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San Marco gains momentum

The summer has proved an eventful time for tenants in San Marco Plaza.


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  • | 6:00 a.m. July 22, 2015
San Marco Plaza President Barb Smith said the plaza may host a "Rock Around the Clock Tower" event, as it did Christmas 2011, once the plaza's anchor space secures a new tenant.
San Marco Plaza President Barb Smith said the plaza may host a "Rock Around the Clock Tower" event, as it did Christmas 2011, once the plaza's anchor space secures a new tenant.
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LAKEWOOD RANCH — With  San Marco Plaza’s 8,555-square-foot anchor space under new ownership since May, surrounding businesses are looking forward to change. 

Originally envisioned as the second location for the now defunct Golden Apple Dinner Theater,  the anchor space has been vacant since the plaza opened in 2007.

“Once the theater space opens, this place is going to explode. We’ll have night life again. The anticipation is killing us,” said Barb Smith, owner of 2nd Ann Rose Consignment Boutique and president of the San Marco Condominium Association.

The new owner, San Marco Anchor, plans to lease the space, said Realtor Barry Seidel, president of American Property Group.

“We’ve gotten interest from an entertainment venue, a live theater and a national restaurant chain,” Seidel said. 

Here are changes that happened over the summer or are in progress:

Cheers to Wine
Carmen and Robin Spagnola, owners of Cheers to Wine, say customers inspired the store's new name.
Carmen and Robin Spagnola, owners of Cheers to Wine, say customers inspired the store's new name.

Carmen and Robin Spagnola, who operated their wine shop in the plaza as a Winestyles franchise since opening in mid-2008, became an independent entity, Cheers to Wine, in June.

Carmen Spagnola said the name came largely from customer feedback. “(Customers) felt like we were our own local version of ‘Cheers.’”

The store also sells craft and imported beers, cheese and chocolates. 

D’Lites Shoppe
D'Lites Shoppe owners Zak Mestanicik and Kirsten George want to satisfy customers' sweet teeth with flavorful, but healthy options.
D'Lites Shoppe owners Zak Mestanicik and Kirsten George want to satisfy customers' sweet teeth with flavorful, but healthy options.

Kirsten George, who owns the new D’Lites Shoppe with Zak Mestanicik, indulged in ice cream every week with her family as a child. But as she became more health conscious with age, she searched for healthier options.

At her new shop, she and Mestanicik offer a soft-serve ice cream that is low calorie, low sugar, low carbohydrate and low fat, as well as a vegan/paleo-friendly hard scoop ice cream option.

Sashay

Reators are currently marketing the space occupied by Sashay, a dance studio.

Co-listing agent Janet Trefry, of Remax Alliance Group, said interested parties include restaurateurs because of the space’s outside seating capacity.

“We have a couple people looking right now,” she said. “We’re waiting to hear (for sure) in about a week),” she said, adding there are no contracts on the property yet.

The space could be a full restaurant or have a retail space with a cafe in back.

Allcare Medical Center 
Drs. Laura and Logan Swaim are eager to open a chiropractic practice in Lakewood Ranch.
Drs. Laura and Logan Swaim are eager to open a chiropractic practice in Lakewood Ranch.

Allcare Medical Center, a family care practice that offers gynecological, surgical, pschycological care and other services, moved from its San Marco Plaza space into a new complex in Ranch Lake Plaza over the July 4 holiday weekend.

Dr. Doris Nessetti, who owns the practice with her husband, Dr. Matt Nessetti, said the move was necessary because of the practice’s growth.

“We love the plaza,” she said. “If we weren’t outgrowing our place, we would have stayed there.”

Allcare’s two units in San Marco already have been leased by The Roots Chiropractic.

Drs. Logan and Laura Swaim expect to open in early September, after remodeling.

Laura Swaim said she and her husband have experience in both pediatric and adult care and will focus on improving community health through the torque-release technique for chiropractic care.

* This story was modified at 10:12 a.m. July 24.

 

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