[Davonu]

Originally Posted by Gpsma

Entertainment in the Town Squares is a big selling point for the villages? Really..maybe to the Disco Dannys and Disco Sallies who want to relive their youth with third rate bands.

Three Town Squares..generally always busy. But with a population now of probably 120,000..they only attract those who want to drink and think they dance like Saturday Night Fever.

Most people who have lived here a while could care less about the town squares unless they are there to dine.

This almost sounds like troll stuff. Nobody who has spent any time in The Villages can actually believe this.

What an attitude!!

[Dotneko]

Originally Posted by Davonu

This almost sounds like troll stuff. Nobody who has spent any time in The Villages can actually believe this.

What an attitude!!

We have lived here almost 2 years now. The times we go to the squares are to eat, visit the stores and go to the Brownwood farmers market on Saturday mornings. Listen to music - twice for about 5 minutes. Not interested. We go to driveway parties if we want to hear someone play and chat with our neighbors. The music on the squares was not a selling feature to us.
Oh, we go to Spanish Springs to bowl. We live in St Cats.

[npwalters]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

The Developer doesn’t need nightly entertainment in Spanish Springs to attract home buyers anymore. All the development is many miles south. Little marketing benefit would be lost in discontinuing nightly entertainment or events like the monthly drive-in. Those enjoying those events are probably already Villages homeowners, or residents of surrounding communities.

By discontinuing nightly entertainment at Spanish Springs the entire town square could be re-purposed to a large, attractive parking lot. It could be gated with assigned spaces for use by renters in the planned apartments as well as the rumored apartments in the two stories of existing health club space in the La Riena Building. Parking for new apartment renters? Solved! Complaints from renters about too much noise? Solved!

If the movie theatres are re-purposed into a re-located health club as rumored, the main entrance could be in the rear, with parking spaces immediately behind the theater space made private, gated, for use by health club members only.

Complaints would be temporary, coming only from those not likely to be new home buyers. All the businesses in the area, including the Developer-owned Sharon, would likely view the idea favorably. Of course, the Developer owns all the commercial space in the area, so commercial renters would view the idea of less parking pressure very favorably.

New apartments on two floors of the La Riena building is based on a rumor, but it makes sense based on health club employees already having been told of the relocation plan to the theatre space when the health club lease in the La Riena building expires.

Negatives to the idea?

Wow! I hope this was intended as satire.

[Davonu]

Originally Posted by Dotneko

We have lived here almost 2 years now. The times we go to the squares are to eat, visit the stores and go to the Brownwood farmers market on Saturday mornings. Listen to music - twice for about 5 minutes. Not interested. We go to driveway parties if we want to hear someone play and chat with our neighbors. The music on the squares was not a selling feature to us.
Oh, we go to Spanish Springs to bowl. We live in St Cats.

I think there are quite a few people like you. But the “MOST people don’t like the third rate bands at the squares” post I couldn’t disagree with more.

Plus I will admit I feel a little bit sorry for folks who can’t get a little enjoyment from going to the squares and listening to and dancing to those third rate bands.

It’s fun!! And I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels that way!

[Smalley]

Replacing the pretty square with it's fountains and plantings with a parking lot would degrade the appearance of Spanish Springs to a great degree. The square is the focal point.

[npwalters]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

The Developer doesn’t need nightly entertainment in Spanish Springs to attract home buyers anymore. All the development is many miles south. Little marketing benefit would be lost in discontinuing nightly entertainment or events like the monthly drive-in. Those enjoying those events are probably already Villages homeowners, or residents of surrounding communities.

By discontinuing nightly entertainment at Spanish Springs the entire town square could be re-purposed to a large, attractive parking lot. It could be gated with assigned spaces for use by renters in the planned apartments as well as the rumored apartments in the two stories of existing health club space in the La Riena Building. Parking for new apartment renters? Solved! Complaints from renters about too much noise? Solved!

If the movie theatres are re-purposed into a re-located health club as rumored, the main entrance could be in the rear, with parking spaces immediately behind the theater space made private, gated, for use by health club members only.

Complaints would be temporary, coming only from those not likely to be new home buyers. All the businesses in the area, including the Developer-owned Sharon, would likely view the idea favorably. Of course, the Developer owns all the commercial space in the area, so commercial renters would view the idea of less parking pressure very favorably.

New apartments on two floors of the La Riena building is based on a rumor, but it makes sense based on health club employees already having been told of the relocation plan to the theatre space when the health club lease in the La Riena building expires.

Negatives to the idea?

Well, I tihink we should take this to it's logical conclusion if we use the OPs logic (which I still hope was tongue in cheek). Sumter County has already rolled over to allow apartments in Sumter Landing. There are no new houses being built in that area. So let's close that square too!

The new venue south of the turnpike will be ready in a couple of years so when that happens lets close Brownwood. They will be built out in that area.

When the development ends south of the turnpike.....close down the entertainment venue. After all, its a business and nothing is owed to the current residents.

[Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by mtdjed

There will be 16 parking spaces dedicated for apartment dwellers and their guests.

If everything I read about Katie Belle's popularity is true, the many customers surely took up a lot more than 16 parking spaces every day, all day long. With KB gone, what's the problem?

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

If everything I read about Katie Belle's popularity is true, the many customers surely took up a lot more than 16 parking spaces every day, all day long. With KB gone, what's the problem?

The problem is those visitors to the tavern weren't guaranteed the same spot, that no one else was allowed to occupy, 24/7.

Residents with reserved parking will mean that no one else will be allowed to park in those spaces, at all, any time of day or night.

Katie Belles wasn't open 24/7. It opened some time in the afternoon and shut down at whatever time it shut down for the night. So people coming in the morning to enjoy the square, maybe go to Dunkin Donuts, or just enjoy a walk around the area, all had the opportunity to occupy those spaces. With reserved parking, even if the tenant isn't there for a couple of months - no one else will be allowed to park there.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Jayhawk

If everything I read about Katie Belle's popularity is true, the many customers surely took up a lot more than 16 parking spaces every day, all day long. With KB gone, what's the problem?

But, they didn’t have reserved parking out front, they to find spot like everyone else going to square. I don’t see why apartment dwellers can’t park behind buildings. I wouldn’t want to leave my car sitting on square all time. But, that’s me.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Davonu

This almost sounds like troll stuff. Nobody who has spent any time in The Villages can actually believe this.

What an attitude!!

Only sounds like that to vacationer’s, majority of villager’s full time resident’s don’t go to squares that much, otherwise there would be 50K plus at squares nightly. It’s get old for most of use that are not drunks or womanizer’s.

[Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

But, they didn’t have reserved parking out front, they to find spot like everyone else going to square. I don’t see why apartment dwellers can’t park behind buildings. I wouldn’t want to leave my car sitting on square all time. But, that’s me.

And now hundreds of patrons are NOT going there every day. Think of all the spots that open up. Truth is, parking is not a problem and won't be even with apartments.

[npwalters]

The ignorance displayed on this thread amazes me.

[Davonu]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

Only sounds like that to vacationer’s, majority of villager’s full time resident’s don’t go to squares that much, otherwise there would be 50K plus at squares nightly. It’s get old for most of use that are not drunks or womanizer’s.

Nobody is saying the majority of Villagers go every night or even any particular frequency. But I do believe the vast majority like the entertainment at the squares as a very desirable feature of The Villages and attend it as often as they wish too…many, like us, multiple times per week. We might stay for 10 minutes or a couple hours or more.

And as far as the multiple comments about going to the squares equals getting drunk and being obnoxious…methinks they doth protest too much.

[justjim]

You could build a four story parking garage in place of the current paved lot (parking solved) and keep the Square intact. I have no crystal ball and have no idea if a parking garage is on the table but I don’t see them taking down Harold Schwartz’s statue and what we know as Town Square at Spanish Springs. Too much history there.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by justjim

You could build a four story parking garage in place of the current paved lot (parking solved) and keep the Square intact. I have no crystal ball and have no idea if a parking garage is on the table but I don’t see them taking down Harold Schwartz’s statue and what we know as Town Square at Spanish Springs. Too much history there.

That's just so adorable - people referring to a 100% artificial, developer-planned 4-square-block commercial property that didn't exist in 1980 as "history."

Meanwhile, back north (the place everyone says all us haters come from) our town was organically built in 1714. The Memorial Town Hall was built in 1886 as a functional monument honoring the men who died in the Civil War. THAT is history.
The only "history" regarding the Villages is that it's testament that a couple of mail-order real estate salesman (Schwartz and his partner Tarrson) could make a fortune selling crappy property as a trailer park near a few orange groves and horse farms. That's it. That's the history.