Coastal Cookies was a centerpiece at the Jacksonville Landing for years before the Downtown mall closed in 2019 and was demolished.
The cookie store with a homemade taste survives under the new name of First Coast Cookies, which opened in 2019.
Michelle Rhoades was owner of the Hana & Her Sister jewelry store in the Landing for about 30 years, about the same time span as Coastal Cookies.
When the cookie shop closed and its owners decided not to relocate, Rhoades bought the equipment, changed the name and moved into the food court at Regency Square Mall at 9501 Arlington Expressway.
The Regency Square store opened Nov. 23, 2019, and sells cookies, cookie cakes, hot dogs and coffee.
She said she spent less than $50,000 on the Coastal Cookies equipment
Rhoades acknowledged the move was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire as the 55-year-old Regency shopping mall has struggled.
However, the popularity of First Coast Cookies is one of the main draws to the mall’s food court.
“It is so much fun,” she said.
Rhoades said she didn’t have to invest “a ton of money” to try the Regency store. She said she will stay there until she can’t.
“On the weekends, we have lines here” waiting to order cookies, she said.
Rhoades said her shop thrives as she draws customers from around Northeast Florida.
“People come in just to get cookies. It’s amazing,” she said.
“Jewelry was great. I was dealing with diamonds and gold and precious commodities. Now, it’s totally different with flour and sugar.”
The wide geographic draw of customers is why Rhoades said she is confident in expanding to a second location at 4610 San Juan Ave. on Jacksonville’s Westside.
She hopes to have the 1,956-square-foot second First Coast Cookies location open in October.
Rhoades said it is a personal investment and she did not take out any business loans.
She formed The Randstar Group LLC in April and bought the property for $550,000 in June.
The Westside location could be the launch of bigger plans.
“My vision ideally is to open up at least one (store) every year. I’m not sure if I will franchise it. But I don’t want to lose sight of what First Coast Cookies is,” she said.
She sees it as a local favorite.
Rhoades said she was emboldened to open the second location because of the geographic reach of customers from her small, 746-square-foot location at Regency Square.
“We have people coming from Middleburg” as well as other locations from outside of Duval County, she said.
She has five employees at the mall and anticipates hiring at least seven at the new store, which is designed to be a destination location.
“We’re going to do ice cream (products). We’ll do hot dogs and we do hot dogs here (at Regency). We’re going to keep everything simple,” Rhoades said.
“We’ll do a little bit of coffee options like iced coffee.”
She said she will add food trucks in the San Juan parking lot.
“I want to make it kind of a community type of thing. Food trucks in the lunch hour and dinner. Then on the weekends, we want to make it kind of the place to go,” Rhoades said.
If the San Juan location takes off, Rhoades will likely target North Jacksonville for another shop. She said a lot of customers from that area patronize the Regency location.
“It’s kind of impossible (to predict),” she said.
“But I’d love to do Mandarin and I’d really like to do Intracoastal West.”
