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Dade City has a 'red letter day'

Groundbreaking takes place on a long-awaited hotel-conference center.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published August 25, 2005

DADE CITY - Bearing golden shovels and in blue hard hats, officials broke ground Wednesday on the city's long-awaited hotel and conference center.

Plans for the Hampton Inn, scheduled to be completed within a year, detail a three-story hotel with 64 rooms and about 1,200 square feet of conference space. It's being built on a 3-acre parcel near KFC on U.S. 301 south of downtown.

Wednesday's groundbreaking drew a host of dignitaries, including Dade City Manager Harold Sample, Commissioner Eunice Penix, Brother James Hallett, the mayor of St. Leo, and state Rep. Ken Littlefield.

City Commissioner Scott Black addressed the gathering, calling Wednesday a "red letter day."

"We have been looking forward to this day for years," he said. "We're looking forward to some big things."

County Commissioner Pat Mulieri praised the city for finally securing the anchor for business development it has long sought.

"They will come, and now they will have a place to stay," she said.

Atlanta developer Piyush Mulji made an agreement with the city earlier this year to build the hotel and in turn receive about $150,000 in tax breaks over several years. The road since then has been bumpy, as Mulji missed a deadline to close on the property, and the agreement had to be re-executed. He now is under a new deadline, to begin construction by Sept. 6.

On Wednesday, he said he'll be ready, despite the difficulty in lining up subcontractors because of the area's building boom.

After the ceremony, the city's development review committee gave formal approval to his project plans, the final step before construction begins.

[Last modified August 25, 2005, 01:23:19]