Vacant DeLand storefront gets new owners

BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
New occupants soon — This space at 128 S. Woodland Blvd. in Downtown DeLand will soon become the new home of Anna Bananas, a retail store specializing in furniture.

Anna Bananas will be new Downtown DeLand resident

By Pat Andrews
Beacon staff writer

posted Jan 18, 2013 - 6:35:26am

The crew at Anna Bananas in DeLand is preparing to triple their floor space by moving into a larger building.

Diane and Shannon Venturini, a mother-and-daughter-in-law duo, will move their shop, which sells repurposed, reclaimed and vintage housewares, to the long-vacant former NAPA auto-parts building at 128 S. Woodland Blvd.

Anna Bananas hopes to open on the corner of South Woodland Boulevard and West Georgia Avenue in the first part of February.

The Venturinis opened Anna Bananas three years ago in a little house — 900 square feet — in DeLand’s historic district on North Florida Avenue. Now, they’ll have 3,000 square feet.

Diane Venturini said when she began looking at new properties for the shop a while back, she saw the old storefront at 128 S. Woodland Blvd., and, “I could just picture what it’s going to look like.”

The only problem was, the property wasn’t on the market. Then, the bank put it up for sale. The Venturinis bought it for just over $200,000.

Anna Bananas is a family affair.

While Diane and Shannon Venturini handle retail sales, Diane’s husband, Stan, and her son, Paul (who is Shannon’s husband), build furniture from reclaimed and repurposed wood. Tables are a favorite reuse for the wood.

The Venturinis also find vintage home furnishings they sell in the shop.

“Diane and I go out and buy antiques,” Shannon Venturini said. And, “We do custom pieces for a lot of people.”

Like other Downtown DeLand merchants, the Venturinis also have a booth at Adjectives Market in Altamonte Springs. Adjectives specializes in vintage home décor and antiques. While Anna Bananas is a top seller among the 85 dealers there, the Anna Bananas crew is most excited about the new DeLand location, they said.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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