New coffee shop, ice cream and 3 businesses coming to Bradenton’s City Centre downtown
Five retail businesses have signed leases to set up shop in Bradenton’s $13.8 million City Centre parking garage and office building.
Headed to the corner of Third Avenue West and 12th Street West are Millie’s Sweets and Treats, The Beach Shop, Pink & Navy, The Stoked Flamingo and Orange Blossom Coffee.
Pink & Navy is a women’s boutique, the Stokes Flamingo will offer men’s clothing, The Beach Shop offers swim wear and beach accessories, and Millie’s will offer ice cream and more.
Melissa Lilly and her daughter, Kaitlyn Lilly, and their partners Josh and Abbey Schmitt, owners of Banyan Coffee Company, are opening Orange Blossom Coffee.
The Lillys will be the faces customers see day to day at Orange Blossom Coffee.
“I am a native Floridian, live in Bradenton and wanted a business in the city,” Melissa said.
“We want to be a good coffee shop, and will have an in-house baker, sell coffee and beer. Everything in the shop will be from local vendors,” she said.
The Schmitts first sold coffee beans at the Bradenton Farmers Market on Old Main Street and built a network with other businesses. They also have a coffee shop at 1110 10th St. in Palmetto.
Old Main Street north of Manatee Avenue has been without a coffee shop since last August when The B’Towne Coffee Co. closed after a 17-year run.
The five new businesses will be the first retail and food options in City Centre, which opened in 2019. The first occupant was the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, which opened its offices on the east end of the building in July 2019. Next to open was first-floor parking for Spring Hill Suites.
City Centre is seen as playing a major role in revitalizing the downtown business hub.
In October 2019, the city opened the top three floors of the four-story building to other parking. The opening was without ceremony due in part to heavy rains from Tropical Storm Nestor that forced the cancellation of the downtown Bradenton farmers market.
The retail spaces on the west end of City Centre range from 929 square feet to 631 square feet.
As for a timeline for opening, the coffee and ice cream shops, “require plumbing and electricity upgrades — plans drawn, permits pulled, that sort of thing — and will take longer to open than the other three, which are close to being ready but not quite,” Jeannie Roberts, communications coordinator for the City of Bradenton, said in an email.
“Just before Labor Day weekend, perhaps, we would plan a bigger splash, a grand opening and ribbon cutting for the spaces with the mayor, city administrator and city council present. This is an excellent shopping weekend, and it segues nicely into the opening of the public market again in October,” she said.
Village of the Arts resident Valerie Borstelmann and her daughter, Ramona Holland, took a break on a bench outside City Centre on Tuesday and said they had noticed the “coming soon” signs on windows there.
“I like window shopping. It’s nice to see businesses coming in,” Holland said.
Borstelmann agreed: “It’s nice to see something coming soon.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
