Bradenton icon Mixon Fruit Farms sells a corner of property to national chain store
Mixon Fruit Farms, a Bradenton area tourist attraction and gift fruit shipper since 1939, has sold 4 1/2 acres of property — land which has been earmarked as the future home of a 7-Eleven convenience store with fuel pumps.
The property, south of 26th Avenue East, is bordered on the west by 27th Street East, and on the east and south by the Manatee School District’s Matkze Complex, a warehouse, transportation and maintenance hub.
The sale leaves Mixon Fruit Farms’ owners with 48 acres north of 26th Avenue East, keeping its citrus grove, tram tours, gift shop, bamboo operation, wedding venue and more intact, co-owner Janet Mixon said.
The sale also comes at a good time for the Mixons as the business and the country emerge from the fiscal and health challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The money from the land sale is helpful,” Mixon said.
Early in the pandemic, Mixon closed for two months, canceled all special events, and deeply cut its staff. The 4 1/2-acre property has been under contract for two years, she said.
The company has since returned to full operation but has faced hiring challenges. Most recently, Mixon has reached out to retired seniors with part-time job offerings. The company has three staff members who are 80 or older.
“They come to work,” Mixon said of the dependability of older workers.
A factor in the sale was Manatee County plans to improve the intersection at 26th Avenue East and 27th Avenue East, including adding a median south of Mixon Fruit Farms’ gift shop. Those improvements would have made it difficult to move a tractor onto the land to cultivate trees there, Mixon said.
The pandemic is just the most recent challenge Mixon Fruit Farms, 2712 26th Ave. E., has faced over the years.
The family — and the business — have weathered the Great Recession, hurricanes, winter freezes and citrus diseases, such as greening and canker, by expanding the gift shop and the tourism-related offerings and trying new ventures, such as growing bamboo and making Broghies, low-calorie, low-fat wafers.
Mixon Fruit Farms and its gift shop with homemade fudge and soft serve ice cream, continues to attract regulars. Visiting the business on Tuesday were Sally and Tom Rolfe of Bradenton, Mike Rafferty of Algonquin, Illinois, and Suzanne Hohman of Elmhurst, Ill.
“Every January, we get on a plane and come here,” Hohman said as she enjoyed a swirl of vanilla-and-orange soft serve.
Co-owners Dean and Janet Mixon want to do more to attract guests, including stepping up special events.
“Last year, we booked 101 weddings, and the bookings for birthday parties are going crazy,” Mixon said. “We are trying to get people to come and see all the things we have to offer.”
Family patriarch Bill Mixon, who died at age 87 in 2016, started the business with his parents 83 years ago when he bought his first grove at age 16.
“We started with a No. 3 washtub on the back porch, washing oranges by hand,” Mr. Mixon said in 2002 of the start of the business.
In 2006, Dean and Janet Mixon, and Don Mixon, bought the business from Bill Mixon.
“A lot of tears, a lot of crying, a lot of praying — mostly praying,” Dean Mixon once said of what it takes for a business to survive so many years.
In 2016, the Mixons added the 27,000-square foot Amazing Play Place, which includes a giant chess set, pickle ball, bocci ball, slides, a putting green and more.
That same year, they opened Mixon’s Farm House Inn for weddings and other gatherings.
Paperwork filed with Manatee County says that the 4 1/2 acres sold by Mixon Fruit Farms will be split into two lots with one being developed as a 7-Eleven and the other being reserved for future development.
7-Eleven, Inc. is based in Irving, Texas, and operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 13,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
The company was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1927 when an employee of The Southland Ice Company began selling bread, milk and eggs from an ice dock after local grocery stores closed.
For more information about Mixon Fruit Farms, call 941-748-5829, ext. 268, or visit https://www.mixon.com/.
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
