JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The finishing touches were being put on the exterior of The Corner at Debs Store in Jacksonville's Eastside Thursday.
On September 4, Debs Store will reopen and officially end a food desert that's been in place since it closed back in 2011. For the first time in more than a decade, there will be fresh produce for sale in one of Jacksonville's oldest neighborhoods.
The reopening of Debs Store is personal on many levels for a woman with deep family ties OutEast.
"It's home, this is the area I grew up in," Monique Presley said as she walked along 5th Street on Jacksonville's Eastside.
Presley's family has lived on the Eastside for five generations. In fact, her great, great grandfather Louis D. Ervin built the home where Presley grew up; and it still stands today.
"It's remarkable to come from that history and to understand someone built that with their bare hands," Presley said.
Her family home is just one block from Debs Store; a place she would go every day as a kid and will now work as the assistant manager when it reopens Wednesday.
"This is produce, this is going to be a full aisle of produce, different things, bananas, oranges, apples," Presley said. "This is the produce cooler case. We're going to have broccoli, strawberries and grapes, things that you might have to go two miles just to find a bag of grapes."
The Corner at Debs Store will also have cases of fresh meat as well as freezers with seafood and dairy products. The second floor of the building was renovated by LiftJax to include a career center and financial planning service in coordination with Goodwill and VyStar.
"This is going to be accessible to people in the neighborhood, but it's also going to attract others in this neighborhood because it's a high quality space where anyone would want to shop," said LiftJax President David Garfunkel. "Debs Store is kind of the flagship example of what we are trying to do."
VyStar is a dedicated partner to this community revitalization effort as well and will offer access to financial services, free financial education programs along with a surcharge free, and an ATM for the entire community through the VyStar Financial Fitness Center.
It's more than just ending a food desert. The Corner at Debs Store is preparing a neighborhood to take the next step as a community.
"Those are things I didn't necessarily have growing up in this neighborhood," said Presley. "Those simple things will propel the next generation and that's what I'm excited for most, the next generation."
A neighborhood primed for the future by reopening a staple of the past.