Just like every other shopping center these days, Alafaya Village is having a tough go finding sustainable tenants. In other words, smallbusiness owners, often sans deep pockets, who can brave the current chill in the economic climate. Although the plaza completed construction less than a year ago, a number of stores already have shut their doors.
Gone are Chutes & Lazers, a kids gym and laser tag center; Best Friends La Pooch Spa and Suites, a dog grooming and boarding place; and two restaurants, Massimo Trattoria and Fontana’s Pizzeria. In addition, Painted by Hue, a ceramics store that was one of the first businesses to move into Alafaya Village when the center opened in 2005, has announced that it will be relocating to Waterford Lakes at the end of the month.
“It’s a tough environment out there. The market has come to a stop for us,” said Blaine Strickland, who heads up Mainsail Development Group, which owns the 51,000-square-foot office-retail park, comprised of six buildings at 2750 S. Alafaya Trail. “I’ve lost five tenants in the last eight months. That’s painful. Vacancy hurts.”
To draw more customers into Alafaya Village, Strickland wants to bring in a national convenience store that would occupy the 8,400-square-foot building out front. But in planning for Alafaya Village in 2003, Strickland sought public input on what kinds of stores the community wanted, and didn’t want. He wasn’t required to go this extra step, but he genuinely wanted the new plaza to be a welcome addition to the community.
“Our intent was to develop a project for neighborhood use and having it integrated into the community,” he explained, noting that was one reason for originally not seeking an anchor store for the center.
By public consensus, however, one of the uses not desired was a convenience store. Consequently, Mainsail Development must seek special approval from the county to have one there now. Strickland said a convenience store, done the right way, would not be objectionable to neighbors. He explained that the well-known chain that has shown interest is undergoing a change in its corporate business plan, dumping the pumping of gas and instead focusing on selling basic food items from its store.
He further vowed that the addition of a convenience store would not alter the way the plaza would look or operate, except that the hours of the convenience store would probably extend earlier and later than other businesses in the center. “They like this space because it can be seen from the road,” he said.
“There’s never going to be gas here. There’s no room for it. It’s going to be a neighborhood market.” However, in order to add a convenience store to the list of allowable uses, Mainsail Development must give up something in return. The trade-off Strickland is proposing would prohibit several uses that would never come to pass anyway, such as a car wash, bed and breakfast, and plant nursery.
The benefits of adding the convenience store would far outweigh any negatives, he added. “I think you’ll find that it will be heavily oriented to the local clientele,” he said. “I think it will become the coffee shop that we’ve always wanted out here.” Annie Winterbottom, president of the East Orlando Chamber of Commerce, which has offices in Alafaya Village, agrees that the convenience store would be a good addition to the plaza.
“I think it would bring more traffic into the center, which would help the other tenants,” she said. The request to allow a convenience store at Alafaya Village is expected to be heard by the county’s Development Review Committee on Aug. 13, and then by the Board of County Commissioners in October.
