Carol Dekar didn’t let the down economy or the fact that all the snowbirds have flown back home deter her from expanding her Pink Pineapple furniture store.
She recently moved from the Shoppes at Paradise Bay across the street into a former Eckerd Drugs building at 7500 Cortez Road that sat empty for several years.
“We just thought maybe people are ready,” Dekar said, who is still putting the finishing touches on the building, including a new sign. “Why talk about sad things all the time?”
The move into the roughly 12,000-square-foot building allowed Dekar and her family to expand the business and also gave them a free-standing location where they could hold tent sales and other special events.
Their relocation also brought new life to a vacant building.
But elsewhere along Cortez Road, that is not the case.
There is still an abundance of vacant storefronts along the corridor, a result of the stagnating economy.
A former Eckerd Drugs at 26th Street and Cortez, that was temporarily home to a flooring business, now stands empty again. A shopping center in the 6300 block of Cortez Road where Crispers is located has three storefronts with a combined 6,400 square feet advertised. Another 3,575 square feet is available at the Shoppes at Paradise Bay.
Stan Rutstein, a Realtor with RE/MAX who had the Pink Pineapple property for lease, says he sees signs of improvement, but believes it will take some time for things to get better.
“We have very few east-to-west corridors in Manatee County so there’s always been a limited amount of commercial retail spaces,” Rutstein said. “And we’re confident that they will fill. I think rents are getting more competitive and landlords are being more flexible. I think at the moment everybody’s got to hold hands until we get through this.”
Deals also are getting more complicated because banks are oftentimes involved in the transaction in the cases of foreclosed properties, Rutstein said.
“Things are just more complicated,” he said. “It’s not that there isn’t activity. It’s just taking much longer to complete deals. We went through some relatively easy years so now it’s just more challenging.”
Debra Cooper, a Realtor with Michael Saunders Realty, is encouraged by a new Publix coming to the site of a former Albertsons in the Bradenton Commons shopping center on Cortez.
Currently, the shopping center is surrounded by empty properties like a former Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon and the former Bradenton Ale House.
A Publix spokeswoman said the new Publix is scheduled to open in November or December.
“I think that Publix will make renewed interest in that corridor,” Cooper said. “That area is kind of right in the middle of Cortez Road, and in the past that area has been high interest.”
One of the properties Cooper has listed is a former First Priority Bank building at 4702 Cortez Road.
She said she has had interest in the property including from another bank but no contract has yet been signed.
“I think leasing will get stronger toward the end of the year,” Cooper said.
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