March 19, 2026
By: Laura Kinsler
If anyone knows the demand for grocery stores on Osceola County’s rapidly growing Narcoossee corridor, it’s Daryl Carter.
The developer and president of Maury L. Carter & Associates opened the Publix-anchored Cornerstone at Narcoossee in late 2024 at the intersection with Cyrils Drive. It’s the only grocery store on Narcoossee between U.S. 192 and the Orange County line. Carter sold that center in January to Publix as part of a $130 million portfolio deal that included multiple stores in Florida and Georgia.
Now Carter is under contract for a 10-acre commercial lot at the southwest corner of Narcoossee and Jones Road and wants to build another grocery store, but he will need a waiver from the county’s strict Narcoossee Overlay zoning rules to make it happen. The property is zoned for a historic town commercial center, which limits the size of any building to 15,000 square feet.
The concept plan from CPH Corp. shows a 51,000-square-foot grocery store with an expansive curbside pick-up area, an attached liquor store and an outparcel with a gas station/convenience store. During a pre-application meeting this week, county planners told Carter’s team his proposal would require a zoning waiver approved by the Board of County Commissioners. The building orientation would also have to change to comply with the overlay, which requires shops to be closer to the main road with parking in the rear.
Carter told GrowthSpotter he would likely pursue the variance, but if he doesn’t get it, he’ll still close on the property. He told GrowthSpotter the scarcity of undeveloped land at major intersections on Narcoossee makes it a good long-term investment.
“So if there’s not a way around that, be it a variance or a modification of that Narcoossee overlay for the use, then we would end up having to go in another direction,” he said. “It will just change the tenant mix. I think it’s still a very good retail corner, and there are not that many of them remaining anymore on the Narcoossee Road corridor, particularly north of 192.”
The project is an example of a long-running dispute between St. Cloud’s city council, who want to see more commercial development on Narcoossee, and county commissioners who want to protect the rural character of the corridor.
A year ago, the two elected bodies held a joint workshop during which the city pushed for changes to the Narcoossee Overlay, including at Jones Road, where they want to allow more commercial development. In an effort to advance that cause, the city is in the process of annexing the Chisolm Estates subdivision to extend the city limits north, making them contiguous to another 9.8 acres on Narcoossee at Starline Drive, where the owners are planning a different grocery-anchored shopping center.
The Starline property at 1010 N. Narcoossee Rd. is owned by the Brady and Van Tassel families, who are seeking a voluntary annexation into St. Cloud and working with Interplan LLC to entitle the site for a neighborhood commercial center anchored by a 26,000-square-foot grocery store with 13,300 square feet of attached in-line retail and three outparcels.
Chris Blurton from Interplan represented the owners in a pre-application meeting with the county to discuss drainage and transportation issues, such as the need for a traffic signal at Starline Drive. Tuesday evening, St. Cloud’s Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the annexation and to change the zoning from county agricultural and residential to Highway Business.
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