A sign facing the Suncoast Parkway welcomes southern neighbors contending with high mortgage payments and mind-numbing traffic.
By MARY SPICUZZA
Published April 2, 2005
SPRING HILL - New Tampa, be warned.
Hernando County has set its sights on your residents.
The latest hint of the county's courtship of its southern neighbors can be found at Beck Builders Inc. on Spring Hill Drive.
"Welcome New Tampa," the simple sign reads.
It faces east toward the Suncoast Parkway, luring passing motorists to move a little farther north up the road.
"It's just to be friendly," new home consultant Mary D'Angelo said of the company's sign. "We're getting a lot of traffic from New Tampa. There's a lot of people, a lot of interest in people moving up here."
D'Angelo said that factors like traffic congestion and the cost of homes have been driving residents to flee New Tampa for Hernando's greener - or at least less developed - pastures.
"Here you get more bang for the buck. That's basically what we're hearing," she said. "And probably congestion. Think of the time it would take for somebody to travel from one part of Pinellas County to another."
The northern migration is nothing new. But Beck's sign is just another symptom that Hernando is actively recruiting residents from New Tampa and other urban areas.
And companies like Beck, which builds custom homes as well as standard plans, is ready to welcome those fleeing the crowds with open arms.
"It wouldn't take much to convince me," D'Angelo said. "I think because of all the building that's going on here, and also the services that we offer: more restaurants, the hospital on State Road 50. So you see there's lots going on."
When her family moved to Hernando in 1979, D'Angelo remembers little more than a deli on Deltona Boulevard and a Winn-Dixie store.
"I think it maybe started out to be a retirement community," she said. "But now it's a whole, balanced community."
With builders like Beck sounding Hernando's siren song, it's also a growing one.
