New stores at John's Pass Village open for business

Stores at the expanded John's Pass Village shopping area are starting to open up just in time for holidays.

PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Stores at the grand new John's Pass Village shopping area are starting to open up just in time for holiday visitors, snow birds and holiday shopping.

Addicted to the Bean is one of the first businesses to open up shop in the newly expanded John's Pass Village and is starting to get more traffic these days.

"Opening up in the slow season was nice because operationally," said new shop owner Sarah Harper. "We got a lot of things underway. I was able to train employees, so we're good to go. We're ready."

The coffee shop is just one of many businesses that will soon be associated with the new era of the "Pass". Just across the parking lot of the "old" Pass, the new expansion is now complete awaiting for the merchants to move in.

"Now they've made a parking garage which was always a problem," said long-time visitor Walter Beaudet. "And then they circled it with nice shops and restaurants that are coming. So aesthetically it looks a hundred percent better than what it did before."

Addicted to the Bean is one of the first businesses to open up shop in the newly expanded John's Pass Village.

"I think it really makes the Pass," Harper said. "It's an updated version."

But long-time resident Deby Weinstein isn't the biggest fan. She thinks the expansion is an injustice to her community's history.

"I always anticipated it would look like a fishing village," Weinstein said. "Like some kind of fishing village and it doesn't portray that image at all."

A couple dozen stores are planned for the project. They'll include everything from souvenir shops to restaurants. About a quarter of the shops have already opened.

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