JEKYLL ISLAND ― The quaint shopping district in the shadow of the idyllic Jekyll Island Club had come to be known as “bike-over country.”
Visitors would venture down Pier Road, a tabby carriage path flanked by a collection of retail shops housed in historic clapboard cottages originally built as the club’s service buildings and servants’ quarters.
Too often, though, those callers wouldn’t stop to browse for Jekyll-themed knickknacks or to grab a hot dog or an ice cream. Instead, they’d stroll — or pedal — on to one of the neighboring attractions, such as the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, the Mosaic Museum or the club hotel.
The Pier Road shopping district, one of only two retail centers on the barrier island, wasn’t a popular destination.
That vibe is evolving.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Pier Road recently debuted as The District Shops following a nine-month makeover. Gone are decades-old businesses, such as a window-service snack bar, an ice cream parlor and souvenir stores. Those retailers closed last Labor Day after their landlord, the Jekyll Island Authority, which manages the state-owned island, declined to offer lease renewals.
The move, announced in September 2023, sparked public outcry that played out in authority meetings and online forums. Critics expressed concern not only for the threatened shopkeepers but also that Pier Road would lose its mom-and-pop charm.
All these months later, those fears have diminished. New businesses led by local operators have opened in refreshed spaces. Two anchor eateries, a coffee shop from Golden Isles favorite Wake Up Coffee Company at one end of the district and an open-air restaurant and bar named Founder’s Social at the other, have fostered a sit-and-stay-awhile atmosphere.
“Pier Road has always been cool but you needed more of a reason to stop,” said Jake Clark, operator of Founder’s Social and a longtime Brunswick-area resident. “We’re here to be that beacon and bring people in.”
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Creating gathering spaces wasn’t the only intentional move in the Pier Road reboot. The Jekyll Island Authority undertook the overhaul in response to feedback from visitors about the retail mix and the unpredictability of operating hours.
Rather than address those issues shop by shop, the authority made the controversial decision to notify all operators their leases wouldn’t be renewed. Those business owners had the opportunity to apply for a new lease so long as they went through a public request-for-proposal, or RFP, process.
But the RFP didn’t take a conventional bid-for-space approach. The island authority defined the types of businesses it wanted and where those retailers would go. That meant longtime operators faced moving to a new space as part of the new lease.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
As a result, the district’s new candy and ice cream emporium, Jekyll Island Sweets, is in a different location in the new District Shops than Pier Road’s former ice cream parlor, the Islands Sweet Shoppe. The Islands Sweet Shoppe’s operator, Doc Dougherty, chose not to submit an RFP. Jekyll Island Sweets is run by Sharon Clark, who also owns a candy and ice cream business on St. Simons Island.
Four other District Shops spaces were not part of the RFP process. The authority and partners operate a Christmas-themed retailer, an outdoors activities outfitter, a portrait studio and a Georgia Grown foods store along Pier Road now.
As part of the glow-up, the authority invested $200,000 in landscape, streetscape and cottage enhancements and introduced the Lost Buildings Trail, a quarter-mile-long walking path that links the Pier Road shops to what was once the Jekyll Island Club Infirmary. The trail includes interpretive signage that notes the locations of other cottages and service buildings that stood during the Club era but were removed after the state purchased Jekyll out of bankruptcy in 1947.
The improvements complement the immaculate groundskeeping of the Jekyll Island Club, which has operated as a historic resort hotel since 1985.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Bo Mann with Wake Up Coffee Company credited the island authority for its vision for The District Shops. He tried for years to put a Wake Up location in the Beach Village, Jekyll’s other retail center located next to the convention center, and was initially skeptical when he learned of plans to revamp Pier Road and include a coffee shop.
“But the way it turned it, Pier Road already feels familiar,” said Mann, who has two Wake Up locations in Brunswick and one on St. Simons Island in addition to the new Jekyll store. “You have local businesses with local flair. This is a Jekyll kind of vibe.”
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