Detwiler's Farm Market plans largest store yet, first of its kind

Detwiler’s Farm Market is planning its biggest store yet. The more than 50,000-square-foot location will be off Sumter Boulevard at Interstate 75 in North Port, in south Sarasota County. It will also be the first location for the business to be built from the ground up.

“Our customers have been asking us for years to come to North Port,” Detwiler’s Farm Market founder Henry Detwiler Sr., a 2025 Business Observer Top Entrepreneur, says in a statement. “This location is especially meaningful because it allows us to design and build from the ground up, creating our largest store yet and an experience that truly reflects who we are.” 

The store, expected to span 52,000 square feet, will open in the fourth quarter of 2028 in a shopping center that has not yet been built. It will feature a range of departments — such as fresh produce, deli, bakery, seafood and meat — and provide additional grocery items. Having a larger footprint will allow the North Port Detwiler's to include more offerings, from merchandise to experiences that are still being planned, officials say.

Since Detwiler launched the company after stints working at an egg tent and produce stand in 2002, Detwiler's Farm Market has grown to span six stores across Manatee and Sarasota counties plus a distribution center in Palmetto. A seventh store is expected to open in Braden River Plaza off State Road 64 in Manatee County this fall.

In North Port — which will be the brand's southernmost location— Detwiler’s will be at 5001 N. Sumter Blvd.

“North Port has been the number-one most requested site for Detwiler’s to come for seven to 10 years,” Detwiler’s President Sam Detwiler told North Port City Commissioners at their July 6 meeting, where plans for the new store were announced. 

“We needed the right location, and we weren't able to find that up until now," Sam Detwiler said. "So we are stoked to be able to come here.”

When it opens, the North Port store will have 125 to 150 employees, according to Sam Detwiler.

Key parcels

Detwiler's will be in a new shopping center being developed by Orlando-based commercial real estate investment firm Sentinel Fund. The firm purchased the 35-acre site for the development at 5001 N. Sumter Blvd. for $11 million in June, according to Sarasota County property records.

The new shopping center will be 140,000 to 200,000 square feet, Sentinel Fund Manager Tae Shin told the Business Observer. 

So far, Detwiler’s is the first tenant to sign a lease. 

“We haven’t finished pre-leasing yet,” Shin said. “The plan is to have a grocery-anchored retail and dining destination.”

The shopping center is one of several areas Sentinel Fund plans to develop around North Port in the near future.

“In the last 18 months, this investment group has bought key parcels here in our city,” North Port Economic Development Manager Michael Meerman told commissioners. Among them are “both properties on the north side of I-75 and Sumter … totaling approximately 60 acres.”

In addition, Sentinel Fund purchased about 15 acres on the northwest quadrant of I-75 and Toledo Blade Boulevard and a 2.1-acre parcel along Toledo Blade Boulevard at Commerce Parkway, Meerman said.

Over the last decade, Sentinel Fund has acquired and sold more than $200 million of commercial real estate. On the property management side, it oversees more than 467,000 square feet of commercial real estate across the Southeastern United States. 

'Retail desert'

Sentinel Fund's interest in North Port began in 2023 when Shin said he was attending a trade show hosted by the International Council of Shopping Centers and met North Port staff, who educated him about the city’s growth and simultaneous lack of services.

Curious, Shin said: “Right after the show, I went down” to North Port and studied the area’s demographics. 

He found “a retail desert,” he said, with “no grocery stores, no restaurants — no shopping existed — so we said, there is an opportunity here.”

The firm's development team, including Shin and Tom Harvey, recently submitted plans for the shopping center at 5001 Sumter Blvd., which will have 660 parking spaces.

“Our center is going to complement Sarasota Memorial Hospital's economic impact in North Port by creating hundreds of jobs and by helping to keep North Port dollars in North Port,” Shin told commissioners. “It's going to help the economy here in the city grow.”

Sarasota Memorial broke ground on its North Port hospital last fall, nearby on Sumter Boulevard, where the healthcare system is planning to open its more than $500 million facility in late 2028. The shopping center with Detwiler's will be across the street from the new hospital.

“Next to Sarasota Memorial finally breaking ground here, this is probably the most exciting announcement we've had in my 12 years of living here in the city,” North Port Vice Mayor Barbara Langdon said. "I've been waiting for this [Detwiler's] for a very long time... and I'm sure the North Port store is going to be by far and away my favorite."