An empty space in downtown Sebring is filling up after a groundbreaking in April of Sadie’s Place at 139 N. Ridgewood Drive, which was the site of the defunct Nan-ces-o-wee Hotel.
Sadie’s Place is a project of X-Urban Construction, which is owned by Ken and Liz LeBlanc.
“I am super excited to do this project; most of you probably know that we developed the Journal Plaza in Lake Placid,” LeBlanc said. “Learned a lot of lessons doing it and it’s been a huge success for Lake Placid.”
The goal is to improve upon what they learned on that project to create Sadie’s Place, possible because the Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency and the City of Sebring have gotten behind it. “The project would not have been feasible if it wasn’t for the CRA helping incentivize doing it,” he said.
If he would have had to buy the land along with all the other expenses, the rents for the business tenants would be too high, LeBlanc explained. The CRA’s input into the project essentially brought it down to the point where the rents will match the rents of the Journal Plaza, which are manageable.