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Starbucks' Dunedin Downtown Debut on Hold

Mark Schantz/SUNCOAST NEWS

A strip of shops at the western end of Main Street in downtown Dunedin, which have been undergoing façade improvements since this photo was taken in June 2007. Starbucks has put on hold plans to open in the shop at the left end of the strip.

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: February 22, 2008

DUNEDIN, Fla. - DUNEDIN, Fla. - DUNEDIN, Fla. - Starbucks will not brew coffee in downtown Dunedin next year after all.

This week the upscale coffee giant notified developer Joseph Kokolakis, who is refurbishing a row of shops at the western entrance to Main Street, it could not sign a lease at this time, Economic Development Director Bob Ironsmith said Thursday night.

City Commissioners, acting as the board of the Community Redevelopment Agency, voiced disappointment at the news.

Starbucks is putting its plans on hold for about a year, which might be just in time for it to consider taking a shop at the Gateway development, planned for the eastern end of the Main Street downtown district, Ironsmith said.

"It would have been nice to have a Starbucks at the entrance to downtown," Ironsmith said. "The name would have attracted people who don't ordinarily stop downtown, but it does not validate downtown."

"We still have trendy shops and restaurants, he added.

Starbucks, the first national chain to show interest in setting up shop on Main Street, was touted for the number of visitors it could draw downtown. Local coffee shop owners, however, feared the competition.

Ironsmith said Kokolakis plans to lease the space that Starbucks was to have occupied, which includes an outdoor cafe area next to SunTrust Bank, to a locally owned trendy restaurant or coffee shop.

"It's still going to be another nice reason to come downtown," he said.

Facade improvements have already begun on his row of four shops on the north side of Main Street that Kokolakis is redeveloping, Ironsmith said.

In a bit of good news for downtown merchants, Ironsmith told the CRA the city reached an agreement with another developer, Tom George, to lease a vacant parking lot on Main Street and Douglas Avenue for public parking for one year at a cost of $26,000.

The deal, which can be renewed for one year, will provide 41 additional parking spaces in the center of downtown. The parking lot, which is for sale, has been closed to visitors for some time.

Ironsmith said the city will work with George to market the property for a retail and office space development.

A few years ago George wanted to construct a development that included condominiums and retail space.

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