DADE CITY, Fla. — In Dade City, an old 1920s car dealership is getting new life.
For the past several years, the dealership has been under renovation as it slowly turns itself into a Dade City hot spot.
Hannah Sakellaris is the new manager of The Block. She says the addition of this new place is going to be big for the younger generation that's moving in.
"I've grown up in Dade City really my whole life. So having this here is such a huge change for Dade City. And being in the younger crowd of it is exactly what we needed. There wasn't a lot of places to go to hang out on the weekends. There's not a lot of things to really do. And Larry, here building The Block is just exactly what Dade City needed. Having the brewery and a restaurant bringing all that new stuff here is awesome."
Larry Guilford is the owner of Highlands Partners, which is also the owner of The Block.
"So I didn't really want it to get torn down, you know, and this end of town was kind of, I hate to say, a little blighted, you know, there was a lot of businesses that had gone away. And so I thought, it was an opportunity to bring businesses here, but I loved the look of the building. I mean, I just it screamed out to me," says Guilford.
Food, entertainment, weddings, you name it, The Block has it. The first business to open here was actually a CrossFit, which actually opened right before COVID-19 shut it down.
"Then they reopened again keeping the distance but they've been doing really, really well. And they have a first-class trainer here through just as a phenomenal job," explains Guilford.
The community here is supporting it, too.
"I think it's really important Dade City, in this part of Dade City for sure. Because basically this end of town really just used to be very busy 50s, 60s, 70s, you know, used to be just as booming as the rest of it. But then you got you know, areas that the buildings were tore down, you know, or just anatomy, they got old or this and that he had vacant lot. These car dealerships he actually sold the dealership and they moved the dealership outside of Dade City. So, then it became vacant. So it sat here for almost 10 years, you know, with nothing happening," says Guilford. "So, I think it's been a really great thing for the city and a great opportunity for us as far as and we're really very proud of what we have here."
The future of The Block looks bright, too.
In another building next door, they are converting part of it to a co-working space.
Guilford explains, "You have individual offices, but you'll also have dedicated desk areas, you'll have dedicated internet areas, all kinds of things. So you can rent by the day, the hour, or month or year, and have a place where you can finally get out of your house, you know, because those people have been out there doing all of COVID."
"Maybe they've been working for an employer out of their home, and maybe they're been working or maybe they started a new company working out of their home, you don't want people coming to your house, you know, picking up papers and talking that way to you when you really need a place of business," Guilford explains."So that's kind of why we went into this area, and we're actually moving our facilities in there as well. So in that starting August 1, so it's, it's right around the corner. So and that's going to be called zone works. And so that is happening as we speak. "
You can find out more about The Block, including the brewhouse and upcoming restaurant Koncept, by clicking here.
