Hourglass District

[AndyPok1]

Yeah, I def love trees, but they can be a hindrance.  Gotta find the right balance.

[aent]

8 minutes ago, AndyPok1 said:

Yeah, I def love trees, but they can be a hindrance.  Gotta find the right balance.

Yup. Biggest thing is right tree for the right area. The oak trees can be fine on the sides of the buildings, and are great in parks, open space, and residential areas (as long as kept far enough away from the homes to avoid branches falling into roofs during storms and keeping them far enough away from power lines, as most power outages also seem to be caused by oak trees, along with fires).

Those locations need stuff smaller and narrower. Realistically I'd expect either a palm tree or holly there to be sustainable for the longer term. I know, no shade, but realistic design is not putting shade trees in the same exact spots you're sticking lighting that is going to be blocked by said shade trees.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, aent said:

Yup. Biggest thing is right tree for the right area. The oak trees can be fine on the sides of the buildings, and are great in parks, open space, and residential areas (as long as kept far enough away from the homes to avoid branches falling into roofs during storms and keeping them far enough away from power lines, as most power outages also seem to be caused by oak trees, along with fires).

Those locations need stuff smaller and narrower. Realistically I'd expect either a palm tree or holly there to be sustainable for the longer term. I know, no shade, but realistic design is not putting shade trees in the same exact spots you're sticking lighting that is going to be blocked by said shade trees.

1 hour ago, aent said:

I can tell you from my experience in real estate, sign visibility is among THE most important things for property value and to secure good rents. Looking at Street View, its easy to see their problem:

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.524124,-81.345111,3a,75y,161.36h,66.55t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1symsqTxY22t_nLHl8vxsswg!2e0!5s20190501T000000!7i16384!8i8192

Whats the red sign behind the tree say? In reality, it makes several of the signs harder to read. And they've clearly been trying to trim the tree for some time to avoid it covering the signs as much as possible, and that hasn't worked. If they wanted to keep those stores leased, they probably had little choice. Also, they didn't look that healthy, because those oak  trees tend to have large root systems and the parking lots are just not conducive to it at all when they get too big:

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.5237116,-81.3446793,3a,25.4y,79.84h,90.42t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1swr07wK89zJantQUEruyHsQ!2e0!5s20190501T000000!7i16384!8i8192

Well, it's not like that plaza or the stores in it are getting a ton of business from outside of the immediate Hourglass vicinity or from people who don't know what's in there anyway.

I 'd bet they probably did it to save money on maintaining them or something.

I think I'll write them a nasty letter.

[aent]

5 hours ago, JFW657 said:

Well, it's not like that plaza or the stores in it are getting a ton of business from outside of the immediate Hourglass vicinity or from people who don't know what's in there anyway.

 

The hole in the wall stores on the side of Winn Dixie are not destinations. Likely the people going to Winn Dixie barely know whats in that plaza, and the best chance to draw them in is having their signs visible while they pull in to shop at Winn Dixie. I can say I barely know half the stores in my Publix plaza. The ones I do know are mostly because of great sign visibility.

[orlandoguy]

Are you talking about the smaller restaurants/businesses in the Winn Dixie plaza? If so, I disagree - Roque Pub, La Fiesta, Theo’s, Nature’s Market, and JJ’s are all established tenants in the neighborhood and destinations unto themselves for the surrounding residential.

I agree with you that cleaning up visual clutter in front of one’s business is marketing 101. Potential customers need to see what’s going on in order to make the visual connection that they want to patronize a business. If the trees weren’t diseased or causing infrastructure problems with their root systems, I suspect the plaza owner got rid of them to make the signage more visible from the road.

[HankStrong]

I've been in the Winn Dixie probably 3x.  I've been to the rest of that plaza about 100x.  We eat at Theo's, JJ's, & La Fiesta and have had many a night at Rogue Pub & the defunct Ocean Sun.

[AmIReal]

2 hours ago, orlandoguy said:

I suspect the plaza owner got rid of them to make the signage more visible from the road

I suspect they did it to make the parking lot more useable. If it was for visibility they would not have planted the row of magnolias along the street.

The owner of the center seems to be making a lot of improvements- as we mentioned a page back. The new Dollar store, 2 new restaurant tenants (Uncommon and Papa Llama), they are changing the entrances, realigning the parking lot, creating a community space between the buildings and making exterior improvements to the 2nd building to better match the 1st building.

I think the trees were just in their way.

[JFW657]

6 hours ago, aent said:

The hole in the wall stores on the side of Winn Dixie are not destinations. Likely the people going to Winn Dixie barely know whats in that plaza, and the best chance to draw them in is having their signs visible while they pull in to shop at Winn Dixie. I can say I barely know half the stores in my Publix plaza. The ones I do know are mostly because of great sign visibility.

Having had to circle the parking lot there on several occasions just to find an empty space because it was so packed from all the bar and restaurant patrons, I would say that anyone familiar with the place, might be led to think otherwise.

I'm fairly certain most if not all of those people are regular customers and don't rely on the visibility of signage to find their way there.

The property owners or managers might be using visibility as a convenient excuse to hack down those decades old trees, but I'll never buy it.

My gut feeling is that it had to with saving money.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, AmIReal said:

I suspect they did it to make the parking lot more useable. If it was for visibility they would not have planted the row of magnolias along the street.

The owner of the center seems to be making a lot of improvements- as we mentioned a page back. The new Dollar store, 2 new restaurant tenants (Uncommon and Papa Llama), they are changing the entrances, realigning the parking lot, creating a community space between the buildings and making exterior improvements to the 2nd building to better match the 1st building.

I think the trees were just in their way.

Apparently,  hacking down the only beautiful things on the property for the purpose of making their ugly, tacky looking buildings and their ugly, sea-of-asphalt parking lot more visible, = "improvements" in the minds of the owners.

Sad.

[codypet]

Dollar Tree Signage is up at the old Walgreen's

[spenser1058]

2 minutes ago, codypet said:

Dollar Tree Signage is up at the old Walgreen's

@JFW657 does the Happy Dance:

 

[codypet]

Dude.  I didn't even have the sound on and heard that in my head.   Baby Codypet loves Elmo.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, spenser1058 said:

@JFW657 does the Happy Dance

Hopefully the public will be allowed to enter the building by the time they open. 

[codypet]

They should have TP when they open!

[JFW657]

For about 5 minutes.

[spenser1058]

15 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

For about 5 minutes.

I’m good on paper products but if Target doesn’t get dish soap soon I’m gonna be reduced to washing pots and pans with a bar of Irish Spring.

[JFW657]

1 minute ago, spenser1058 said:

I’m good on paper products but if Target doesn’t get dish soap soon I’m gonna be reduced to washing pots and pans with a bar of Irish Spring.

Maybe the automotive stores still have car washing liquid in stock.

Some brands wash and wax at the same time!!! 

If that doesn't work, know anyone with a sandblaster? 

[spenser1058]

Speaking of that, I remembered one of the Harry Mudd episodes on Star Trek where the woman taught the clueless miner about sandblasting his pots clean when he grumbled about no water on a desert planet.

I figured if DeSantis doesn’t get around to locking down the beaches I can make an NSB run with my dirty pots the next time the wind is up...

[JFW657]

Drove through the parking lot of the former Walgreen's now future Dollar Tree this morning.

It was abuzz with activity. There was a crew pressure washing the outside. The front doors were open and the lights were all on so I could see inside. There are Dollar Tree graphics up along the tops of the walls and it looked like shelving is going in.

That's going to be a pretty big Dollar Tree.

Maybe bigger than the E. Colonial and Hampton store.

[spenser1058]

16 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Drove through the parking lot of the former Walgreen's now future Dollar Tree this morning.

It was abuzz with activity. There was a crew pressure washing the outside. The front doors were open and the lights were all on so I could see inside. There are Dollar Tree graphics up along the tops of the walls and it looked like shelving is going in.

That's going to be a pretty big Dollar Tree.

Maybe bigger than the E. Colonial and Hampton store.

Now that this one is opening, can I have my Piccadilly back?

[codypet]

1 hour ago, JFW657 said:

Drove through the parking lot of the former Walgreen's now future Dollar Tree this morning.

It was abuzz with activity. There was a crew pressure washing the outside. The front doors were open and the lights were all on so I could see inside. There are Dollar Tree graphics up along the tops of the walls and it looked like shelving is going in.

That's going to be a pretty big Dollar Tree.

Maybe bigger than the E. Colonial and Hampton store.

If I had to guess I'd say it will be approximately the same size as the Conway/Hoffner store or the approx the same size of the Ace Hardware on N Alafaya. 

[JFW657]

16 minutes ago, codypet said:

If I had to guess I'd say it will be approximately the same size as the Conway/Hoffner store or the approx the same size of the Ace Hardware on N Alafaya. 

Inasmuch as I've never even driven past either of those stores, much less been inside them, any intended humorous reference to their size is lost on me. 

I'll just say that it looks considerably bigger than the Orange & Michigan store and the S. Orange & Hoffner store.

[spenser1058]

18 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Inasmuch as I've never even driven past either of those stores, much less been inside them, any intended humorous reference to their size is lost on me. 

I'll just say that it looks considerably bigger than the Orange & Michigan store and the S. Orange & Hoffner store.

I’m still waiting for @JFW657 to get all gussied up for a trip downtown with a report from the DGX!

[JFW657]

28 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

I’m still waiting for @JFW657 to get all gussied up for a trip downtown with a report from the DGX!

Been meaning to go, but..... CORONAVIRUS!!!!! 

[spenser1058]

39 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Been meaning to go, but..... CORONAVIRUS!!!!! 

Eeeek!