Citrus Country Groves will expand in east Pasco while Performance Honda of New Tampa plans to renovate the fruit packer's buildings.
By JAMES THORNER
Published August 11, 2004
WESLEY CHAPEL - Citrus Country Groves, the fruit packing emporium at Interstate 75 and State Road 54, is selling its property to a new Honda motorcycle dealership.
Citrus Country, which packs about 80 percent of the area's fresh citrus, isn't going away. President Jim Guedry plans to expand the business into a vacant plant in east Pasco.
Guedry wouldn't disclose his new location, but the Pasco Beverage plant north of Dade City is available. Once the mainstay of the Dade City economy, Pasco Beverage expects to cease juice processing in late November.
Citrus Country packs about 600,000 cartons of fruit and employs more than 100 during the picking season. Payroll should swell after the relocation.
"It will be at least six to eight months before any of that happens," Guedry said.
Citrus Country's 2 acres on the northeast corner of SR 54 and I-75 is under contract to Performance Honda of New Tampa.
Tapping a hot market for motorcycles (Harley-Davidson has also considered property in the area), Honda franchisee Wyndell Kern plans to sell about 1,500 bikes a year.
The dealership won't build from scratch, but will renovate the 17,800 square feet of buildings left by the fruit packers, Kern said. Scheduled opening date is the first of the year.
If Performance has its way, the dealership will serve the entire Tampa Bay area. "We hope to make our dealership a destination for people from Pinellas and Hillsborough," said Kern, who also runs a Performance Honda near Orlando.
Citrus Country is something of a central Pasco County landmark. Aside from the packing, Guedry does a brisk retail business on site.
The shop opened in 1982 and sells bags of oranges and grapefruit, seashells, fireworks, confections and souvenirs. Mail order citrus makes up the bulk of the retail business.
"It's kind of like the old Stuckey's kind of deal," Guedry said, referring to the once-popular highway chain known for its pecan logs.
Guedry, who bought the business in 1991 from Oakley Groves, hadn't planned to sell the I-75 property. But Honda approached him with a sweet offer. The closing date is Sept. 20. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
