A new services center would cost a lot less along Pauls Drive than in the thick of things.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published September 26, 2003
BRANDON - The county can't afford to build a $4.2-million county services center on land at the center of the Guagliardo family's property along Pauls Drive, family representatives and Hillsborough County officials conceded this week.
Saying it would cost too much to build roads and install utilities for the long-proposed site, the county instead is pursuing 4 acres of Guagliardo land that abuts Pauls Drive and is easily accessible.
"The site in the center is a real problem because of those infrastructure costs," said county real estate director Mike Kelly. "By shifting it from the center of the property to the east, the costs are significantly less because we don't have to build roads and everything else."
The development is the latest twist in the county's negotiations with the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce and three landowners along both sides of Pauls Drive. Pauls is planned as the gateway into the Brandon Main Street project, envisioned as a 300-acre mix of shops, homes, restaurants and civic uses, including the services center.
The chamber wants to share the cost of developing 5 acres on the east side of Pauls, where the chamber would build a new headquarters beside the 25,000-square-foot services center. But the property owner, Taho Properties, has not agreed to sell.
Representatives for another Pauls Drive landowner, Sidhom & Saeed Inc., have offered to sell 4.5 acres at Pauls and Oakfield Drive. But their asking price is more than $1.5-million. Kelly doesn't want to spend more than $600,000 or $700,000.
The Guagliardos had proposed donating more than 7 acres in the center of their 80-acre tract to the county in exchange for infrastructure improvements and impact fee credits that would help them develop the rest of the property.
But Kelly said road construction and water-sewer hookups leading to the parcel would cost the county more than $4-million.
Rather than swap land for county services, Kelly is in talks to buy 4 acres from the Guagliardos. In an update to county commissioners last week, Kelly identified land near the corner of Oakfield and Pauls as a favorable location. Joe Guagliardo, whose father farmed the land, said the family would rather part with 4 acres farther south on Pauls.
Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said last week he would try to secure state money to help move the Main Street project forward, but stressed that he thinks the Guagliardo property "is superior" to any other location for the services center.
Talks with Taho and Sidhom & Saeed continue. Kelly hopes to secure land by the end of this year and open the services center by 2006.
