Downtown destination

MOUNT DORA — What drives the commercial success of downtown Mount Dora is the creative energy that draws so much culinary genius and so many artisans to a five- or six-square-block area.

This eclectic mix of boutiques and restaurants is a veritable paradise for browsers and foodies, offering an array of unique culinary delights and one-of-a-kind creations that you won’t find in area strip malls or chain restaurants.

And yet some look around downtown and see an area whose future may be stunted by geography, economics and even demographics.

For one thing, there is precious little room for this quaint, artsy tourist destination to expand. For another, high rents are limiting the ability of aspiring entrepreneurs to gain a foothold. And a fair number of shops cater to a mature clientele.

But the same creativity that inspires Mount Dora’s gourmet meals, jewelry, apparel, spices and dog treats may be giving birth to a solution to those challenges. A small group of imaginative thinkers are hatching a plan to vastly expand the area’s creative and commercial offerings in a way they believe will attract scores of younger people and families.

Mount Dora Marketplace is expected to debut around the middle of October with almost 40 tiny shops nestled in two buildings in the heart of downtown.

This is no ragtag flea market of weekend Vanderbilts. It’s a select collection of established and budding merchants, each carefully chosen in hopes their collective offerings create a symphony of alluring sights, sounds and tastes.

“I want it to be a destination where people say, 'Hey, let’s spend a day at the Marketplace,' have a craft beer, have some ceviche, have a gourmet coffee, enjoy a gyro,” co-owner Michael Ross said Friday. “I think it’s going to open up the whole downtown. Downtown Mount Dora kind of closes down at night, but we’ll have so much going on, we think it’ll change Mount Dora.”

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The concept underlying Mount Dora Marketplace isn’t novel. It’s adapted from successful models like Plant Street Market in Winter Garden and East End Market in Orlando, which feature rows of vendors pushing everything from gourmet pizza to artisan meats, baked goods and craft beer in something akin to a farmers market setting, but with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating and usually with live entertainment.

Local Realtor Dawn Williams has worked with commercial property owner Peter Burgess and his partner, Ross, for years. She watched tenants come and go from their building at the corner of 4th Street and Donnelly Avenue. There was Eduardo’s, Pisco Sour, The Lost Parrot. The building has sat empty for a while now.

At a robust 4,368 square feet, the building was very large, and the rent fairly pricey, for a single tenant. Not so for a dozen or more tenants, Williams thought.

She said it took her some months to convince Ross and Burgess to buy into the marketplace concept, but when they did, they bought in hard. They gave her a short timetable to get the word out and test the waters, and when she did, the response was huge: The trio quickly received 72 applications from vendors hoping to lease the original 12 spots.

“We wanted good modern food, a good coffee, what the millennials would like,” Williams said. “I’ve been here over 20 years and we needed texture downtown, we needed new ideas. But we couldn’t get the new blood in here because they couldn’t afford the rents.”

Ross, Burgess and Williams solved that problem by creating dozens of compact, affordable spaces with monthly rents ranging from just $175 to $2,000. Most rents are in the range of $600.

Such was the outpouring of interest that when the adjacent 4,440-square-foot Every Nook + Cranny building came available on Donnelly, Ross and Burgess jumped at the chance to acquire it and expand their marketplace concept.

“Peter said, ‘Opportunity only knocks once, and you either take it or leave it,’” Ross said. “We decided to take it.”

The two buildings are currently separated by an alley, but they will be connected by a terraced porch where patrons can enjoy their food, beer, coffee and live entertainment. There will also be seating on the sidewalks outside the two buildings.

A month before the grand opening, the spaces in both buildings are almost all leased. There is Cava Wine Bar, an offshoot of Luisa’s Cellar in Sanford; The Coffee Kitchen, serving DeLand's Trilogy coffee; Mediterranean Kitchen, serving gyros and other international fare; One Utopia, featuring Macha tea and an oxygen bar; Cassie’s Cupcakes; Stitch and Gather; Sugar & Geek Candle Company; French Flair fragrances; Sweeties Bakery; and Lacey Designs, which offers hand-painted cards and invitations, among many others.

Ross, a Miami event planner by trade, looked for interesting businesses but also good people.

“It was about personalities for me,” he said, “and getting along with each other because it’s such a large project and because it’s one big family.”

Williams agreed, noting that some of the vendors are budding entrepreneurs who are leaving good careers to join this venture but are helping each other with business and marketing tips. It’s like “a little hippie commune,” she chuckled.

“That’s a lot of pressure on us to do this right.”

Francis Walsh is opening European Breads in one of the larger spaces. He’ll bake French pastries on site, along with German pretzels and an assortment of breads.

“I’ve always wanted a downtown presence, but we couldn’t afford the rents,” said Walsh, who currently runs European Breads in a shop on the outskirts of town. “I’ve watched all the changes happening in Mount Dora over the years for the better, and I thought, why not a bakery.”

But even as vendors flocked to the Marketplace, something was missing. Williams craved a brewery to be the centerpiece of the market, and she finally landed one last week when the family-owned Wolf Branch Brewing Co. in Eustis signed on.

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Wolf Branch Brewing is an emerging business in its own right. Founded in late 2017 by Jose Villafana Jr. and his father, Jose Sr., Wolf Branch occupies a small storefront at 119 Bay St. in downtown Eustis. It quickly gained popularity with local craft beer connoisseurs for its original small-batch blends and its creative use of local hops and produce.

The Villafanas created a plum beer from produce purchased at Over the Hill Farms, for instance. When another patron asked if master brewer Jose Jr. could make beer from peaches out of his grove, Jose took up the challenge.

“He said, ‘On one condition: You have to name it after me,’” Jose Jr. laughed. That conversation gave birth to Uncle Mikey’s Peach Blonde Ale.

And when the pastor at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church suggested Jose create a beer especially for the church, the answer was, of course, yes. He created St. Pat’s red ale. Who says no to the pastor?

Jose Jr. said he jumped at the opportunity to anchor Mount Dora Marketplace.

“We don’t sell food or anything, so I think (Wolf Branch) is something that complements what’s in there. Mount Dora has a lot of foot traffic. It’s a really cool place,” he said. “The landlord has diversified his portfolio, so someone can come in for bread or a cupcake and a beer. There’s something for everyone. And it’s done very, very well.”

Wolf Branch’s Mount Dora Marketplace won’t be fully operational when it moves in next month. It is in the process of transforming the kitchen behind the bar into a brewery, so for the time being the Villafanas will brew at their Eustis location and transport their beer to the Marketplace.

When it is finished, however, it will feature a large display window so patrons can look into the brewing room while enjoying a beer at a bar wrapped in the same corrugated tin that adorns ceiling snap walls here and there throughout the Marketplace.

That tin, incidentally, was repurposed from an old barn that once housed a manufacturer of World War II airplanes. Combined with polished concrete floors and wagon wheel lighting fixtures, the entire place feels both modern and rustic, but each vendor space will feature its own palette and hue.

Wolf Branch isn’t the only space that is unfinished. Many of the vendors are in the process of installing counters and display cases. Some are further along than others, but Williams is confident that a mid-October grand opening remains achievable.

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As is sometimes the cases in downtown districts, not all merchants are thrilled with the Mount Dora Marketplace concept. Williams said some worry about competition and others fret about where all the new customers will park.

Williams believes there is plenty of parking and says the additional customers patrolling downtown will benefit all merchants.

“I have not the slightest qualm that this will be good for them,” she said. “This is huge and this will be huge for Mount Dora.”

Ross, who lives in Miami, hasn’t heard any negative rumblings from area merchants but agrees with Williams and believes there is a natural aversion to change. He noted that not long ago, Mount Dora made wooden boats and the downtown featured a collection of antique shops. No more.

“Things change,” he said. “If Mount Dora doesn’t change, people are going to go to Winter Garden or Orlando. Mount Dora is missing the millennials. We have to have something for them.”

Follow the progress of the Marketplace at facebook.com/mountdoramarketplace.