Couple of things:
OBG, Orange Blossom Gardens, is what The Villages was before they renamed it The Villages. It's now known as the Historic Area, the three villages on the other side of 441: Orange Blossom Garden, Country Club Hills, and Silver Lake. It's up across from Spanish Springs Town Square.
Also, there are new homes being built near Spanish Springs by the developer. Memories are short around here but there was a huge to-do, major lawsuits, fights between the town and the Developer and residents, with regards to the former Hacienda Country Club property. The new pool and walking trails and some other parts of the recreation area are already up, and they're working on the rest of it. In addition, the apartments in the building that used to be Katie Bell's aren't rented yet. It would be in the Developer's best interest to maintain or improve the current vacancy situation in the Square.
I'm not overly concerned about modernization, bringing in a "younger" set of stores. In fact I'd look forward to it. Spanish Springs has been marketed to people who were 60 in the 1980's. Any of those people who are still alive, likely don't go shopping in the the squares anymore. They need to update their retail offerings to appeal to people my age or younger (late Boomers to early GenXers), or they will completely lose touch with their revenue stream.
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