DeBary breaks ground on new Downtown

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DeBary breaks ground on new Downtown
PHOTO COURTESY CITY OF DEBARY<br> PLAYING DIRTY CAN BE FUN — With the enthusiasm of kids at play, civic and business leaders take turns throwing dirt — but nothing personal. The groundbreaking with a SunRail train in the background highlights the commuter-rail station as the center of the growing south part of DeBary. From left are Florida Department of Transportation District 5 Secretary John Tyler; Art Falcone, founder of the Falcone Group, partner in Main Street; DeBary City Manager Carmen Rosamonda; DeBary Mayor Karen Chasez; Roxanne Williams, owner of Mosaic Development; and Terry Wayland, principal of Mosaic Development.

Once simply a wide unincorporated place divided by U.S. Highway 17-92 and known for its quietude, DeBary is now celebrating its 30th year as a city. The celebration includes preparing for a wholly new and more vibrant business district.

“It will go down as one of the greatest achievements in DeBary’s history,” City Manager Carmen Rosamonda told the audience.

In what may seem strange, the new business center will be well outside and away from the heart of the original settlement, and markedly separated from the DeBary Commons shopping center and other businesses around it.

BEACON PHOTO/AL EVERSON
THE MAN OF THE HOUR — After working for more than three years to bring DeBary’s Main Street to the starting point, City Manager Carmen Rosamonda anticipates the fulfillment of a dream. “It will truly be a living Main Street,” he said. “What’s next? Many people believe this celebration is the end, but it is just the beginning.”

Civic and business leaders and curious spectators gathered Jan. 24 for the ceremonial groundbreaking for Main Street DeBary. 

The long-awaited start of the creation of a downtown — located a few miles south of DeBary’s first but limited commercial core — produced promises of high-quality development that will make DeBary a marketplace for its people’s needs and wants, and also a destination for visitors, including day-trippers who come by car, bus, bicycle or SunRail for a break in their routine.

The coming downtown will cover almost 20 acres, located a short walking distance north of DeBary’s SunRail depot. The building contractor is Mosaic Development LLC, a St. Petersburg, Florida, firm. Mosaic Development’s capital investment of perhaps as much as $70 million or more will bring, among other things, live-and-work units with some 37,500 square feet of retail-commercial space on the first floor and apartments on the second, third and fourth floors. In addition, there will be 7,000 square feet of management office space, a 9,000-square-foot community plaza and 5 acres for a central park suited for outdoor events such as concerts, art shows and farmers markets. That is Phase 1 of the Main Street project. Main Street’s first phase may be finished and ready to open for business as early as late in 2025, Rosamonda said.

WELCOME TO A FESTIVE
EVENT — DeBary Parks and Recreation Manager Delaney Lehman welcomes those attending the groundbreaking for Main Street.

Phase 2 will bring 170 more apartments.

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Born in Virginia, Al spent his youth in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia, and first moved to DeLand in 1969. He graduated from Stetson University in 1971, and returned to West Volusia in 1985. Al began working for The Beacon as a stringer in 1999, contributing articles on county and municipal government and, when he left his job as the one-man news department at Radio Station WXVQ, began working at The Beacon full time.

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