Welcome to Downtown+ New Port Richey. The Hacienda Hotel has been bubblegum pink since 1927. Not faded. Not ironic. Deliberately, gloriously pink, Mediterranean Revival arches framing the entrance like someone famous is about to walk through. For a while, someone famous usually was.
A theatre built for a silent film star just crossed its hundredth birthday and still runs live shows. The whole road shuts down once a month so people can stand in it with a beer. And the Cotee River keeps sliding past all of it toward the Gulf, indifferent to the fact that this was supposed to be Hollywood.
What is Downtown+?
Downtown+ is how you find what's happening in New Port Richey. Local businesses, events, deals, community news. One place. No digging through five different Facebook pages or asking around on Nextdoor.
If it's on Main Street or along the Cotee River, it's here.
What You'll Find
- Local Business Profiles. Restaurants, breweries, shops, services. Who runs them, what they do, whether they're open right now
- Events. Chasco Fiesta, Fourth Friday block parties, theatre shows, riverfront concerts. Posted by the organizers, not scraped from some calendar
- Deals. Discounts from businesses in town. Happy hour extensions, festival specials, theatre night dinner packages
- News. Community updates from local businesses and organizations
- Local Products. Buy from local shops online. Shipping, pickup, digital
- Restaurant Roulette. Can't pick a place to eat? Tell us what you're craving. We'll decide for you
New Port Richey's Story
Before any of this, the area was called Hickory Hammock. Farmers and ranchers. Square wells dug by hand. In 1883, Aaron McLaughlin Richey, an Ohio native who'd tried his luck in the California gold rush and Missouri before heading south, set up a post office across the river. The name drifted through the Devil's Woodyard until the whole area adopted it.
By 1924, the city was incorporated. Investors looked at the Cotee River bending toward the Gulf and had an idea that seems almost comically ambitious now. This was going to be the Hollywood of the East.
But they had evidence. Silent screen star Thomas Meighan built a home on the riverbank. Golfer Gene Sarazen settled in. The Hacienda Hotel opened in 1927, stucco the color of bubblegum, and started welcoming celebrities who wanted somewhere warm that wasn't Los Angeles. The Richey Suncoast Theatre (originally named for Meighan) opened in 1925. A hundred years later, it's still running live plays and comedy nights. Not many buildings outlast their original purpose. This one did.
The glamour faded. The town didn't. Every March, Chasco Fiesta fills it with the third-largest street parade in Florida and 350-plus classic cars lining up bumper to bumper. Every fourth Friday, the streets close for live music and an open-air market. The bones of a 1920s movie-star town became a community.
That's the better story.
Start Here
Looking around?
- Browse local businesses and professionals
- Check what's coming up, from Chasco Fiesta to comedy night
- See what deals are running
- Read community news
Own a business here?
- Create a free profile and show up where your neighbors are looking
- Post events, run promotions, connect with the community
The river's not going anywhere. Neither is this town.