Bradenton’s Mixon Fruit Farms is now for sale. Here’s when it’s expected to close
Owners Dean and Janet Mixon recently put Mixon Fruit Farms on the market and announced a closing date for the store, where fudge, soft serve ice cream, gift fruit and southern hospitality have been trademarks since 1939.
The asking price for the last 39.5 acres of Mixon Fruit Farms, 2525 27th St. E., which originally covered 350 acres, is $15.9 million.
The Mixons plan to close the store July 29, but will continue to host weddings on the property through January 2024.
The owners have been quietly entertaining offers for several years, and in October told the Bradenton Herald that they had a prospective buyer.
The company went public with the news in October to get ahead of social media speculation that the business was selling.
That offer, made before the Mixons decided to put the property on the market, fell through.
Janet Mixon said that it was probably a blessing.
“Now we are taking offers. Hopefully it will be better. We’ll just see how it goes,” she said.
The decision to sell has to do with all the challenges facing the business and the Mixon’s desire to retire.
“We have dealt with so much, from NAFTA bringing in all the disease that has killed our citrus trees, COVID closing us down, staffing issues, the hurricane knocking off half the fruit, just to name a few. Because of all the issues, we are having to take a serious look at offers,” Dean Mixon previously told the Herald.
In an effort to adjust to all the adversity, the Mixons doubled down on tourism, making the property a venue for special events and planted a new crop, bamboo.
Even after the property sells, the Mixons plan to stay busy with a food truck, selling ice cream, Cuban sandwiches, BLTs, burgers and hot dogs, Janet said.
“My husband thinks I’m crazy. I want a new food truck. I want a nice one,” she said, reflecting on how much time Dean spends making repairs and fixing things at Mixon Fruit Farms.
More about Mixon Fruit Farms
Bill Mixon and his parents started Mixon Fruit Farm in 1939 when he bought his first grove at age 16.
“We started with a No. 3 washtub on the back porch, washing oranges by hand,” Bill. Mixon said in 2002 of the birth of the business.
In 2006, Dean and Janet Mixon, and Don Mixon, bought the business from Bill Mixon.
Mixon Fruit Farms celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014. Among those who gathered at the Mixon pavilion were representatives from nearly 20 Manatee County businesses, each at least 40 years old, and then-Gov. Rick Scott.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 11:08 AM.
