Longtime St. Pete grocery store and restaurant at risk of being demolished
The Brief
A longtime grocery store and restaurant in St. Pete is at risk of being demolished.
The St. Pete Free Clinic is proposing plans to renovate Mair's Grocery and Restaurant into a medical and organizational office space, as well as a supply pantry.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla - A longtime grocery store and restaurant in St. Pete is at risk of being demolished.
The St. Pete Development Review Commission approved a special exception and related site plan proposal from the St. Pete Free Clinic last week to expand onto the property of a former furniture store on Dr. MLK Jr. St. S.
The clinic is proposing plans to renovate that building into a medical and organizational office space, as well as a supply pantry.
As part of the plans, the neighboring property, which is the site of Mair's Grocery and Restaurant, would be demolished and turned into parking spaces.
Mair's Grocery is a Caribbean-inspired grocery store and restaurant in south St. Pete. Staff say it's been open for about 24 years.
What they're saying
"We see the same people almost every day," Karen Lewin, who's worked at Mair's for 15 years said. "Same people come and feed their family, feed their kids."
Lewin says there aren't many places where people in the area without a car can go for a hot meal.
"There's no other restaurant around here within miles and they depend here to eat, feed their family," she said. "A lot of them walk, take their bikes, so if this is gone, just imagine the impact it's going to have on the community."
Lewin was caught off guard to learn that the property might be sold.
"When I tell you this community depends on this restaurant, they really do," Lewin said.
At last week's meeting, the CEO of the St. Pete Free Clinic spoke about the early plans for an expansion in this area.
She said the clinic distributes 17 million meals throughout the county.
The other side
"Today, the highest concentration or highest utilization zip code of our downtown fresh pantry is the 33705 zip code," Jennifer Yagley, the CEO of the St. Pete Free Clinic said.
Yagley says they serve more than 30,000 people a month across their two existing sites in the city.
She says data shows that this area is in dire need of the clinic's services.
"In a survey of our patrons today who live in the 33705 and 33702 zip codes, 91% said they would appreciate a St. Pete Free Clinic food pantry and healthcare services in their zip code," Yagley said.
The plans for the clinic's expansion leave the future of Mair's hanging in the balance.
"We are not against anything," Lewin said. "Anything to uplift this community and bring change her and help the people, we're fine. But I'm just thinking, wow, we've got businesses here also. So, for us to just get up and this is it, it's kind of hard."
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At last week's meeting, Yagley said she had gotten a call shortly before the meeting about concerns over the proposed plans, which she wasn't previously aware of. She said they're committed to working with existing tenants and to possible collaboration or partnership.
Yagley also said they're also still in the process of figuring out specifics in terms of the proposed plans.
Lewin says they hope they're able to stay open and would love to work with the St. Pete Free Clinic to bring more resources to a community in need.
"We are welcome to co-partnering and it makes it easier for everyone," Lewin said. "So, the clinic and the pantry could be here. We are here still, so that's my wish that it could happen like that."
Lewin says they've talked to the St. Pete Free Clinic over the last several days and hope they can partner with the clinic.
FOX 13 reached out to the St. Pete Free Clinic on Monday and it reiterated its support for partnering with Mair's and the community.
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The Source
Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kylie Jones.
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