Lilly Johnson said she gets plenty of visitors to her downtown Sanford antique store, but she’d like even more.
“New businesses, new areas, new homes. Why not? There’s plenty of room for everybody,” said Johnson.
And there will be a lot more room after the city tears down an old shopping center. It’s the last building standing on three blocks of city-owned space in downtown Sanford between First Street and Lake Monroe.
Several people walking around downtown asked about the project, and most of them were surprised, and seemed excited, about what the city is doing.
“It’s very seldom you get an area this large in a downtown area that you can work with. It’s just going to be a large open pallet with a tremendous amount of potential,” said Sanford Deputy City Manager Tom George.
City leaders have come up with a general plan for a development, which would include dozens of living spaces, a hotel, new businesses and a three-story parking garage.
“We’re getting a lot of interest from local developers and out-of-town developers, and they all have different ideas. And I can’t get into details right now, but we’ve had some significant inquiries and proposals,” said George.
With the new development, Sanford city leaders would like to do something they’ve wanted to do for decades, and that’s connect businesses and shops on First Street to downtown Sanford’s waterfront.
“They’ll come here and don’t go down there, or the opposite – they’ll go there and then don’t come down here,” said Johnson.
But Johnson believes the new development will change that, and bring a lot more people into downtown Sanford.
“I’m like oh yeah, I love it. We’re just waiting on it, as quick as they can get their stuff together to roll on it because 100 percent, it’s going to bring a lot more people in here,” said Johnson.
Sanford city leaders said they expect to begin tearing the old shopping center down in late April. That is expected to cost the city about $80,000.