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Shrinking paradise

An upscale community for the energetic 55-and-older set is in the works for Wimauma, which offers a place for farm animals and breathing space from neighbors.

By ANDREW MEACHAM
Published October 14, 2005

WIMAUMA - When C.H. Davis named this town after daughters Willie, Maude and Mary in 1902, he was building a railroad. Over the next hundred years, Wimauma became known for timber and turpentine, citrus and the migrant workers who lived here.

That, like the rest of southern Hillsborough County, is changing fast. Amid pine trees and acres of cleared land, a rose-colored wall introduces a community under construction for "active" retirees.

Valencia Lakes, a gated community for upscale empty-nesters, will offer basketball courts but no balloon volleyball, aerobics but no shuffleboard, an Internet cafe but no infirmary.

GL Homes is betting that the 1,300-acre swatch of land on U.S. 301 will support an emerging demographic: the energetic, 55-plus set.

A promotional kit shows an artist's rendering of a stone monument surrounded by waterfalls and cabbage palms. Above it all, the words hang like a promise: "Welcome to Paradise."

For neighbors, that vision comes with a price: the shrinking paradise they called Wimauma, a place to raise farm animals and maintain breathing room from neighbors. For some of them, every new development adds to a growing conviction that there is no place left to run.

It will take until the end of 2006 for the new promise to come true. It will not come cheap.

The least expensive preconstruction home of the 1,540 houses to come at Valencia Lakes: a two-bedroom with a covered patio and a two-car garage runs $293,900.

From there, prices climb the ladder of 16 prototypes, all with names like Tuscany, Portofino and Sardinia. Topping the list is the $458,900 Verona, a 3,500-square-foot sanctuary in a single story with up to four bedrooms and more of everything.

There'll also be a 45,000-square-foot social club that will include an Internet cafe with WiFi access, a movie-style theater with platform seating, spacious swimming pool, billiards lounge and more.

The athletic club near the front entrance offers two more pools (for laps and "resistance walking"), a fitness center, racquetball and basketball courts, and a full complement of whirlpools, saunas and steam rooms.

Another 1,500 acres, earmarked for future development, borders the property north and south. At State Road 674 east of U.S. 301, a Wal-Mart Supercenter will open by the end of 2006.

A central location between Manatee, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties made this property ideal for developers, said project manager Rebecca Strowbridge. Residents could commute to Tampa, St. Petersburg or Sarasota. They could shop in Brandon Town Center, St. Armands Circle or downtown Tampa.

On Thursday , GL Homes conducted a drawing out of a pool of early bird deposits. Winners got their choice of lots. Strowbridge declined to release sales figures, but she called the response "incredible."

Traci and Greg Hagan built their dream home in 2002 on Simmons Loop, just north of the Valencia Lakes site. The TECO analyst, his wife and their four children left suburban Riverview to escape congestion, to buy cows and goats, and to have a place to drive their ATVs.

All those wishes have materialized. So has a slew of drivers filling up both lanes of Big Bend Road during morning rush hour, where it can take up to three light cycles to get through.

"Some people like to live in subdivisions," Traci Hagan said. "We didn't like that lifestyle. But it looks like it's caught up with us."

The upscale tone of the development has, to some extent, muted the criticisms from neighbors.

"It's nothing short of magnificent," said Jerry Milton, president of the Sun City Center Chamber of Commerce.

As part of its deal with the county, GL Homes will extend 19th Avenue NE, which now stops at U.S. 301, around the north end of the complex. The company will add another road around the east perimeter.

Now traffic and speeding has made that impossible, she said. Residents in an apartment complex west have littered and thrown rocks at her horses, she said.

She hopes that the area's newest complex will improve it.

"I hope Valencia Lakes will be a real benefit, something that will set an example," she said.

With 78-million baby boomers in the United States now, "the need for housing solutions for that group is obvious," said Caryn Klebba, a spokeswoman for builder Del Webb.

Today's retirees are looking to reinvent themselves more than to relax, argued gerontologist Ken Dychtwald in a July article in The Futurist , a magazine about trends in culture and technology. Most baby boomers expect to work at least part time as seniors, he wrote.

"Forty-five years ago, they were looking for their golden years," said Ginny LoMagno, a St. Petersburg Realtor. "Now when people retire at 55 or 60, they've got 25 or more golden years left, and they're not ready to slow down."

A 2004 survey by retirement already said Del Webb found that 26 percent of adults surveyed were considering moving in to an active 55-plus development.

"They have to market the community in a way that people will find appealing," sai d Andy Kochera, a senior policy adviser to the AARP's Public Policy Institute.

Of course, the word "seniors" does not appear in Valencia Lakes brochures. Models are tanned and fit and walking on trails or playing tennis.

Age-restricted communities are building homes that can be navigated in wheelchairs, said Kochera of the AARP. Most avoid flights of stairs.

All but one of Valencia Lakes' 16 models have a single story. The only two-story design places the master bedroom downstairs.

Andrew Meacham can be reached at 661-2431 or ameacham@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 13, 2005, 08:19:05]