Is Spanish Springs dieing slowly
 

Spanish Springs is slowly dieing, most of the shops, bars, restaurants are closed. Is anything happening to revitalized it ?

SOME businesses are closed, not most. Hard to state whether or not it is DYING

:sigh::sigh:

I guess you missed this thread with 74 posts answering your question.
???
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...panish+springs

He was probably thrown off by the spelling. Though I must say, I think Spain-ish is a more accurate representaton.

Slowly? Nah...its dead fast!

recession coming vs dead?

Inflationary effects vs lagging income effects?
(inflation happens during the year, and the annual adjustment comes after the inflation has already hit your spending)

Age transition from the original TV concept to the current age, does take time, a good 10 years. Our friends bought near SS from a seller who moved into assisted living. . . great outdoor living versus today's models, more spacious land area with pool, spa, outdoor kitchen. .

Yes, I think this. ^^^ Economies are cyclical - that has always been the case.

An anecdotal example I can offer is that I was visiting TV for three week last year at exactly this time and stayed in the SS area. I now live here. I see a noticeable difference in the lesser traffic on 441 and lower attendance at SS Town Square in the evenings. If someone were to measure it, that effect is likely true all over TV.

The last several years of inflationary pressures have caught up with peoples wallets. They have less savings to use for discretionary activities.

There was also that unique "pandemic" event in 2020-2022 that caused plenty of people from states helmed by Governors with draconian policies to begin looking elsewhere for a possible/actual move. That pressure has eased which is likely resulting in lower visitation to TV.

There is substantial population both north and south of SS (50,000+?) to support it. So, it'll come back when personal and national economics improve.

Time will tell

Say the ladies are insane there
And they sure know how to use it

Give it time
 

Give it some time maybe?

We are undergoing a strong downturn on home values in the Villages.
Can interest rates change our decline before January 26? As we all know there are houses for sale everywhere. One just has to click on the Villages.com or Zillow and you could view homes all day long. The MLS is hurried with inventory. But, the change of tide could be interest rate changes. Give it till Spring of 26?

The five cities where inventory grew the most between January 2024 and January 2025 were Palatka (up 34.3 percent with 435 active listings), Wauchula (up 32.8 percent with 77), Naples (up 28.6 percent with 7,932), Fort Lauderdale (up 27.2 percent with 19,440), and The Villages.

In all these cities a significant share of sellers have lowered their originally asked price, hoping to encourage buyers.

According to Zillow data, there were 288 homes for sale in the Palatka market as of Tuesday morning, 74 of which had a price reduction. In Wauchula, there were 61, of which six had their price slashed by sellers. In Naples, there were 8,043 homes listed for sale, 2,731 of which had a price reduction. In Fort Lauderdale, 3,249 were listed for sale, 830 of which had their originally listed price cut by sellers.

In The Villages, 290 homes listed for sale had price cuts, out of a total of 713 (excluding FSBO of 23.). Then there are another 800 VLS preowned.

There will be a turnaround sooner or later and then Spanish Springs will again be a more desirable retail area.

Personally, I live south of 44 and barely even go to Lake Sumter Landing. I’d never go to Spanish Springs. Too far. Brownwood and Sawgrass Grove are packed all the time. I’d go to Sawgrass more often but it’s always so crowded.

Very typical, we stay in our bubble when we are seniors!

As Yogi used to say, nobody goes there anymore its too crowded

Most are not closed and it is not dying.

I will have to totally agree.. The last several years of outrageous inflation has hit all middle class families. Especially us retired senior citizens. As such our "fun" funds has lowered and going out for food is part of that. Add to that the great infrastructure of business on 441 or 466 offer a large amount of competition for those remaining "fun" funds.

All we can do is keep shopping at Spanish Springs and hopefully the developers will lower rent prices to help support the business.

Sawgrass is packed every night. You have to arrive early to get a seat or bring your own. I haven’t been over to Brownwood lately, but I assume it’s still packed like Sawgrass. South of 44 is still hoppin.

Is it more related to the average age of the population. Are more younger people buying South? I am 80 living in Spanish Springs. I am not as active as I was 55-75.

I wonder if there is any published information or statistics regarding the age demographics of the various town squares?
I’ll bet that the Spanish Springs area is an older population then the others.

Spanish Springs Is Great!
 

We live near Sawgrass. We have no issue traveling over to Spanish Springs, I love the drive in the cart on a nice night. We went last Sunday for lunch at our favorite Italian. Place was packed in the afternoon on a Sunday. We see great shows there at the Sharon. Two of the best restaurants are over there. I love it there, it makes me remember the first time I saw it and why we chose to live here. Nothing is that far away really. It's all perspective. I lived in CT and upstate NY prior to here. Had to drive far to do anything. Had to take a train to the City to do a Show and dinner! I can do a Show and dinner on my golf cart! Nothing is perfect. Change happens. They just made some nice changes to Spanish Springs. I think each Town Square has a little something different. Try to find the good in things...excited for Eastport. I love it here and I work full time so I don't even get to do all the things!

Just to look at numbers, there are 10 open eateries in Spanish Springs Square and if you include La Plaza Grand (which is basically connected) that number goes up to 19 eateries.

Counting all the same type of eateries, Sumter Landing has 15.

So, I wouldn’t say Spanish Springs is dying.

On the contrary, I see Spanish Springs square going through a rebirth.

The new Genesis gym that took over the old movie house has been a shot in the arm. The old gym across the street is being redeveloped. ( some say it will become apartments, but I have not seen anything authoritative). Restaurants come and go, but they have a good selection of decent options there.

The layout of the residential areas is nice and there are a lot of mature trees. You can call it the “historic section” all you want, but the downside to me is that a whole lot of the housing in that area is comprised of mobile homes. After living in a mobile home in St. Pete for a few years, I will never again live in one. YMMV.

The old timers lament the loss of Katie Belle’s and the movie theatre, but if either were profitable, I’m sure they’d still be there. Times and tastes change.

Living in the Fenny area, I would only go to SS square if there were really a band I wanted to see. Otherwise, I can get everything in the way of entertainment/dining Lake Sumter landing south.

We drove our golf cart up there once just to say we did it. Never again. I generally won't take my golf cart north of Brownwood. Who wants to do a two hour+ round trip in a golf cart? I like my kidneys more than that.

Spanish Springs
 

I think Spanish Springs is in transition from mobile homes and older residents to younger residents. It takes time. There are some selling points to Spanish Springs. For example:

Bigger lots
Less expensive homes
Lower bonds
Mature growth

The Villages is deserting the ‘older side’
 

They are revitalizing the ‘Spanish Springs Town Center” hoping to bring in residents from all the apartments they are building outside of The Villages. Not Villagers. You are correct about the manufactured homes, they have stopped buying them and building site built. The new ‘Rec’ center was to have been started and finished by now but ground hasn’t even been broken! The bridge over 441 is atrociously filthy. Do you see any signs advertising ‘The Historic Side’, absolutely not because it needs updating and new homes to appeal to new residents.

Everything and everyone begins to start slowly dying immediately after inception.

Rents are too expensive given the limited traffic that Spanish Springs attracts.

Reality is sometimes imperfect
 

As the average age of residents near Spanish Springs increases, they go out less and spend less money in stores and restaurants. Businesses close.

It's not clear what "the developer" can do about this, other than reduce rents which I assume they have already done in their own self-interest - low rent is better than no rent.

Eventually the older residents will move or die, and younger residents will move in, revitalizing SS.

I wish they would get rid of the putt putt at Sawgrass and put another actual restaurant or strictly golf cart parking. I love the putt putt but maybe relocate it.

I'm not sure the point. How to budget is actually something you dealt with all your life and continue to do in retirement. Some spend more than the can or should. Others spend less than they can. Old saying man plans and god laughs.

Recession coming. The ?EXPERTS? have been saying this for YEARS. Sooner of later they will be right. Far as a seller who moved into assisted living. One thing you can be sure of. Tomorrow you will either be one day older or on your way to be planted-that you can be sure of..

Very dynamic economy in that area. Particularly with thousands of families populating the Middleton area.

Middleton has several new Restaurants and businesses in final stages of staffing and stocking.

Eastport will follow about a year behind.

SS has been dead for a while. Old homes, a lot of traffic, older residents, and the styles of the homes are quite dated. I hate the sssllloooowwww Morse speed north of 466.
The villages are not in a downturn spiral, far from it. Everybody I know that is selling their home south of 44 is asking for $200k more for their house than what they bought it for 3 years ago. The villages sells every new home they build in Eastport and there could be 100’s of people in the lottery for each of the new homes for sale. My friends list out on 5-7 homes due to the large lottery before they won to build in Eastport.
Now if somebody is asking for a $200k-$300k more for their 3 year old house and they have to take an offer $50k less, that’s not a downward spiraling housing market.

Also, at our age, why would you be impacted by higher interest rates, or inflation? I would be think at our age we would be prepared for the his type of thing, or assisted living costs, maybe more medical costs, higher travel costs, and positioned your portfolio so it would be fairly safe in bad times. The market doesn’t always go up and we can have recessions every so many years that can last a few years.

I prefer Spanish Springs. Brownwood and Sawgrass are too far and I prefer less crowds. I love Spanish Springs.

Have the opposite problem as I live 1/2 mile from SS and south of 44 is like driving to another county/city and go to same type of establishments. TV is now about 20 miles end to end,

Been to Sawgrass and it is much smaller than SS and therefore with a smaller crowd it can be more crowded. Need to come to SS on the 3rd Saturday of the month. Great car show with 200+/- cars, i

Mostly agree, 3 restaurants closed down in last 1-2 years and all 3 spaces remain un occupied. Restaurant owners probably do not want to try and open a new biz because too much supply and lessening demand (not a lot new residential property) Gym re opening has created more traffic and developers might need to be more creative in marketing these closed restaurants,

Can't tell how many times I have heard this but has anybody actually stated what the rent is for TV property vs non TV rental rates. Would love to see actual numbers

Margarita Republic was a filthy, disgusting place with a lot of outsider troublemakers. Cop calls were a regular occurrence. Good riddance.

World of Beer filed bankruptcy—the entire company. Yes, some locations remain open, but the bankruptcy wasn't related just to Spanish Springs.

Gators was more a bar than anything else. Plenty of other spots to get a drink.

100% correct on Margarita Republic. We went there 1 time, looked around and left. Dirty and obviously not well run.

Sawgrass is proof that having a "square" share a location/parking with a rec center and other activities is probably a bad idea.

I think Eastport is going to become a nightmare in comparison for that reason.

I saw a video on Ladies of the Lanai. They interviewed a man on the progress of Eastport. He said people are going to be surprised. It is much smaller than anticipated.If you take away the hotel, rec center, sales center, and health/wellness center there is not much more. He also stated parking spaces are very limited. I guess we will have to wait and see!