Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Low-rise, low-price condos on the horizon

Units costing less than $200,000 are planned as the average price of a new Pasco home nears $250,000.

By JAMES THORNER
Published September 27, 2005

HUDSON - In Pasco County, $200,000 doesn't buy a lot of house anymore.

That's one reason condos are catching on. Essentially large apartments for purchase rather than lease, condo units are among the few housing options near the Gulf of Mexico available for less than $200,000.

The latest project is a condo of 600 units proposed for 185 acres west of U.S. 19 in Hudson. The building site, mostly flat and forested, lies southeast of Old Dixie Highway and Gulf Way.

ICI Homes hopes to erect 25 three-story buildings. They'll be made of prepoured concrete slabs as a precaution against gulf storms, though the site is 11/2 miles inland and outside the area most affected by hurricane storm surge.

"We don't even use concrete block anymore," said Serge Gootan, director of development for ICI's Central Florida division.

Gootan insists his units will be among the lowest priced new homes in west Pasco. He plans a sister project, of 216 units, in the Lake Bernadette neighborhood near Zephyrhills.

The Zephyrhills project will be restricted to seniors. Not so the Hudson condos. As the averag e price of a Pasco new home approaches $250,000, condos are a budget housing option.

The smallest unit, about 1,400 square feet, would start between $190,000 and $200,000, Gootan said. Prices could rise, however, as Louisiana and Mississippi siphon workers and building materials for hurricane reconstruction.

"I wouldn't be surprised that quite a few buyers would be a collage of empty nesters, divorcees and young couples," Gootan said of the Hudson condos.

"I'm just stunned by the numbers people are throwing out for what I would consider to be barely habitable residences."

The 185 acres sold to developers in July for $2.25-million. If the land is rezoned as requested, ICI could start construction next summer and deliver to buyers by early 2007.

Gootan expects the project to harmonize with neighbors that include the Sea Pines and Gulf Side communities. Another condo project, 362 units on property 3 miles to the south near Leisure Beach, was approved in August over objections from neighbors.

ICI has tried to anticipate complaints. Buildings would take up only a quarter of the acreage, the rest of the land serving as buffer. Gootan promises not just affordability but invisibility.

"We originally tried for five-story buildings, but county officials felt that five stories wouldn't be well received by adjacent neighbors," Gootan said.

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]