Village D - "Main Street Village"

We all heard about the Publix shopping center coming soon to a neighborhood near us soon. In fact, we've been "hearing" about this since around 2009 for those of us who have lived in the West Villages for that long. At long last, it looks like this may be a reality by perhaps early to mid-2019 (my best guess; not the developers date).

Again, for those of us that have been around since near the beginning we recall the great recession of 2008 and the impact it had on the country and us locally. The original master developer, Fourth Quarter Properties from Georgia, went belly up as did the developer for Gran Paradiso (Sam Rogers). Now that there is a new master developer for West Villages (Mattamy Homes from Canada) and a resurgence in the real estate market, things are looking up. One left over eye sore from the great recession is about 160 acres located at the northwest corner of West Villages Parkway and US 41. Fourth Quarter tried to "hold on" to this land when it sold the remainder of the district to Mattamy Homes about 3 years ago; but the land remains encumbered by perhaps more than $40 million in debt and back taxes.....an amount much greater than even the current market value of the land. Hence, this original location for a Publix shopping center remains vacant and is now surrounded by new development (Gran Paradiso, Renaissance and the "new" proposed Village D shopping center across the street at the southwest corner of the intersection.

Now comes Village D - Main Street Village. The proposed development just cleared the North Port Planning and Zoning review board in August and will soon appear on the North Port City Commission agenda for a final approval. I believe there is one more public comment meeting that must be held before things are finalized; but my guess is ground will be broken on this project before the end of this year.

You can read/review the full Village D Plan of Development <HERE>.