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Businesses breeze into new plaza

The center adds a core to the area near Pasco High, a sheriff's station and the county fairgrounds.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published December 24, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes] Pasco High seniors Emily Hill, left, Kegan Dreibelbis, and Kat Farley play video games at Thursday's opening of Trop II, on State Road 52.

DADE CITY - A new pocket of development has popped up in the city, but it's not in any of the usual spots.

A restaurant and Internet cafe, pizza carryout joint and dance studio have moved into a new plaza on State Road 52, across from Pasco High School. And next door, the former Department of Children and Families facility has been converted into a professional office center.

With little other commercial activity around, the business owners hope they are creating a new destination.

"There's really nothing up and down here," says restaurant owner Edna Gonzalez. "We figured there was a need out here."

Gonzalez and her husband opened Tropical Breeze Cafe and Ice Cream Parlor downtown on Seventh Street more than two years ago. At first just a lunch spot, the restaurant now serves dinner and helped spark the emergence of a downtown nightlife.

On SR 52, Gonzalez says, another niche can be filled.

Trop II, which opened last week, offers up breakfast at 6:30 a.m. to catch commuters and stays open until 11 p.m. for students and young folks wanting to hang out. Open Monday through Saturday, it serves sandwiches, short-order snacks, ice cream and fancy coffee drinks, but no alcohol. Furnished with plush couches, free Wi-Fi, arcade games and air hockey, the space encourages patrons to linger.

"There's a little for everyone to do and feel comfortable," Gonzalez says.

Next door, Domino's Pizza already is finding high demand. Drivers deliver hot pies to Dade City, San Antonio, St. Joseph and Blanton.

Manager Bryan Hardy said another population has seized on the delivery service: Saint Leo University students.

The city rezoned the parcel last year to a "neighborhood commercial" designation, intended for small businesses that don't cause big traffic or parking impacts.

City attorney and planner Karla Owens said the eateries and dance school, called DancExperience I, fit the area, whose primary landmarks are the high school, Pasco County Fairgrounds, Sheriff's Office station and a county park with busy baseball and soccer fields. Surrounding residential lots are mostly five acres and larger.

The city probably won't allow much more commercial development there.

"We didn't want to strip it out," Owens said. "Our thought process was that west of the Sheriff's Office ... that we would try to keep that residential."

Office park next door

The nearly 40,000-square-foot former government building between Domino's and the Sheriff's Office has a convoluted history. Built in 1990, it housed offices of the former state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. The following year, Dade City entered a 15-year lease-purchase agreement to acquire the building. But it backed out in late 2004 when its main tenant, the Department of Children and Families, announced it would rent only a small portion of the space. Finding new tenants seemed too uncertain in the face of steep financial obligations.

A year later, Dade City developer Bill Adair, under the corporation Lynan Inc., bought the building for $2,050,000. Its current incarnation is a professional office center.

The structure has been painted and relandscaped outside and refurbished inside. It's now home to several office tenants, including a Web design company, gourmet food firm, some mortgage brokers and marketing professionals, Adair said.

"One reason we took it is we felt like there was a market for some office space," he said. "Some of it's local people spreading out, getting out of downtown into a bigger space."

There's also the potential for attracting new businesses, thereby creating new jobs.

"There's going to be a demand. More people are coming, we're going to have more businesses here," he said.

Once renovations are complete and most of the space is leased, Adair said he plans to build a three-story addition onto the front side of the building, with retail uses on the bottom and yet more offices on the top floors.

Molly Moorhead can be reached at 352 521-6521 or moorhead@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 23, 2006, 23:14:00]