JEKYLL ISLAND ― Doc Daugherty is days away from digging his last generous scoop of ice cream from the counter freezer of his Island Sweets Shoppe.
At age 80, he still dotes on the children who frequent his store, located adjacent to the historic Jekyll Island Club hotel at the popular seaside state park. Odds are, he built towering ice cream cones for the parents and perhaps even the grandparents of the kids who today press their noses to the freezer’s glass.
“They’ll miss me for sure, as I’ve always been generous with the ice cream scoop,” said Daugherty, who took over the Island Sweets Shoppe 25 years ago. “But hey, I own the place.”
Daugherty is down to his final days operating what many locals call a Jekyll institution. His ice cream, candy and fudge store will close on Labor Day, as will many of those operated by his neighbors in the Pier Road historic district. Leases on the seven retail spaces expire Sept. 7. The authority that manages the state park plans to overhaul the shopping district in the months ahead in what has been labeled an effort to improve the visitor experience.
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
Credit: Jekyll Island Authority
Six existing shops will shutter, with only Remember When, a gift shop, surviving. The retail spaces will be filled with a mix of authority-managed stores and those run by independent retailers. The Jekyll Island Authority’s board of directors accepted lease bids from two vendors during a Tuesday meeting, and a third is expected to be awarded at the September meeting.
The revamped retail center, to be known as “The District Shops,” is to be fully operational by next spring, although an authority spokeswoman said several stores should be open before the end of the year. Renovations begin in September.
The Labor Day closures will mark what Juliana Germano, an owner of two of the Pier Road shops, calls “the end of an era.” Most of the stores have been operating for decades out of the quaint wooden buildings that were servants’ cottages during the heyday of the Jekyll Island Club, a winter retreat for industrial titans such as the Rockefellers, Pulitzers and Morgans that closed following the Great Depression.
The shuttered stores will also close a yearlong saga that has stoked resentment between the Jekyll Island Authority and local business owners and residents. The Pier Road shop owners have long operated with three-year lease agreements that were historically renewed, but the authority notified them last September that their leases would terminate in 90 days and their spaces would be either repurposed or put out for bid.
The notices led to outcry that prompted the authority to extend the existing leases for nine months while the shopping district concept was developed and bids solicited and collected. The Jekyll Island Authority approved the “District Shops” plan in January and solicited bids earlier this summer for three offering-specific vendors — a coffee shop, an ice cream and candy store and a grab-and-go food market.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
The other retail spaces will feature a portrait studio, a year-round Christmas market and a “Georgia grown” food store, all operated by the Jekyll Island Authority.
Daugherty was the only one of the existing shop owners to speak at Tuesday’s board meeting. Germano, who owns The Commissary market and The Island House art, fashion and gifts store, submitted a written public comment ahead of time.
Reached by telephone after the authority board meeting, Germano expressed her disappointment in the process that will lead her to close her shops. She noted that The Commissary markets itself as a Georgia-made products retailer — selling jams, jellies and sauces under a private label, — yet the authority plans to operate its own store using the same concept. Germano was not asked if she would be interested in operating the planned “Georgia grown” shop and the store offering was not put out for bid.
“I didn’t want to be in the ice cream or the coffeehouse business,” said Germano, who opened her first retail business on Jekyll in 1995. “If they had had a conversation with me beforehand about the ‘Georgia grown’ shop, I may have considered it. But now, I wouldn’t want to go into business with them.”
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Daugherty did have the chance to bid for the ice cream and candy retailer space, but he did not like the terms. He currently pays monthly rent of $9 a square foot on a 400-foot space, but the new store is planned for a much-larger space priced at $16 per square foot. The lease proposal also called for the tenant to pay the Jekyll Island Authority 4% of gross revenue annually.
“For me, it’s a labor of love,” he said. “Even so, that sounded like a bad deal to me.”
Daugherty expressed optimism about the new ice cream and candy vendor, Saint Simons Sweets. The operation is a family-owned fudge shop located in Pier Village on the neighboring island, and he is familiar with it.
The other lease bid approved Tuesday, for the coffeehouse, also involves a family-owned Golden Isles favorite, Wake Up Coffee Co. The St. Simons Island-based company operates three retail locations in the Brunswick area. Wake Up was the only bidder to operate the java shop.
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