I love this place and have utmost respect for the developers.
However, I think one of the biggest mistakes they have ever made was to close the Southern Lifestyles store at Lake Sumter Landing and allowing that junky City Furniture to assume the huge, happy customer base.
Also, the reduction of beautiful retail space on the square, by removing Southern Lifestyles and putting the district office in the store space is terrible. Yes, the district offices should have moved to the more central location, but not into that prime retail space where new home buyers and long-time villagers loved to shop. The district office should have been placed on the back loop behind the square and to the west of Winn Dixie, the investment group, urgent care, etc.
Loss of retail on the square is really bad, and then allowing the junky furniture dealer in down the street turns off shoppers even more. We have bought lots of furniture here, and quickly took all our business to Babettes, Family Furniture, and White Furniture.
Having 3 thriving downtowns with retailers open every night till 9pm is what sets TV apart from all other cities whose downtowns died to the malls. We wrote this in the annual survey.
Is anybody listening??
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