Park Avenue Shops in Winter Park: Where They Moved in 2026
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"They gave us 30 days to move 40 years out of that space and into this one," Tuni owner Paige Blackwelder told FOX 35 this summer, standing in what used to be Miller's Hardware.
That sentence connects three of the biggest Park Avenue stories of 2026. The boutique had to leave its corner. The hardware store had already closed. Each opening on the Avenue this year was filled by a business moving out of some other storefront. If you walk downtown every week, the year looked like a run of unrelated surprises. Laid out in order, the moves form a single chain, and the property at the end of it hasn't been decided yet.
Here is the sequence, in the order it happened:
So one national brand moved down the Avenue and another took its old space. The longtime local boutique ended up a block off Park, inside a closed family business. Bungalower called that last move "a very Winter Park kind of handoff: one longtime local name leaving the building, another moving in."
The clearest explanation of why storefronts are turning over came from the owner who chose to close. Stephen Miller, grandson of the founder, told Winter Park Voice in May that he had several reasons. Miller had expected a family member to take over. He also said the business doesn't bring in enough revenue compared with what the property is worth.
That second reason is what ties the year together. Miller's was the longest continuously operating family-owned business on the Avenue, according to the same report. If the land under a store is worth more than the store can earn, a family owner thinks about selling and a landlord thinks about who can pay more rent. The Tuni and Miller's stories come from that same math, seen from opposite sides of a lease.
Miller also had a view on what should come next:
"The plumbing on Park Avenue kept me in business … that stuff is old. The City Commission just needs to let there be more density so they can support rebuilding a lot of places people love."
As for his own property, he would only say, "The future of the property is to be determined. I'm weighing options." FOX 35 described the site as nearly an acre that had attracted interest from developers, with no sale final when it reported.
That puts Tuni in an unusual position. The business forced off Park Avenue is now operating on the one nearby parcel whose future is most clearly undecided.
When Tuni moved in, FOX 35 reported that the arrangement was for three months and that the Miller family was still deciding what to do with the property. Bungalower had reported earlier in July that Tuni was looking for a three-month spot near Park Avenue while it searched for a permanent home. The move-in was reported July 12, so that three-month window ends around mid-October.
As of early October, Tuni's own site still lists the pop-up at 143 W. Fairbanks Ave. with store hours. It gives no end date and doesn't mention a permanent location. No news report has announced an extension or a new address. If Tuni is part of your routine, Fairbanks is still the place to find it for now. Its next stop hasn't been announced.
Winter Park City Manager Randy Knight told FOX 35 the city hoped Tuni would find another spot on Park Avenue. Bungalower wrote that the conversation Tuni's departure started "is unlikely to disappear with the new tenant."
The chain affected more than the anchor storefronts. The smaller changes this year followed a similar pattern. Some independents adjusted to the national brands nearby, others decided to leave, and the newest arrivals are concepts already proven somewhere else.
Through the Looking Glass got some benefit from the Brandy Melville crowds. Winter Park Voice reported that the nearby boutique offered discounts to customers who showed a Brandy Melville receipt.
Louise James Boutique at 214 N. Park Ave. announced in August that it would close. It's the pink storefront owner Katie Bullivant designed with her daughter. The shop opened in 2019 after starting online. Bullivant didn't give a final date, and when Bungalower reported the news, the store and online shop were 50% off for a closing sale. No closing date has been reported since, so if it's one of your stops, check before you go.
Nigel's Bananas has a confirmed storefront at 334 N. Park Ave., in the empty space near Briarpatch. The family-owned dessert shop started in Seaside, Florida, in May 2021, also has a location in Watersound, and is growing through franchising. Bungalower heard the shop is aiming for a February 2027 opening, though Nigel's hasn't announced a date. The menu includes chocolate-dipped frozen bananas, ice cream bars, cheesecake, and key lime pie with toppings.
West on Fairbanks, the local operators who opened this year were also on their second location. Chef-owner Michael Collantes opened Sushi Saint, his second handroll restaurant, on February 11 at 957 W. Fairbanks Ave., in the former Bar Kada space.
On Harmon Avenue, Black Phin Coffee Bar has its last full-service day at Harmon Collective, 1152 Harmon Ave., on October 11. The owners say they're looking for their own storefront, and they aren't closing the business.
The streetscape is changing too. The Park Avenue Refresh construction, which we covered in Winter Park's bottleneck season, was in its final touches between Swoope and Garfield as of the city's September 9 update. Wall caps were in, planter pots had arrived, and seasonal planting was scheduled to start the week of September 14.
Some of these threads come to a head in the next six weeks, and the Avenue's usual fall events go on around them:
During the festival weekend, the same stretch of Park Avenue will have Lilly Pulitzer on Tuni's old corner, Brandy Melville in Lilly's old space, Louise James either still open or gone, and an empty storefront near Briarpatch waiting for Nigel's. A block away on Fairbanks, the Miller's property will still be undecided, unless its owner announces something first.
If you own a Park Avenue building, or a home whose value depends on what happens to the blocks around it, you need someone who has watched these corners change over more than one cycle. Shirley Jones has followed downtown Winter Park for over 25 years and will talk through what this year's changes mean for your property. Schedule a free consultation.
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