at what is currently 13 North Third Street,” Miranda said during the meeting.

“It's an existing late '30s building, not considered contributing to the historic district, so the building would be demolished,” Miranda said. “We're constructing a new what we're calling a city market. It'll be a main building of about 1,600 square feet and then a series of individual shops surrounding the perimeter, creating a rear courtyard area.”

According to plans submitted to the city, the development would include a total of 10 one-story buildings totaling roughly 3,200 square feet, with the smaller units designed for retail, food service or artisan merchants. The smaller shops range in size from 120-square feet to 250 square feet. The anchor primary building is 1,400 square feet.

"It's like a permanent farmer's market downtown," Poynter told The Observer. "I recognized a need for small businesses to get into the game downtown. As it stands now, it's very expensive for them to participate in downtown commerce. This is a way in."

“So total development would be somewhere in the 3,200 square foot range,” Miranda said. “The main building is the larger center building, and then the other ones are one-story kind of surrounding that, being a series of mercantile or retail shops, depending on the tenant buildout.”

The committee meeting marked only an initial “First Step” review — a preliminary staff-level discussion meant to identify permitting and design issues before formal applications are filed.

Planning staff advised Miranda to pursue the Technical Review Committee and Historic District Council review processes concurrently, with separate HDC applications needed for demolition of the existing building and approval of new construction.

“We just advised him to do the TRC applications and the HDC applications concurrently,” Mia Sadler, city planner told the committee. “We talked about a separate HDC application for the demo and for the new construction.”

Staff indicated the demolition request may face fewer hurdles because the structure is considered non-contributing to the district.

“We've already discussed that it's a non-contributing structure and there's not very many definitive or character-defining architectural features on the building,” Sadler said. “So, I don't think that it will be held up on the demos' standpoint from HDC, but we do need to do our due diligence.”

The proposal also prompted extensive discussion about tree mitigation, drainage requirements, utilities and food-service infrastructure — issues that could materially shape the final design.

City staff said any restaurant or food-service tenants would require individual plumbing systems and grease interceptors.

“If there's going to be any type of food service that the future tenants are going to need, whatever has a food service would need to be plumbed individually and have a grease trap or interceptor in the building,” a utilities reviewer said.

One of the more significant issues involved landscaping and tree mitigation requirements for the downtown site. Staff told Miranda that removing existing palms and protected trees would trigger replacement requirements under city code.

“Right now, at this time, the code states it's 50% mitigation,” city Arborist David Neville said, estimating the removal of roughly 66 inches of protected trees would require about 33 inches of replacement plantings or partial payment into a mitigation fund.

Miranda questioned how downtown redevelopment projects can comply with overlapping requirements involving stormwater, landscaping and buildable area on small urban lots.

“I know that the code has been poorly written for over 20 years, and we've had conflicts between trees and stormwater and the central business district,” Miranda said. “Those three things cannot coexist without a significant technical problem.”

Design-wise, Miranda said the smaller buildings would be oriented inward toward a shared courtyard, with few exterior-facing openings because of tight setbacks and proximity to neighboring property lines.

“All the openings will be for the smaller buildings, all the openings are towards the center,” Miranda said. “Nothing along the perimeter because we can't do that since we're so close to property line.”

The architect also said trash collection would be consolidated in shared areas rather than having individual dumpsters for each small tenant space.

“We've designated little trash yards, and they'll be shared use because it doesn't make sense for a little, what, 120 square foot building to have its own trash can,” Miranda said. “The volume just doesn't justify that.”

Miranda told staff the project has already been submitted for conceptual review by the Historic District Council in June.

“We've already submitted for HDC for our June meeting for the concept, and we're here to get your comments on First Steps,” he said.

If the project advances, it would return to both the Historic District Council and Technical Review Committee for formal review before any construction approvals are issued.

The building housing Nana Teresa's Bake Shop would be demolished, and the market would be built on two adjoining lots.