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Wow some great answers. Thankyou. Im in such a predicament now,I intended to keep the content and have a local section on the site with local events and local forum etc, thus also retaining a community around. The anchor text i was going to build during the non-business phase was placename. And as i want to build the new business as a brand its new anchor text would also be placename. I am eventually wanting to pursue seoplacename, but i do have a lot of learning & practice to do yet (1-2 years) so, I wanted to build a "site age" to go with the 20 year domain registered age(is this relevant to rankings?). Or would i be left with the wrong type of community...

I understand your concern. If I had the domain for a similar size town in the USA where I lived I would give it a shot.  In addition to directory pages I would have a lot of local content and it would grow over time.

Of course! Glad I could help.