What if there was land in the Downtown DeLand corridor available for development? What if you wanted to take a small portion of your Powerball winnings, or were given a blank check to develop a property type of your choice?
What would you build? What could you build?
We’re experiencing an exciting time in the life of DeLand, FL. In the past couple of years we’ve had new restaurants and retailers open, a brewery, corporate tenants bringing big brands, the growth of Artisan Alley, redevelopment of the Athens Theater, and much more. In our opinion, this growth is been crucial to the continued success of Downtown DeLand and echoes the fervor of our small town pride. (Anyone remember this competition?)
So what would you add to the mix? Would you like to see a particular new restaurant downtown? What about a residential development so people could live and work in the downtown core? What about a mixed-use, new urbanism style development that combined both?
The mixed-use concept is certainly one of our favorites. Without taking away from the small town charm and historic elements of downtown we believe such a development could work. A mixed-use concept typically is anchored at the ground floor with a retail space (think restaurant, or shop) as to not detract from the foot traffic in a walkable area. Above the retail space are a few floors of apartments or condos, ready for residents excited about living downtown. This is not all to dissimilar from the buildings already in downtown, just on a slightly larger scale.
What’s interesting about new urbanism style developments is that they are often created to mimic a small town, close knit community such as DeLand (think Celebration, Avalon Park). What’s different about DeLand is that we have “the real McCoy”. In the case of downtown DeLand, a mixed-use building would serve to continue the vivacity already in existence, not artificially create it.
Now what could you do? Most of the zoning in downtown DeLand is a commercial classification (C-2) with a couple of overlay districts (A, H). This classification is generous to development and different uses, while keeping certain restrictions on the historic buildings of downtown (H = Historic). As far as some of the aforementioned possible uses, the sky is almost the limit (well technically 80ft of building height…).
Ready to stop dreaming and start doing? We may have some opportunities for you…
Prime Downtown DeLand Assemblage
Let’s continue to conversation, contact us to discuss more about real estate in Downtown DeLand!