Corkscrew Country Store to close as land sale moves ahead

For nearly 30 years, the Corkscrew Country Store, almost 10 miles east of Interstate 75, served as a remote stop for farmworkers, motorcyclists and motorists seeking a meal, snack or cold beer at day’s end.

Not anymore.

Debbie Halcomb, who founded the store with her late husband, Charlie, in 1996 and secured a retail liquor license the following year, said she will close the store at 19990 Corkscrew Road on Nov. 24. The next day, the 9.5 acres on which it sits is scheduled to be sold to a buyer that has not yet been disclosed, said Noreen Burt, the listing agent with Your Naples Realty.

The land was owned by Constance Ann Carter from 1994 until her death in 2024, property records show. She left it to Stephen Carter Butler in June 2024. He could not be reached for comment.

Halcomb, 73, always leased the store building. She said the closure and impending land sale mark the end of an era — not only for her business but for the entire eastern Corkscrew Road corridor, once defined by scattered farms on large tracts. That landscape is rapidly changing. Since 2022, more than 15,000 homes have been built or approved, a surge that will peak with the 11,000-home Kingston community, which broke ground Nov. 13.

“I used to feed all the farmworkers,” Halcomb said. “A lot of pickers and workers. They’re not here anymore. Back then, it was all orange groves. And now that’s all gone. Orange groves and cattle. There was a lot of history here.

“The whole time I’ve been here, it’s been good. Hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, pulled pork, I cooked it all. I’d go as hard as I could go. I was young back then.”

The decline of citrus, made worse by Hurricane Irma in 2017 and citrus greening, hurt the area’s agricultural workforce. After Charlie died, Halcomb continued running the store alone. But development next door accelerated the store’s downturn.

“When they started building this,” she said of sales dropping, motioning toward Verdana Village. The 2,400-home community broke ground in 2022, and a Publix opened there in April 2024.

“That was a huge setback for me. That hurt me. Because it was so pretty back in there.”

Halcomb said she once regularly saw Florida panthers, deer and other wildlife from the store’s wooden steps — sightings that are now rare. The landscape near her own home off Alico Road has changed dramatically, too.

“When I got there, there were three houses,” said Halcomb, who moved from Tiffin, Ohio, 30 years ago. “Now, it’s house to house to house.”

The rapid residential growth has boosted the value of the store’s real estate, said Matt Simmons of Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons. The property was listed at $2 million on July 1, then reduced to $1.9 million and to $1.6 million on July 16.

“The attractive part of the property is the 2.7 acres along Corkscrew that has Community Commercial zoning,” Simmons said. “That commercial zoning, combined with an existing commercial use already in place gives a buyer confidence that a new commercial use is viable.”

The back 6.27 acres remain zoned agricultural. The frontage, however, is the key selling point.

“That property is less than a mile from a Publix plaza with commercial outparcels, with more nearby commercial and residential entitled or already under development,” Simmons said. “But almost all the commercial properties in the Corkscrew corridor are part of larger, master-planned developments, so a small, existing commercial parcel like this is rare.”

Simmons said the sale represents the end of a local landmark’s chapter.

“It’s a one-of-one property, and while it’s sad to see the era end for a Corkscrew landmark, it’s hard to criticize the owner for wanting to sell at this point,” he said. “The timing is right.”

Halcomb said she does not plan to leave Southwest Florida.

“I don’t want to go anywhere where it’s cold,” she said. “If I go anywhere, it would be toward Tennessee. My daughter lives outside Nashville.”

Halcomb said she expects a large turnout of customers during her final week. Inventory has dwindled to candy bars, snacks and a few six-packs of beer.

“There are a couple of motorcycle guys who still come in here all the time,” she said. Halcomb does not plan on traveling east on Corkscrew Road again.

“I don’t really want to know,” she said of what the area’s future holds. “I won’t be back this way very often, I can tell you that.

“I’ve got 20 acres. And I’ve got cows and children and grandchildren and great grandchildren.”