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BRIDGET HALL GRUMETThe county attorney recommends a new location for the $5.7-million tennis stadium. The new site would be closer to Saddlebrook Resort.
WESLEY CHAPEL - Mired for months in the delays over extending State Road 56, plans for a $5.7-million tennis stadium could move forward Tuesday on a new site closer to Saddlebrook Resort.
The Porter family has offered to donate 20 to 25 acres abutting the southwest corner of Saddlebrook for the county-owned tennis stadium, which would be built with tourist tax revenue.
The site would be carved out of the Wiregrass Ranch, the 5,000-acre expanse where the Porters plan to build more than 14,000 homes and 2.3-million square feet of stores and business.
Unlike the original stadium site the county considered on the unbuilt portion of SR 56, the Porter site has access to central water and sewer lines, as well as a service road connecting the site to State Road 54.
After outlining three possible sites Tuesday, County Attorney Bob Sumner will recommend the County Commission pick the Porter property.
"It's a good location just off State Road 54 and it's right where everything is growing," Sumner said Thursday. "The hotels and motels being proposed are all in that area, so they would be able to accommodate the tennis facility and provide more of a tourist tax base for the county."
A divided commission voted in December to pursue plans for a 5,000-seat tennis stadium, operated by a nonprofit arm of Saddlebrook.
Early talks focused on the 15 acres offered by Lee Arnold in the unbuilt portion of Meadow Pointe. But the plans hinged on the extension of SR 56, and a disagreement between Arnold and the Porters, who own the neighboring land, threatened to delay construction of the road.
In the meantime, staffers also looked at 140 acres the county owns at Boyette and Overpass roads, the site of a future regional park. Building a tennis stadium there, however, would require the county to bring in water and sewer lines.
In March, the Porters offered the site Sumner now recommends. The infrastructure already is in place, and the property is even closer to the Saddlebrook Resort, where the tennis competitors would stay.
"This gets it right next to Saddlebrook, which we never anticipated," Saddlebrook owner Tom Dempsey said. "But if we can get it, it would be marvelous."
It could take a couple of months to finalize the donation of the property, if commissioners pick the site.
Building the stadium could take another 18 months, Dempsey said.
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com