NewsLine staff
Family-owned burger chain Tasty’s Fresh Burgers will close its Wildlight store after the close of business Aug. 23, according to the Jacksonville Business Journal. Owners Chad and Katy Dougherty let the lease expire rather than renew, making it the second hospitality business to leave the Wildlight development in the past year due to high rent, the Business Journal reported.
“The exorbitantly high rent burden in this area definitely factored into my decision. A lot of businesses in the Wildlight area are small businesses like myself and the high cost of doing business in this area will continue to be impactful,” Dougherty told the Business Journal in an email.
The company’s other three locations will remain open, according to a social media post cited by the Business Journal. “While this location is finishing its story, Tasty’s is not going anywhere! Our other locations will remain open and we hope you will continue making memories with us there,” the post read.
The Doughertys founded the original Tasty’s Fresh Burgers at 710 Centre St. in Fernandina Beach in December 2011, inspired by Chad Dougherty’s grandmother and her 1960s burger joint, The Freezette, according to a Nassau County profile cited by the Business Journal. The restaurant later expanded to Yulee in May 2016, Wildlight in September 2019 and Kingsland, Georgia, in November 2019. The Wildlight location opened just months before pandemic shutdowns, and the Doughertys avoided laying off any employees during that time, according to the Business Journal.
“We are especially grateful for every staff member who has been part of this location over the last seven years,” the social media post read. “Tasty’s has always been about more than just burgers and fries — it is about the people behind the counter and the community on the other side of it. We could not have done any of this without them or you!”
The Wildlight closure follows Mocama Beer Company’s August 2025 exit from the development, when the brewery could not reach a lease extension agreement with Rayonier, the Business Journal reported.
