PORT ORANGE — A shopping center that experienced some closures when the COVID-19 pandemic began 2½ years ago is seeing new life thanks to new tenants and the expansion of one of its mainstays.
“We are back to pre-pandemic numbers,” confirmed Kristina Circelli, a spokeswoman for The Pavilion at Port Orange. The occupancy rate for the nearly 400,000-square-foot shopping center is once again above 90%.
In recent months, the shopping center has seen the opening of Another Broken Egg, a restaurant that offers “Southern-inspired” dishes, as well as the expansion of longtime tenant Copperline Coffee + Café.
Destination draws: The Pavilion is among the popular attractions in Port Orange
Looking back: Copperline Coffee + Cafe opens in Port Orange
Lock-down blues: Sit-down restaurants surviving on take-out orders
Two more new tenants are set to open this fall: a restaurant called Clean Eatz, which is taking over the former Five Guys Burgers & Fries space, and a physical fitness/rehab center called StretchLab, which is moving into the former Sunglass World.
“We also have a third new store coming soon, a national name, but we can’t officially announce it yet,” said Circelli. “We are looking forward to sharing those details in the coming months.”
Nick West and Dorothy Hopper own the Copperline Coffee + Café, which expanded into the former Mattress One space next door in August.
“The reason we did this is because day after day, being on the register working up front, I saw people come in and have to leave because there was nowhere to sit,” said Hopper, who serves as the general manager at Copperline.
The increased customer traffic contrasts sharply from the first few months of the pandemic in early 2020 when a statewide temporary ban prohibited dine-in service at restaurants, including coffeeshops.
Hopper said the ban on dine-in service was especially “scary” because West had just taken a huge gamble by opening a second Copperline location at the One Daytona entertainment/retail complex in Daytona Beach a few months earlier.
Fortunately, take-out service was still allowed, which helped the independent coffeehouse stay in business at both locations. “We’d still have a line (of customers) out the door, but they couldn’t stay,” recalled Hopper.
Sales increased after the ban on dine-in service was lifted in May 2020, said Hopper. “We came out up 33% (in revenues) for 2020 versus 2019,” she said.
Hopper was promoted to co-owner in January 2021. She said the continued strong performance of the Copperline location at The Pavilion gave her and West the confidence to expand by taking over the former Mattress One space next door. The mattress store was one of the tenants that vacated the center following the pandemic.
Copperline previously occupied a tiny 1,680-square-foot space at The Pavilion. Growing to 4,400 square feet has allowed it to add a large meeting room that can be rented out for special events as well as a larger general seating area that includes couches and tables of various sizes. Hopper said she and West also significantly increased the size of their commercial kitchen to include a large walk-in cooler.
“We’ve almost tripled our space here,” said West. “We have way more seating and have expanded our menu greatly.”
New menu items include chicken and waffles and fried chicken biscuits and gravy as well as croissant sandwiches and various soups and salads. The coffeehouse also offers house-made baked goods, including pies and cakes.
Located around the corner from Copperline is Orange Theory Fitness which opened at The Pavilion in June 2020.
“We opened at the height of COVID,” said Rhonda Sherrer, who runs the fitness center along with co-manager James Hinton.
StretchLab will open next door later this year, most likely in December, according to Circelli.
Sherrer and Hinton said they are glad to see the neighboring storefront space finally getting filled, even if it is for another fitness facility.
“We think we’re going to complement each other. We’re a group fitness training center whereas they focus more on (one-on-one) stretching and mobility recovery,” said Sherrer.
Hinton added, “Progress promotes more business for The Pavilion. And everybody that drives through here can be a potential customer of ours.”
Greg Olvera is the general manager of Another Broken Egg, which opened late last year in the storefront space at The Pavilion which was vacated when the Takara Japanese steakhouse and sushi restaurant moved to a standalone building elsewhere within the shopping center.
“We opened last year, Dec. 24,” said Olvera, whose restaurant serves breakfast, brunch and lunch from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. seven days a week. “People have been very welcoming. Our weekends are especially busy. We love The Pavilion. We are happy to be here.”
Signature dishes at Another Broken Egg include its lobster and Brie and Mardi Gras omelets and “our shrimp ‘n’ grits which is totally legit,” he said.
Palm Coast residents Greg and Robyn McPhail are local franchisees for the North Carolina-based Clean Eatz restaurant chain who expect to open their first location in the Volusia-Flagler area at The Pavilion in mid- to late October.
“We looked at several locations,” said Greg McPhail. “Robyn and I really liked The Pavilion. We liked the (other) tenants, we really liked the area.”
Robyn McPhail, who holds a day job as an interventional radiologist, said she and her husband chose Port Orange as the site for their first Clean Eatz eatery in part because her parents live in town. That helped them become familiar with the area.
The Pavilion is just north of the new AdventHealth emergency room facility that recently opened on the corner of Williamson Boulevard and Taylor Road, as well Cypress Creek Elementary and Creekside Middle School a couple miles to the south.
“We cater to the busy soccer moms and the busy health care workers who want a nice, healthy lunch that’s affordable (and) convenient,” said Robyn McPhail.
Greg McPhail was previously a regional manager for Taco Bell in Pensacola where he oversaw the fast-food chain’s stores in the Florida Panhandle as well as in Tallahassee and in Mobile, Alabama.
The couple are currently in negotiations for sites in both Palm Coast and Ormond Beach where they plan to open Clean Eatz locations before expanding southward to the Space Coast area.
Greg McPhail said they especially like the fact that The Pavilion will soon be home to two fitness facilities and is located just around the corner from an L.A. Fitness Center at the nearby BJ’s Wholesale Club-anchored Altamira Shopping Village on the other side of the Interstate 95/Dunlawton Avenue interchange.
Port Orange residents Mark and Claire Venables live near The Pavilion where they go regularly to shop at stores such as Michael’s and Marshalls, as well as grab a cup of coffee at Copperline.
The owners of Daytona Employment said they enjoy the indie coffeehouse’s rustic décor as well as the Americana music that quietly plays in the background. “You feel like you’re in the Carolinas or in Tennessee,” said Claire Venables.
Claire Venables said she and her husband were thrilled to discover that Copperline had expanded its Port Orange location while they and their family were visiting the United Kingdom this past summer.
“It’s the most perfect place in the most perfect spot,” she said.