Construction values last year totaled about $1-billion. The juggernaut continues.
By MELIA BOWIE, Times Staff Writer
Published February 13, 2005
Like many longtime Pasco officials, property appraiser Mike Wells knew the boom was coming.
"Pasco County used to be a bedroom community," he said, a place where retirees flocked, strip malls thrived and development was sleepy at best.
Now, "the face of Pasco County is changing," Wells said.
Suburban homes with every amenity are blooming where cows once roamed.
In 2004 new growth in the county totaled $932.6-million, with construction values hovering at $1-billion, Wells said.
The county's taxable value nearly doubled in about eight years, from $7.9-billion in 1997 to $14-billion last year.
"We're starting to mature," Wells said.
Roads are being widened. Retailers are tripping over themselves to set up stores. And a new attitude is emerging as an influx of young professionals and baby boomers begin to call the county home.
"It is the natural order of things with growth," said County Commissioner Steve Simon, noting the migration of both residents and businesses that cite overcrowding in Pinellas County and overpriced lots in Hillsborough County.
"Plus, (we're) trying to stimulate things," said Simon.
Housing still leads the charge when it comes to the county's metamorphosis, but leaders also are emphasizing firming up Pasco's economy - a lengthy endeavor with a less visible impact.
"You see rooftops before you see a lot of other industry come in," Simon said. "The demographics come in before the retail and the commercial. What we have to do as officials is make sure there's a balance.
"We went through the rooftops phase," he said. "Now we're about to go into the business phase."
Although observers might see little more than construction equipment and road work this year, several landmark projects already are under way.
From new malls and sprawling business parks to sleek hospitals and mixed-use communities that will take form in 2006 and 2007, plans are in the works to propel Pasco beyond its bucolic past.
ROADS
Until the mid 1960s, Pasco was almost exclusively an agricultural community, say the ranching, citrus and farming families who put down roots here.
In regional circles, "I used to think ... we were kind of considered rural - hicks, I guess," said real estate agent Dewey Mitchell, whose family is among Pasco's large landowners.
"Well, I don't think that's the case now," Mitchell said.
Arguably the biggest catalyst for the county's evolution is roads.
"Without the (Suncoast) Parkway, we'd still be up here wandering," said county administrator John Gallagher. "It opened up an avenue for us."
Both home builder and business brochures tout quick commutes to Hillsborough, Pinellas, Tampa International Airport and other key stops.
This year, widenings, expansions and extensions will continue to reshape growth patterns.
Continuing work on Pasco's increasingly vital State Road 54 corridor as well as efforts to widen State Road 52 and extend Ridge Road intend to improve east-west access across the county.
Penny for Pasco dollars will fund significant upgrades along those arteries, officials say. The sales tax hike of 1 cent on the dollar was approved last year. Over the next 10 years, $72.7-million of its proceeds will go to transportation projects.
They include $22-million for a new Interstate 75 interchange on SR 54, plus widening SR 54 to six lanes underneath the overpass from Pasco Road to County Road 581.
Early allocations for State Road 52 would cover the addition of east- and westbound left-turn lanes on the route linking Hudson to Dade City.
Extending Ridge Road will "open up sites in central Pasco," said Mary Jane Stanley, chief executive officer of the Pasco Economic Development Council, which recruits companies to the county.
But like much of Pasco's scheduled development, the work will take time.
"It's been a struggle," said Gallagher, the county's administrator, noting concerns about the road cutting through conservation land and requirements from regulatory agencies. "We won't see anything until 2006 or 2007."
RETAIL
Roads may move people through the county, but retail will help bring them in.
Topping the list of coming attractions is Cypress Creek Town Center, which will be the Tampa Bay area's largest mall with 1.3-million square feet.
The 500-acre site sits at I-75 and SR 56. The project's developers anticipate an opening date of October 2007.
The mall is expected to bring more than 100 stores, a multiplex cinema, 4,000 jobs and more than $10-million a year in taxes.
In November, county commissioners approved the endeavor, although environmental concerns are still being raised by residents and preservation groups. The mall site abuts Cypress Creek, a protected waterway that feeds the Hillsborough River, which provides most of Tampa's drinking water.
Meanwhile, other retailers already are descending on Pasco and its ever-growing suburban market. Big box stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Target and Wal-Mart are battling it out for dominance in central Pasco.
Spurring their interest are demographic changes that show Pasco's median age is dropping - from 47.9 in 1990 to 44.9 in 2000 - and its purchasing power is going up. In Wesley Chapel, where automakers are circling, the median household income is now about $65,000 a year.
Like dominoes, auto dealers are setting up shop there and further along the SR 54 corridor, where the lion's share of Pasco's new growth is occurring.
"There's a lot of wind swirling around that market," said dealership owner Scott Fink, who is simultaneously building new Mazda and Hyundai dealerships in Wesley Chapel.
Also coming to central and east Pasco are Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Pontiac, Buick, GMC and Chevrolet dealerships. Even Harley-Davidson is scouting sites as pasture land gives way to commercial growth.
OFFICE and INDUSTRIAL
But Pasco cannot subsist on new homes and shopping alone, county leaders say. Not if it wants to thrive in the long run.
"I think everyone realizes bedroom communities can't afford to provide all the amenities people want to have," said county administrator John Gallagher. "You have to have balance."
In an attempt to keep the current residential boom from overwhelming Pasco, county officials are mandating that proposed developments of regional impact contain certain restrictions.
"We're requiring for every house (developers) build, they must create a job," Gallagher said. "They also have to set aside land for so much business."
The blueprint for growth has influenced projects such as Suncoast Crossings - a mixed-use development at SR 54 and the Suncoast Parkway that will offer single-family homes, stores and sites for industry.
The project's office park, North Pointe at Suncoast Crossings, is slated to become home this year to Clearwater flight simulator manufacturer Opinicus. The expanding company's relocation promises to improve the county's cachet and create 225 jobs with an average salary of $67,000.
"We've been waiting a long time for enough rooftops to attract companies," Gallagher said.
But "most counties, I don't think they start out with one this big," he said of Opinicus, whose clients include Airborne Express.
"Historically, our growth in the business community has been small businesses. This is the first one with the potential to draw other light industries into the county."
Courted by Pasco's EDC, Opinicus will build on 5.3 acres of the Suncoast Crossings property, while offices, retail and homes go up around it.
Following that model, plans are on the books for residential town centers like Connerton and Wiregrass with office parks nearby.
The centers are contributing to Pasco's growing number of industrial and office parks, which recently hovered at 11 and now number 23.
And in a development that could rechart Dade City's economy, the defunct Pasco Beverage plant is reinventing itself. The new owners are converting the space, once home to a citrus giant, to the Dade City Business Center.
The 500,000-square-foot property will have renovated spaces that will serve as business incubators, said Citrus Country Groves president Jim Guedry, who bought the plant in 2004 with his partners.
Guedry said he wants to annex the plant into Dade City and later invest about $3-million to add 130,000 square feet of professional office space.
HEALTH CARE
Roads, retail and business parks are not the only growth indicators for the county. Changes in health care will also play a role in Pasco's development.
Community Hospital, in New Port Richey, is making a $197-million move to fast-growing suburban Trinity. Design will take up much of 2005 for the new six-story hospital on SR 54 at Mitchell Ranch Plaza.
In Zephyrhills, East Pasco Medical Center is scheduled to open a $23-million adult open heart surgery center in December or by early January, said hospital spokesman Jerry Sterner.
Plans are continuing to open a seven-story hospital in Wesley Chapel. The project will top $100-million.
"It's only going to be 100 beds to start, but it will have medical offices as well," said Sterner, also with Adventist Health System, which owns East Pasco Medical Center. "They're looking at a 2008-2009 to open."
HOUSING
Even with all of the projects in the pipeline, housing still is king when it comes to steering the county's development.
"We have to give credit where credit is due," said property appraiser Wells.
Last year, Pasco's tax roll increased 15 percent in just a year. Officials estimate that 80 percent of the development increases are because of residential gains, not commercial growth.
"The main industry in this county is still housing," Wells said.
In 2004 Pasco shattered its own record-breaking rate of new housing starts, with 6,399permits issued.
The most recent record had been 4,826 permits in 1978, when the county saw a flood of retirees seeking affordable homes.
Young professionals constitute much of the new migration.
Wells said new homes this year will cost about $200,000, a rapid change from the three-bedroom, two-bath home people paid $150,000 for not long ago.
Even in west Pasco, where green space pales in comparison to undeveloped land in Pasco's east and central markets, redevelopment is stirring.
This year, New Port Richey is poised to welcome what is perhaps the biggest redevelopment undertaking in the city's history. A $30-million project called Main Street Landing will ultimately replace aging apartments, a deli and a floral shop with a four-story Mediterranean residential and retail complex.
Early prices on condos and townhomes at the project range from about $300,000 to $585,000.
In less populated parts of Pasco, developers are building out rather than up.
But even in sprawling neighborhoods "you see a significant effort with the County Commission in trying to create new communities with new standards," Wells said, noting "wider roads, underground utilities, community organizations and neighborhood parks."
Mixed-use communities with residential, retail and office are on the rise. And town centers are the ideal for Pasco.
"Connerton and Bexley Ranch and the Porter Ranch project, they all have a chance to define the future of the county because they're big enough where the developers can really design a mixed-use community," said Mitchell, the Pasco ranching family native who also serves as vice chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership, a regional marketing organization.
"The concept of living and working in the same community seems to be at the forefront," he said.
And current efforts to shepherd simultaneously thriving residential, retail and industrial climates will have a lasting impact, Mitchell predicted.
"It really has a chance to define what the county is known for in the next 25 years."
