The City of Palatka is changing its grant programs to encourage people to invest in the city’s downtown through various incentives.
The city sold the Riverfront Square property to Riverfront Development Group LLC.
There have been major investments recently in Palatka from Continental Building Products, Florida Power & Light, Georgia Pacific and others in Putnam County.
Major manufacturers or builders aren’t the only ones investing in Palatka's future, small business owners are also moving in.
One of the smaller entrepreneurs, Andrea Conover, is a partner in a project that has the potential to revitalize an old building and add tourist appeal to Palatka: Azalea City Brewing.
Conover is opening the micro-brewery in Palatka's former Coca-Cola bottling plant. She's an environmental activist who moved from Ponte Vedra to have a house on the river in a small town.
Conover explained on First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross Thursday why she wants to open Azalea City Brewing in Palatka. “I like breweries. I like how they help neighborhoods. And there was a beautiful old Coca-Cola building that's been vacant for a long time and I was able to buy it and Palatka needed a brewery and I said, 'okay, if nobody else is going to do it, I I'll try.' Microbreweries really spur economic development. We've seen that all over the country.”
The microbrewery project in the old Coca Cola building is expected to open in November or October of this year.
Photo used under Creative Commons license.
Amanda Brannon can be reached at newsteam@wjct.org, 904-358-6317.
