I could not disagree more. I have been to Sawgrass many times. Always got a place to park.

And I always have trouble getting a parking place. Especially when something is going on in the Rec Center in the evening.

Sadly, you can't just park a bit farther away and walk...

Sawgrass isn’t a square, but an entertainment center. It was a new concept similar to Edna’s for casual gathering, with food options.

Both Sawgrass and Edna’s do well. SS, LSL, and Brownwood are titled as a “Square”, with retail, offices, some medical, restaurants, and entertainment.

Sawgrass only has entertainment, and food offerings, with only one restaurant, and a food court. I wouldn’t call the pro shop a retailer, but convenience for golfers.

So far I have not read Middleton has the title of “Square”, but a shopping, and restaurant destination.

Eastport is also a shopping, restaurant destination, with old world feel of European, market. So far no label as a “square”

I wonder if “square” concept is a thing of the past. Since all three “squares” are actually built in a Square.

First, I think we have to realize, The Villages is not a go to destination for tourists. Nor do I as a resident want it to be. Town centers are designed for residents. By design The Villages is aging from north to south. It will gradually be refreshed. But what worked yesterday has changed. Movies are out; theater changed to Exercise Club.
What would you think might be the future? What would work? I envision apartments, convenience stores, doctor offices, perhaps some local takeout food, some financial services, a bank.

I don't think it is dying, but perhaps evolving,

Test, If you were searching for a location of a new National Restaurant would you pick Spanish Springs or a site on 441/27?

Limited traffic? SS is located on 441. That has lots of traffic. I'm not sure of your point.

EDIT....just re-read your post. I think you meant foot traffic, not vehicular traffic. Got it!

"Traffic" as in foot traffic: people walking through SS and shopping at the stores. The automobile traffic that flies by on 441 is not the traffic they are referring to.

Sawgrass is not a square really can't be compared to SS. I much prefer Spanish Springs to the food court at Sawgrass. We haven't gone to Sawgrass since our first visit. My absolute favorite square, however, will always be Lake Sumter Landing.

Sounds like Eastport will not have the amount of restaurants and retail that SS, Brownwood and LSL have. Eastport is still considered a "square"?

Funny, I just realized that before I read this post. I added an edit to my previous post. Maybe you didn't see it.

No, I didn't see your edit at 10:14 before I created my post at 7:34.

Spanish Springs Town Square on tap for $1.2 million upgrade

by Staff Report
March 9, 2025

The are obviously reading TOTV, they saw this thread and decided to invest in SS.

:1rotfl::1rotfl:

If they weren’t focusing on more, more, bigger and bigger, they should start taking down those manufactured homes and building new homes there and then it would take off. People who want to buy brand new would have a choice of north vs south.

Just Evict Everyone
 

Sure, just evict everyone, bulldozer, and build again? It’s over in the area, it is what it is. Some of the older houses are being replaced through attrition though.

I have never seen a time when there was zero parking. Even when parking is spilling over to the pool area parking lot. I am there at least three times a week.

The Villages developer was doing that some years back and built several (many?) homes for resale after taking away very old manufactured ones. A TV agent told me about it. They stopped at some point and he didn't know why. Perhaps, they only intended to create the momentum for that while sticking to their primary business of new builds.

Silver Lake, in particular, has some quite old and worn-out manufactured homes. I don't live there but, one time when driving thru, decided to notice how many new homes there were. I defined it as: homes that seemed to be 10 years old or less. In driving about 8 streets and only looking for that...I was surprised how many there were. Quite a lot. The same evolution is occurring in the two other sections of the Historic District as well.

Did the TV agent tell you how the Villages acquired the very old manufactured homes they took down and rebuilt for resale? That might be the key to why they stopped.

He didn't. I assume they bought listed properties or knew they were going to be listed and bought before they were.

There are land lots sometimes for sale on Properties of The Villages and sometimes quite old mfg homes that show-up for sale, quite cheaply. The seller likely realizing it's a tear down.

Where is the eye roll emoji……

They do have some of the lots for sale after they take down the manufactured home. They’re kind of pricey though.

Spanish Springs Will Be Booming
 

If I were retail, I would be hustling to buy into Spanish Springs. The remake AND the HUGE Hammock Oaks development by Ryan Homes will bring almost too much foot traffic to the area.

Spanish Springs …..what’s happening.

What's Coming to Spanish Springs

Well, that video was pretty much all heat and no light...

Bash it all you want, not my story to tell. Offered as another information source.
BTW do you live near SS?

Tornado season had something to do with many of the original trailers damaged beyond repair. Developer made different deals for each section. My aunt lost her mobile home on the golf course from giant oaks. She had options to sell or site build. We also met a few couples who inherited golf front grandparents or parents home, had it removed and site built.

Eventually the historic side will become site built, as mobile homes age out, beyond repair.

This is very much the case. When one drives thru OBG or Silver Lake, their eye tends to notice the very aged residences because they look like yesteryear.

However, if you decide to drive thru and specifically look for newer builds (say, 10 yrs old or less), THEN you'll notice how much newer stuff is there. Quite a lot.

The SS Town Square upgrade will be really nice. Some of us love that it isn't super crowded with lots of traffic. Much nicer that way.

I noticed one last month was being offered at $89,000. Not sure how much it ended up going for but it's not for sale anymore. On the Homefinder page, there's one for $110,000 that's just 4 doors away from the rear of Paradise Rec Center, so it's away from traffic but right next to the activities. There's another on the golf course for $115k.

You can buy a brand new double-wide and have it rolled in and hooked up for under $125,000 - so basically you'd be getting a golf-course home, around 1180 square feet, all brand new floor roof plumbing walls laundry shed electrical hookups and everything else, for only $240,000. Add another $10,000 for all the appliances and furniture, and I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

A quarter of a million
 

Hmmm….a quarter of a million to live in a trailer? Not my kind of deal.

It's not just a trailer. It's a double-wide, so two trailers for that price. BOGO, total deal!

Living in a trailer isn't necessarily the bad part. It's living in an area with people that tend to live in trailers that can be the issue.

Have I mentioned how astute the guy called Bogie Shooter has been for all of the 15 years I have read stuff he says on this forum?????

Too funny
 

Like the wine deals at the grocery store?

They're not trailers. A trailer is a home that gets hitched to a trailer hitch and pulled from the manufacturer to the location, then unhitched.

A mobile home WAS a thing, that is no longer available, its minimum requirements changed some time in the 1980's, and morphed into what is now known as a manufactured home.

A manufactured home is a complete structure, with reinforced walls and roof trusses, that is placed onto a flatbed (or more, for anything beyond single-wides), driven (not pulled) to the lot, and then lowered off the flatbed onto either cinderblocks, concrete slab foundations, or other foundational supports. They are then anchored to the ground, usually with anchors that rise up through the roof and back down onto the other side, so that a hurricane can't just blow the whole thing away. New manufactured homes have to have hurricane-rated windows and doors. They end up almost as sturdy as most wood-frame homes.

You might have your mind back in the 1970's, or in areas of the country where trailer parks were equated with poverty and ill repair. A lot has happened since then. Mostly, evolution. Forward-thinking. New concepts and designs. Better safety standards. The replacement of formica with granite.

I’m all for revitalizing Spanish Springs, but after both reading about the plans in the paper and watching the video I still don’t understand what’s being done to revitalize it? Im not sure how new signage at entry points and on the bridge over 441, enhanced entry features (whatever those are), reimagined storefronts, and expanded outside seating options are going to revitalize the town square. All I heard were a whole bunch of buzzwords without anything meaningful behind them. Now if they said they were going to attract more people to the square by bringing back the weekly farmers market (not the lame Mercado Market), keeping the monthly cruise in, feature some of the most popular bands, that attract the largest crowds, on a regular basis (like Relic), and having frequent festivals there, that would be more meaningful. Anyone who was at the annual St. Patrick’s day event at Spanish Springs knows that the square will draw large crowds if they have featured events there. The problem is that over the years the events have been moved to Brownwood, which is closer to where they are building new homes. My fear is that the bleed of events that attract large crowds is only going to get much worse once Eastport opens up.

I agree with tophcfa in that I didn’t see anything pitched that is going to revitalize SS.

Hope they come up with something. We like driving up there and would like to see things to keep us going there.

You both need to watch the video again. It is there and the newspaper article provided more detail about it.

I'm pretty sure that Spanish Springs will be okay. There is a constant turnover of homes up north as the original owners either leave or pass on and they're not being replaced by 80 or 90 year olds.

It's not as simple as that. Spanish Springs caters to an older demographic and doesn't draw the non-Villages locals like LSL and Brownwood do. We were out for dinner last night at Brownwood in fact at 9pm since we like to eat late. We had to go on a waiting list to go into one of the restaurants that we wanted to dine at, and it would've been the same for most restaurants in the square. Our waiter told us that he used to work at a now defunct restaurant in SS and it was almost completely dependent on Villagers for customers, where Brownwood has a mix of people that from both inside and outside of TV which helps during the "slow" season.

When we've showed up to SS to dine at 9pm it's pretty much shut down and the restaurants are nearly empty.

I think the long strip of chain restaurants near SS doesn't help that situation either.

That is a big loss for the businesses, if true. I guess that would explain the many closures. If locals are going elsewhere, there must be a reason.