Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
Many people who visit the squares during the day aren't Villagers at all. The land that all those stores is on, the buildings - they're all owned by the Villages LLC. And they NEED to profit, if they want to stay in business. They might not be interested in developing anymore, but they still own those properties and still have to profit from them. They won't profit if no one wants to lease their vacancies. They'll still have to pay property tax though, whether they have revenue or not.
In addition, all those people who -work- in the area - need a place to be. Spanish Springs is in a very unique position, immediately off 441 - and the opportunity for it to be a destination location rather than a conclave of shops for residents - is enormous. It's absolutely a missed opportunity.
I dunno. Maybe I've just worked in retail and in offices as an "employee" and "consumer" rather than a boss or corporate geek for too long, but my perspective is one of someone who used to serve people in "destination locations" or used to be a customer in those destination locations.
I can see it very easily as being a miniature version of downtown Mt. Dora, minus the boating lake and hills. Antiques and vintage clothing shop, tiny ethnic restaurants, boutique shops, knick-knack stores, small-batch beauty and skin shop, a "make your own ceramics" shop, an old fashioned but small retro-50's Five and Dime with a soda fountain counter... a location that no matter who you are, how old you are, what your budget is, or how often you come, you'll find SOMETHING in at least one store that you'll want to buy and can afford.
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I think you and I are essentially in agreement here, in that we both see that what SS was initially designed to do, and to be, i.e. a place that would make buying a home in TV more attractive by offering music, entertainment, dining, in a cozy, golf cart accessible location, for residents of TV, is no longer working.
The developer that initially built it had a huge stake in making it exciting in order to sell neighborhoods. Now the motivation is simply to be a profitable entity in itself. As it does so, appealing more to a younger population that lives outside of TV will likely make it less appealing to the older folks living in TV.
With some encouragement from the salesforce, perhaps we Villagers have come to think of the squares as something of "ours", and they are not.
This is another aspect of how things change as TV grows. As the population outside of TV grows, the market that the commercial interests around the squares target will be less about residents of TV, and more about the "regular" population around TV. Basically it will depend upon who spends money there.