Tech City Winterfest, Traditional Celebration in Hi-Tech Setting

ALACHUA ‒ A high-tech holiday celebration might bring to mind visions of smart devices, wireless knickknacks, and Bluetooth-connected gadgets with green and red flashing lasers. But for Mitch Glaeser, founder of San Felasco Tech City, Winterfest brings together all the typical trappings of a seasonal party—in a high-tech setting.

Sunday’s Winterfest marked the second year of the gathering, a relative newcome in area holiday celebrations. But considering that as recently as 2018, developers Mitch Glaeser and Rich Blaser were collaborating on the concept for San Felasco Tech City, it is a celebration destined to become a favorite for the high-tech community where work space for businesses is combined with living space and recreational areas.

The community is designed to reflect the needs of emerging tech industries in the Alachua 441 corridor, where much of the employee base is comprised of a younger tech savvy millennial generation. Demographically, this generation tends to prefer smaller more functional housing and fewer possessions for a more mobile lifestyle. They also prefer locations that put work, housing and recreational facilities in a central setting for less commuting, providing more family time for these younger workers with growing families.

The first phase of the proposed community was built in 2019 and now houses 47 companies in a 126,000 square-foot complex with an additional 88,000 square feet being built in the next year. Currently, the completed space houses only businesses, but housing for employees will be added in 2023.

“Last year we decided to host an event called Winterfest to celebrate the holidays and provide entertainment for the families of our tenants, especially with activities for children,” said Glaeser. “However, it is not an event only for our community but for anybody to bring their children. It was such success last year that we decided to hold it again this year on a larger scale.”

Winterfest is just one of many events held around a central promenade at Tech City. “We want this to be all inclusive for our community of businesses, to offer our tenants a place to gather and bring their families together,” said Glaeser. “Since our opening, we have hosted over 100 events in the promenade. It has also been used for 10 music videos and two movie sets.”

This year’s Winterfest welcomed people as they gathered around the promenade lined with booths offering games, treats and a visit from Santa for the children of the Tech City community and the surrounding area. In addition to the individual booths set up by tenant companies of Tech City, the City of Alachua provided a police car and a fire truck, complete with lights and sirens for the kids to explore. Bounce houses were also set up for the children as well as a food truck for the families.

There was a face painting booth, and free cotton candy, as well as various sweets at different tables. Children decorated cookies with colored icing at another booth. A tractor provided hayrides that circled the complex as well.

Tech City tenant Menadier Engineering stuck with an engineering theme by providing a game for children to design a Christmas tree constructed of green plastic cups. Ben Boukari, of Boukari Realty, emceed the event, providing music and free candy for the youngsters.

For the kids, among all the activities, the big event was a visit with Santa Claus provided by Citron Cleaning. Children were also excited by a visit with a costumed Elsa from the “Frozen” movie that was provided by BrittReneeCreative, a provider of a variety of costumed characters for events.

“We do this event for a chance for the community to get together and interact with their neighboring companies and provide events that provide ‘quality of life’ interaction,” said Glaeser. “San Felasco Tech City is more than just a conglomerate of businesses. It’s a community.”

#     #     #

Email rcarson@

alachuatoday.com