A trip to St. Marys can be a cruise

One of our downtown Fernandina businesses, Amelia River Cruises, is embarking on a great new service. You may have heard of this; they are ferrying passengers to and from St. Marys via the riverways. It turns out to be a very nice trip. Takes about an hour, and costs only about $15 per passenger.

Along the way, you get a real education about the history of our fair island and river, plus you get to see lots of beautiful scenery and lots of creatures in their wild habitat.

Well, to make things even more interesting, the owners are hoping to secure the right to make calls upon Cumberland Island as well.

In order to get permission to make that call, there would have to be an act of Congress. Really. Seems that the rules set down by Congress concerning the park were done many years ago, and it may be the right time now to revisit the limitations concerning traffic and boats to the park.

Additionally, Amelia River Cruises is working with the city of Fernandina Beach to construct a small information and ticket kiosk on the dock at the City Marina. This kiosk will sell tickets for the company’s St. Marys and other cruises.

Townhomes Coming?
If you are like me, there is an assumed link between decisions being made and results appearing. What I mean is, when the city OK’d the townhomes for the Standard Marine Building property last year, I was certain I would see construction beginning right away.

Well, not so. I was doing some digging of my own, and I have an update for you.
This project, only about 38 townhomes and condos, is actually going to be built in phases. Perhaps this is a good idea, considering the slow housing market right now.

The grand old Standard Marine Building at the corner of Alachua and North Second streets will be first part of the construction. The plan is to renovate this, and it will contain two condos, a small retail space and a parking garage. This all is set to start about May/June.

The next phase will be the townhomes themselves. This is a flexible project allowing the waterfront homes to be built first, then as the sales market allows, the others will be built. Estimated start date is June/July.

The third phase: the retail spaces on the waterfront. This phase will take longer to start, as the state is involved, having jurisdiction over the river. This project includes a large boat marina. Above the retail space along Front Street will be two condos. Start date is approximately August/September.

HDC still has a great deal of say in the design of these buildings, and it is important that HDC hears citizens’ concerns before this is all finalized. We get only one shot at this.