Plans aired for vacant bank lobby

If the city’s alcoholic beverage ordinance can be adjusted, the lobby of the former Wells Fargo Bank on Cathedral Place could become a venue similar to Boston’s “Faneuil Hall Marketplace”, which contains a mix of shops, pushcarts, full service restaurants, and food stalls.

According to comments before the St Augustine city commission last week, the Cathedral Place Office Building’s local attorney, George McClure, suggested that the remodeled market could become a possibility so long as the necessary revisions could be made to the downtown ordinance.

McClure said the Cathedral Place building owners called him “to consult on the adaptive rehabilitation of the first floor” after Wells Fargo Bank announced plans to move across the plaza to the former F. W. Woolworth building, now owned by Trinity Episcopal Parish.

While the adjacent Cathedral Basilica of St Augustine “doesn’t object,” McClure said, “the challenge is the ordinance prohibiting sales within 100 feet of a church or school.”

At the end of the meeting, Commissioner Don Crichlow suggested a “waiver clause” allowing churches to approve such sales — if they are part of a restaurant, rather than simply a bar.

City Attorney Ron Brown will prepare options for the commission.