Plans for Suncoast Crossings suggest a Wal-Mart Supercenter, SuperTarget or Home Depot could be coming to a State Road 54 interchange.
By JAMES THORNER
Published September 3, 2003
LAND O'LAKES - Two super-sized stores, most likely including a Home Depot, would anchor the first shopping center at the rural intersection of the Suncoast Parkway and State Road 54, according to plans filed last month with Pasco County.
The plans show a 109,600-square-foot big-box store with an attached 23,100-square-foot garden center. It's nearly equal in size and layout to a Home Depot proposed for Eiland Boulevard and State Road 54 near Zephyrhills.
The other anchor store is even bigger: 186,227 square feet.
Tampa Bay area retail estate brokers have said Wal-Mart has targeted the Suncoast/SR 54 interchange.
The site fits the company's strategy of stringing its stores fewer than 10 miles apart. A Wal-Mart Supercenter opened two years ago at Little Road and SR 54 in New Port Richey. Another is proposed for U.S. 41 and Dale Mabry Highway in Land O'Lakes.
But three Wal-Mart Supercenters proposed for Pasco this year have been more than 200,000 square feet. The building pegged for the parkway has floor space nearly identical to a SuperTarget that opened last year in Wesley Chapel.
Wal-Mart Supercenters and SuperTargets combine a department and grocery store under one roof. Home Depot is the country's largest home improvement chain, with 1,500 stores. Representatives from the retailers were unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Developer Ken Morin, whose 700-acre Suncoast Crossings project encompasses the shopping center, was on vacation. But in an interview with the Times earlier this year, Morin mentioned negotiating with two major national retailers on projects that would start the first half of next year.
Construction plans detailed a 50-acre shopping complex with 2,354 parking spaces on the southwest corner of the parkway and SR 54. Twenty buildings, about half lying along SR 54, would include three restaurants, two banks, a gas station and an auto repair garage.
Diagrams show the larger of the two anchors stretching along the west side of the Suncoast Parkway. The other anchor, presumed to be a Home Depot, lies farther west on the map.
Many of the shopping center's future customers have yet to move to Pasco. Although 10,000 homes are proposed for the 5-mile strip of SR 54 between the parkway and U.S. 41, only a few hundred are in the ground.
Suncoast Crossings will include 1,300 homes, including Ivy Lake Estates, a 500-home development under construction south of the proposed shopping center.
- James Thorner covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached in central Pasco at 813 909-4613 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4613. His e-mail address is thorner@sptimes.com
