- November 12, 2026
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For the past few years, Punta Gorda’s Fishermen’s Village has been getting attention for unwanted reasons.
The previous owner was sentenced to federal prison. The Charlotte County property went into receivership. A potential sale fell through because of insurance costs post Hurricanes Milton and Helene.
For a while there, it was one bad headline after another.
But in July, a pair of new owners stepped in to buy the property along Charlotte Harbor, in a deal worth more than $40 million. And now, as the busiest shopping season of the year approaches, merchants are banding together to try to draw holiday shoppers away from the big box stores the weekend after Thanksgiving.
“If you think about the old saying that it takes a village to raise a child, we’re supporting one another,” says Jen Pfropper, owner and co-founder of Ästhetik spa & skincare. “We’re working not just on the Black Friday initiative but also encouraging the tenants to work together.”
The promotion — a four-day event that begins on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and ends on Cyber Monday — speaks to how those running the well-known outdoor destination in Punta Gorda seek to simultaneously bring the property back to prominence, remind shoppers that it’s still there and that it’s not just for tourists. It's a big ask, considering both the village's recent history and the the explosion in e-commerce.
Pfopper, who moved her shop from downtown Punta Gorda into Fishermen’s Village in June, says the destination is primed to be rediscovered.
Even if it has never gone away.
Fishermen’s Village, according to a history on its website, at one time housed as many as seven companies operating fish packing houses and plants. But by the 1930s, there were only two left, the Punta Gorda Fish Co. and the West Coast Fish Co. Gulf Oil Co. was also a tenant.
The fish companies in those days operated small fleets of what were called “run boats,” which took supplies and fishermen to fish camps on Charlotte Harbor and its coves. The boats would return with their catch, which was sorted, packed in ice and shipped north.
In 1939, the history says, a fire destroyed the two large packing plants, leaving only the Punta Gorda Fish Co., though it operated on a smaller scale. Then, in the mid-1940s, a small crab packing plant was built on the pier and later expanded to include shrimp.
By the late 1970s, though, the dock and what was left had fallen into disrepair. Fishermen’s Village was built in 1980.
Today, Fisherman’s Village is largely made up of retailers, with 97,000 square feet of shops lining a main, boardwalk-like promenade. Three restaurants have recently opened, and the property is fully occupied, says Thomas Klein, a partner with Harbor Capital Group, one of the new owners.
“We have (one space) turning over, but it’s already filled,” he says.
“When we heard this was available, we jumped on it,” says Pfropper of her space. “It is difficult to get in because it's a popular place to be. People stay.”
In addition to the retail component, the 22.8-acre property has a marina and, directly above the shops running the length of the property, are 47 two-bedroom hotel suites.
The reasons there were issues and there is a need to, in a way, relaunch Fishermen’s Village is its previous owner. More specifically, the previous owner’s legal troubles.
Jonathan Larmore, according to Charlotte County records, bought the property in 2012 for $8.12 million. Larmore was CEO of Arizona-based real estate development and investment firm Arciterra Co. and owned several shopping centers.
In October 2023, Larmore, who had filed for bankruptcy, was removed as owner and the property was placed in receivership. Less than a year later, in July 2024, SVN Commercial Partners was appointed by a federal judge to market the property for sale.
Fishermen’s Village initially drew 10 bids. But the winning bidder backed out after insurance issues arose in the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene struck in 2024.
Larmore was sentenced to five years in federal prison in March 2025 in a New York case the U.S. Department of Justice says involved manipulating the stock price of WeWork Inc. to inflate the value of his securities in the company.
According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. Larmore is serving his time at FCI Lewisburg, a medium-security prison in northern Pennsylvania.
One longtime merchant at Fishermen’s Village summed up Larmore’s tenure and management approach rather succinctly. “I mean, that guy really screwed us,” says Jeff Anderson, who owns Nicole’s Collection with his wife Nicole.
“I had three stores out here at one time and we were doing quite well. And then Jon Larmore decided to do what he was doing.”
Anderson, who is retiring this year and closing the store, has owned shops at Fishermen’s Village since 1992. He lost one business because of the rent increase when it was time to renew the lease. And then “within a couple more years, (Larmore) gave me one day to decide on a lease for what was going to be a million-dollar store. So, I lost a good business and I saw him give it to people who were partying with him.”
Klein’s Harbor Capital Group and Torose Equities closed on a $43 million purchase of Fishermen’s Village in July.
Klein says since taking over, one of the main focuses has been on rebuilding parts of the marina damaged during the hurricanes. The fuel dock is operational, as are some slips, and they can still sell fuel.
The rest of the marina, however, is closed. He hopes the work will be completed within a year.
As for the three new restaurants that have opened in the last several months, they were under construction before the purchase, while the receiver was in charge.
Which meant there were delays.
Lee Richardson, who owns Leroy’s Fish Shack, says the receivership held up the opening of his restaurant because it took long to get approvals and work done, holdups that created a backlog.
These were issues, he says, that would have been handled in short order with onsite management. Instead, a job that could have taken months wound up taking far longer.
Having the restaurants open is a big part of bringing people to Fishermen’s Village. Anderson, the retiring shop owner, cites the loss of earlier eateries as part of the problem during the Larmore era. Conversely, retailers and ownership cite the return as a reason for hope.
“The restaurants bring foot traffic,” says Klein, “which in turn helps our retailers long term. So, the retailers are very excited to see restaurants back online.”
And, again conversely, Leroy’s Fish Shack’s Richardson, is excited to see efforts to draw more visitors, like the Black Friday promotion.
Richardson, who grew up locally and has another restaurant in the city, says Fishermen’s Village is business — and personal.
“I wanted to do something (here) because I would love the Village to do something different, to help interact with the locals again," he says, "and bring the people that don’t come down here because they feel like it’s a tourist trap.”
If a recent Thursday afternoon was any indication, early efforts are working. The parking lot was nearly full, people were strolling along the shopping area, ducking in and out of stores. At Leroy’s, the servers and hosts were busy leading people to tables.
And, in stark juxtaposition to the afternoon heat in Florida, Christmas decorations were up.
Pfropper sees there is an opportunity to grow that traffic, to expand Fishermen’s Village’s reach, if retailers work together.
The Black Friday promotion, she says, is meant to harness the collaboration. One element is a passport promotion, where shoppers who stop at six participating shops will get stamps and enter into a drawing when it’s filled up. Tenants will also offer discounts and cross-promotions.
The idea, she says, is simple: Encourage visitors to return.
Several hours after showing two visitors around the property, Pfropper sent an email to them saying, “The heart of today’s conversation was the renewed collaboration among Village ownership, management and the businesses that give this waterfront destination its character.
“We want people," she writes later, "to come for shopping and stay for the whole experience.”
