Residents living in the West Villages neighborhoods of Venice, Florida will soon have a much easier time with their shopping. A major retail center is planned for the area, and ground has broken on the latest Mattamy Homes project. The developers are hoping to create more than a residential community – they want to build a town.
West Villages Housing Communities
The retail center will be especially beneficial to residents of IslandWalk West Villages and Renaissance at West Villages, which have more than 1,800 single-family and attached homes and 120 single-family homes, respectively. Active adults living or thinking about buying in these communities will find it easier to run errands and do their grocery shopping.
Retail and Restaurant Establishments
The retail center’s anchor will be a 47,000 square-foot Publix grocery store. The center will be called Marketplace, and in addition to Publix, residents can enjoy easy access to banks, hair salons, a gas station, a dry cleaner, and other service-related businesses. Quick take-out restaurants as well as casual sit-down restaurants will move in, and shoppers will have many choices in the Marketplace complex.
Competition for space has been high, and the developers report that several fast food chains were turned down in an effort to make this retail center a little different and focused on what residents in the West Villages really want.
Unique Design and Quality Architecture
The theme of this shopping center will be inspired by the West Indies. According to a West Villages spokesperson, the Publix will look unlike any other Publix found in south Florida. It won’t be the typical strip-mall setting and instead will be what the West Villages refers to as “foresight architecture.”
The Marketplace will be easy to find and reach; on the corner of U.S. 41 and West Villages Parkway. Builders expect the project to be completed and open for business in November of 2019.
Future Plans for West Villages
The Marketplace is not where the vision ends.
Mattamy Homes is also planning a Town Center, which is several years away and still in the design phase. With help from the Army Corps of Engineers, permits are being gathered to build a 60-acre lake so residents and visitors can enjoy waterfront activities, public green space, and a place to relax while they’re dining and shopping.
Helping to support the idea that this will be a comfortable and desirable gathering place for the entire community is the new spring training facility for the Atlanta Braves. The facility will continue to be used in the West Villages, even after baseball’s spring training season gives way to regular season play. The park will stay open all year long, and people can visit for dinners and drinks at the tiki bar. Concerts and movies will be scheduled, and it will serve as a premier site for a local farmer’s market.
Infrastructure hasn’t been forgotten and as the West Villages master-planned community continues to grow, so does construction on roads. Sidewalks are being installed and parks, walking trails, and bike paths are also complementing all the new development.
