The throwback neighborhood is counting on corner stores under development to transform the community.
By JAMES THORNER
Published April 9, 2004
ODESSA - Absent from the Longleaf neighborhood's spread of village greens, picket fences and porches have been traditional corner stores.
Not for long.
Downtown Longleaf, key to turning this mostly residential area into a live-work-and-shop community, will take shape late this summer with a deli and general store, cigar bar, coffee shop, hair cutter and pottery store.
The storefronts are under construction at the corner of Starkey Boulevard and Town Avenue. On-street parking and rear lots will cater not just to Longleaf residents but to drivers cruising the soon-to-be-extended Starkey Boulevard.
Longleaf Deli & General is envisioned as a 1,066-square-foot store that will peddle cold cuts, milk, beer, wine and other fare.
The coffee shop planned for Longleaf is the Beanery. Aside from coffee, cakes, pastries and sandwiches, the shop could offer live jazz, folk and other music.
It's the second Pasco County outlet for Laura and Dan Baker, who run the Beanery in a Publix shopping center on Little Road.
Filling out the initial stores will be a cigar bar tentatively named Robusto Fumar, a Style Makers Hair Salon and a paint-your-own-pottery studio.
Longleaf broke ground four years ago north of State Road 54, selling itself as a throwback to the days before mass-produced subdivisions.
Alleys, on-street parking, detached garages, traffic circles and communal mailboxes are among the pre-World-War-II touches.
But the downtown, which will include apartments over the storefronts, has lagged.
It made little sense for retailers to ply for customers until Starkey Boulevard was completed north from State Road 54 to DeCubellis Road.
The two-lane road is scheduled to open this fall and serve as a shortcut for thousands of commuters whom downtown Longleaf hopes to capture as customers.
The planned 2005 opening of Longleaf elementary school will attract even more browsing eyes, Longleaf developer Trey Starkey said.
"The school's a shot in the arm for the businesses," Starkey said. "There will be lots of driving parents in the morning and afternoon who might get little Johnny an ice cream cone."
The next phase of downtown Longleaf will tend toward professional offices. An engineering firm recently completed its building in Longleaf. Other businesses, including doctors' offices, are supposed to follow.
As for the home sales in Longleaf, the neighborhood's experimental nature makes many prospective buyers cautious. In about four years, slightly fewer than 200 homes have sold out of a projected 800 to 900.
