- December 13, 2025
Lost tenants, high turnover plague Palm Harbor Shopping Center. But the stalwarts are successful, and the owners are in talks with a big box to replace Bealls on the west side.
Walk around the Palm Harbor Shopping Center, on Palm Coast Parkway, and you are bound to notice more than a few vacancies.
The space that used to hold the Bealls Outlet is empty, as well as the former CVS Pharmacy, Blockbuster and most recently Three Dogs Grille and Kokoro Sushi Bar & Japanese Bistro, which will close May 13 to open at another location during the summer.
According to the 2011 National Citizen Survey, Palm Coast residents rate the quality of business and service establishments, as well as the rate of retail growth, as “much below” what other residents rate their own cities.
Mayor Jon Netts also points to commercial vacancies as one of the most typical complaints he receives from residents. They ask him, “What are you doing to make this problem go away?” he said, in an interview Thursday, May 10.
But to Netts, besides making the rest of the city “strong, attractive and vibrant,” there’s not much government can do to help. Palm Coast has launched the Business Assistance Center, he said, to offer free aid to startups. And it also recently switched the venue for its free monthly music shows from the Daytona State College Amphitheater to European Village, in hopes of increasing the center’s foot traffic.
But, as with residential foreclosures or short sales, he added, “we have a relatively limited role.”
“It’s a private property matter,” he said. “(But) it’s not an attractive thing, and it doesn’t do anybody any good.”
To one long-time Palm Harbor shop owner, though, the problem is not so much a problem as it is an issue of perception.
“We’re not going anywhere,” said Aimee Moylan, of Aimee’s Hallmark. “We’ve been here 26 years … and it’s a great shopping center.”
Joanne Longhway, Nikki’s Pizzeria owner — who has recently been getting phone calls from residents asking if they were still in business, given the nearby closings — agrees. Although her company has only been around a little more than a year in the complex, she says sales have been “wonderful.”
“Someone’s looking down on me,” she said. “Business is great. The distributors are like, ‘I can’t believe what you do here, while everybody else is hurting.’”
By December, she plans to buy a beer and liquor license for the restaurant.
Both owners openly admit that they wish more companies would buy space in their complex, but a few empty storefronts, they said, do not signify an obsolete shopping center.
For every business that has closed or moved at Palm Harbor, Moylan said, others are continuing to thrive. Just look at Terry’s barber shop, which has been in operation there since the center’s opening, 34 years ago PC Bike recently celebrated its 10th year in business. And places like Thai by Thai, Eyecare Express and others also remain a perennial presence in the center.
“But the economy’s bad,” she added. “Nobody’s opening (new) businesses right now … except big-box stores.”
Big-box retailers may be just what shopping centers need to kick-start growth, however, according to Netts. And that’s good news for Palm Harbor shop owners, being that Inland American Retail Management LLC (the Illinois-based company that owns the complex) reports to being in current negotiations for a “big box” to take over the former Bealls Outlet space.
“Palm Harbor, like many retail centers in the Southeast Florida market, remains challenged by the continuing impact of the real estate plunge,” said Alyssa Templeton, Inland media relations associate. “(But) recently, we have seen increased retailer interest in Palm Harbor,” she added, although she would not disclose any further information on the subject.
“(Shopping centers) reflect, to some extent, the health of a community,” Mayor Netts said. “So when you see empty storefronts, one figures the community is not as healthy as it could be.”
That’s why finding ways to strengthen the commercial sector stands as “one of the prime focuses” of the city’s Prosperity 2021 plan, he added. But, in the end, “there’s really not a lot (we) can do.” Business belongs to the private sector, he said, and they’re the ones who will need to figure out how to prompt a rebound.
To owners like Moylan, the solution for now is survival — at least until the end of this current cycle. Until then, she hopes to lead by example.
“We’re sticking it out and we’re not leaving,” she said. “The world is changing. I don’t think it’s (just our) shopping center. … We have to find (ways) to bring jobs to Palm Coast before people are going to bring business here.”
WHAT IS THE CITY DOING TO HELP?
Palm Coast Business Assistance Center Director Joe Roy said it’s not government’s role to fill vacant storefronts, but there are a few things the city is doing. First, the Business Assistance Center helps startups through the process.
Second, Roy was scheduled to meet Friday with someone who was interested in starting a retail shop with industrial baking equipment. That way, those who are interested in starting a food-based business, which is currently not legal in the city due to health concerns, could pay to use the baking equipment at the shop.
“That could be a state-approved facility,” Roy said. “We’re trying to find someone who would be interested in starting that.”
A third way the city is trying to help is through a $50,000 fund dedicated to guaranteeing small-business loans. Only loans between $10,000 and $20,000 would qualify, and the city would only guarantee 50% of the loan. The business would also have to be for-profit and a client of the Business Assistance Center for the full two years of the loan.
Senior Economic Planner Beau Falgout mentioned that part of Prosperity 2021, the city’s economic development plan, includes an initiative to help tenants of anchor-less commercial plazas find an identity. Other cities have facilitated plazas in being renamed, for example. But, he said, the city was hoping the tenants themselves would take a proactive approach.
“The commercial plazas without an anchor tend to struggle,” Falgout said. “Most people associate it with the anchor.” He said people might talk about going to Target, but they don’t talk about going to the Palm Coast Landing Shopping Center.
The Palm Harbor Shopping Center shouldn’t have that problem, according to Roy.
“From my personal perspective, I don’t think (the vacancy problem) has anything to do with Palm Harbor,” Roy said. “You’ve got a good anchor down there with Publix. I think it’s the general nature of the economy. Even though we’re getting people back to work, we’re not getting more storefronts.”
— Brian McMillan
