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Budding business park is thriving
Performance Honda is leasing 20,000 square feet at Dade City Business Center, where about 40 percent of the space is now leased.
By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published September 24, 2005
DADE CITY - The newest tenant at Dade City Business Center might be considered owner Jim Guedry's best customer.
Performance Honda, which deals in motorcycles, ATVs and watercraft, bought Guedry's 2-acre packing house at State Road 54 and Interstate 75 last year.
Guedry then bought a chunk of the former Pasco Beverage juice plant north of downtown, moved his citrus shipping business and has renovated the sprawling complex into an industrial and business park.
Now the Honda dealer plans to lease about 20,000 square feet there of warehouse space.
"We knew he had that available space," Performance Honda general manager Darrin Hovater said.
The space will serve as a distribution center for his two dealerships: the one in Wesley Chapel and his original one in Winter Garden.
Hovater said five employees will work at the center assembling new motorcycles.
"We'll keep $6- or $8-million worth of inventory there at all times," he said.
Guedry originally bought 57 acres of the beverage plant site last fall and has since picked up more pieces. Dade City is annexing the property.
Guedry's citrus shipping business, which employs more than 100 people, is up and running. Soon he will open a 6,000-square-foot retail store fronting U.S. 301 selling fruit baskets that can be shipped anywhere.
Beyond that, he and his partners hope to lure between 20 and 30 other businesses. They have already signed on several big-ticket tenants. The most recent one was announced in July, when the Orlando company Howard Fertilizer & Chemical Co. signed a one-year lease for 40,000 square feet of warehouse and office space.
Business center spokesman Joe Kennedy said that so far almost 150 people are working at the center's different businesses. In less than a year of ownership, 40 percent of its space has been leased, he said.
"We're very pleased," he said.
Molly Moorhead covers news about Dade City. She can be reached at 352 521-6521 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6521. Her e-mail address is moorhead@sptimes.com
[Last modified September 24, 2005, 01:00:22]
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