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JAMES THORNERThe proposed plazas will bookend Wesley Chapel and bring more than a dozen shops to the surrounding communities by December 2004.
WESLEY CHAPEL - Two new shopping centers - one on each end of Wesley Chapel - promise to bring more than a dozen stores to the gates of two of the community's largest neighborhoods.
The bigger of the two is Lexington Oaks Plaza, 36 acres crammed between Lexington Oaks Boulevard, County Road 54 and Old Pasco Road.
Eleven separate lots, one of which could hold a 171,338-square-foot superstore, would front the 1,500-home Lexington Oaks community.
Several miles to the southeast at the gates of the Meadow Pointe neighborhood, a commercial developer has agreed to buy 16.4 acres at Aronwood and Bruce B. Downs boulevards.
Plans call for two or three midsized stores of about 30,000 square feet apiece, said Patrick Berman with the Cushman & Wakefield real estate company in Tampa.
"The sale should close in the first quarter of 2004 and stores open by Christmas next year," Berman said Monday.
Specialty Restaurants Corp. Inc., based in California, is behind the Lexington Oaks project. Construction plans show 11 lots, one dominated by what looks to be a superstore larger than three football fields.
That tenant is unnamed, although other lots are labeled a 75-student day care, a bank, three 100-seat restaurants, two office buildings and general retail.
When the Lexington Oaks site was rezoned three years ago, Wesley Chapel neighbors expressed fears that developers would build an auto dealership or Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Specialty Restaurants' attorney Ben Harrill assured the crowd his client has ruled out "all offensive type uses." Trees and ponds would buffer the stores from the nearest homes in Lexington Oaks.
A traffic study estimates the shopping center will generate 25,273 car trips a day. County Road 54 is considered accident prone at its intersection with Old Pasco Road, but the highway is due for widening.
Meadow Pointe residents have also kept wary watch on commercial development nearest their neighborhood. The 16 acres at Bruce B. Downs and Aronwood have lain vacant for a decade, used as practice fields by kids' soccer teams.
Berman said the business appeal of the property, aside from its presence along the fast-growing Bruce B. Downs corridor, is that it sits directly across from one of the entrances to Northwood Commercial Center, anchored by SuperTarget.
"It's basically the back door of Target," Berman said.
The land, owned by a California company called Trout Creek Properties LLC, is appraised at $3.3-million. At least one entrance on Aronwood will serve the shopping center, whose tenants haven't been announced.
Meadow Pointe neighbors recently rallied to fight two driveways off County Line Road to access a proposed Walgreens drugstore south of County Line Road. They feared an upswing in traffic accidents. Under lobbying from neighbors, Hillsborough County commissioners eliminated one of the driveways.
- James Thorner covers growth and development in Pasco County. He can be reached at 813 909-4613 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4613. His e-mail address is thorner@sptimes.com