High-end retailers bring glitz and glamour to parts of 17-92 in Winter Park.
A new high-money retail corridor is budding in northern Winter Park, set to rival some of the region’s biggest shopping destinations with its own flavor appropriate to the city.
While developers have been working for years to give new life to the area of U.S. 17-92 near Lee Road, an emerging high-end shopping district will be anchored by stores such as Whole Foods, Nordstrom Rack and REI.
“There are a lot of reasons that high-end stores would pick this area, especially considering how close it is to other richer areas such as Lake Mary and Heathrow,” said Kevin Murphy, an associate professor at UCF who studies the retail and restaurant industries. “These kinds of stores don’t compete; they complement one another.”
High-end retailers such as Nordstrom and REI are growing and building stores nationwide, while mainstream retailers such as Wal-Mart have announced plans to close stores in the com- ing year. Murphy said that’s because the income of the upper class is growing while middleand lower-class consumers are stagnating.
There isn’t any coordinated effort to bring certain types of retail to that area of Winter Park, said Dori Stone, director of planning and community development for Winter Park.
“But when you spend nearly $1 million an acre for property like we are seeing, there is pressure to put something in that is going to earn its money back,” Stone said.
In Winter Park, Whole Foods and Nordstrom Rack stores are slated to open in the fourth quarter of 2016, creating a nearly 1-mile stretch of up-and-coming shopping between Trader Joe’s and the Maitland city line.
The new shopping could be accompanied by urban-style apartment buildings, creating a mix of shoppers, restaurants and stores.
Dan Bellows has been buying property in the area for nearly 15 years and said interest is grow-
ing from high-end retailers and restaurants hoping to cash in on the favorable demographics of the area.
“I’ve turned away a lot of fast-food restaurants and strip-mall developments over the years knowing that it would become something more when the time was right,” said Bellows, who helped develop the Ravaudage center that includes TR Fire Grill and Miller’s Ale House restaurants.
His future plans call for more restaurant and retail space, as well as apartment buildings to house seniors with families in Winter Park in Maitland.
“We love seeing 17-92 being cleaned up,” Bellows said. “We are back at the higher end of the business cycle where stores want to expand and banks are willing to lend.”
Bellows’ company still owns several acres north of the Ravaudage buildings. He said crews are doing underground utility and site work to build more retail.
With so much new retail in a 1-mile stretch, Winter Park officials are using the growth to demand sidewalks and bike lanes, Stone
“We love seeing 17-92 being cleaned up.” Dan Bellows, a developer who has been buying property in the area for nearly 15 years
said.
“We don’t really have a master plan that sets specific standards other than on Park Avenue, but we are trying to work with everyone to make that area more pedestrian-friendly,” Stone said.
Traffic is a growing concern along U.S. 17-92, one of the region’s primary northsouth travel routes with construction on I-4.
An extension for Lee Road is planned through the Winter Park Square development. After crossing east of U.S. 17-92, Lee Road would curve south to drop traffic onto Webster Road. The city also revised its parking standards to handle the influx of new retail.
“There isn’t much room left there for new development after what’s already in the works, but what we are seeing is more existing retail being renovated with new tenants,” Stone said.
Some other existing shopping centers could get an upgrade as well in the coming months.
The company that owns the former Kmart building at Lee Road and U.S. 17-92 has submitted plans to add 10,000 square feet of new retail, as well as remodel the buildings that include crafts retailer Michael’s and Office Depot. It would also include new signs facing the roads and an upgrade to landscaping in the parking lot.
Winter Park Square, future home to Whole Foods and Nordstrom Rack, has plans for two restaurant or retail spots near the road and another 8,000 square feet for shops.
Up Development is in discussions with a handful of national high-end brands, but also wants to bring in independent shops and farm-to-table restaurants, principal Scott Fish said.
The retailers headed to Winter Park, Fish said, are in a different category from those in nearby Winter Springs or along Colonial Drive in Orlando.
“There’s definitely a flight to retail and Winter Park has a very high barrier to entry,” he said.