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410 more acres for shopping in plans

Neighbors worry about traffic, which is already a problem in the Curley Road area.

By CHUIN-WEI YAP
Published January 28, 2007

Anyone who thinks Wesley Chapel has enough shopping centers has something else coming.

Harrison Bennett Properties is about to bring a retail, office and residential complex to 410 acres on the corner of Curley Road and County Road 54. The complex has not been named.

Harrison Bennett brought New Tampa The Walk At Highwoods Preserve, also home to the Muvico Starlight 20 cinema.

But it's been tough getting off the ground for David Freeman, owner of Harrison Bennett.

That's mostly because the plodding pace of road improvements in the Curley Road neighborhood - the clogged, two-lane poster child for central Pasco's traffic woes - is holding up Freeman's plans.

It's been a long wait for him.

Six years ago, neighbors in the Curley Road area bordering CR 54 said he had begun to inquire about their properties.

In the past year and a half, Freeman ramped up his interest, spending $5.3-million to amass a sprawl of land just south of Depue Ranch.

Freeman is modeling his tentative plans for the site on Highwoods Preserve, which is anchored by a Circuit City store, Starbucks, Boston Market and Panera Bread.

Freeman developed Highwoods for three years before selling it to Centennial American Properties of Greenville, S.C., in 2000.

On Curley Road, Freeman wants to build a mix of stores, offices and apartment homes.

He has not started looking for specific tenants or designed the square footage yet.

Like many of his would-be neighbors, he's waiting for the sticky road situation in that part of central Pasco to be smoothed out.

That shouldn't be long, county planners say.

Curley Road is due for a major realignment, scheduled to start by the end of this year.

It would straighten out the southern kink of the curving road and join it with Meadow Pointe Boulevard.

"They have all the parcels they need," said Manny Lajmiri of Pasco's metropolitan planning organization.

Then, in 2009, another new two-lane road, tentatively called the Zephyrhills Bypass extension, is due to reach westward from Eiland Boulevard.

That would create a new intersection with Curley Road that would sit at the heart of Freeman's project.

The retail and office complex might surprise those who sold their land to Freeman.

"He told me they were going to do residential," said Deanne Hammett, who sold 20 acres to Freeman.

That was because the land was zoned for residential use when Freeman bought it. It's since been changed by a comprehensive plan amendment last year, Freeman said.

The development will be one drop in the sea of growth that is Wesley Chapel. As the massive road works loom, thousands of new homes are poised to arrive in the neighborhood.

Up Curley Road, Watergrass is about to sprout 2,000 homes. Epperson Ranch is planning another 3,000.

Yet another 3,000 are due when New River builds out between Zephyrhills and Wesley Chapel.

Freeman's project should not be confused with the town center to be jointly built by Watergrass and Epperson Ranch farther north on Curley Road. That town center, Freeman said, is styled more as a pedestrian-friendly traditional neighborhood downtown; his project is on a larger retail scale.

Residents fed up with the CR 54 bottlenecks won't be pleased. But Freeman has weathered development's rocky road before. "When I was first developing Highwoods Preserve at the start of 1997, people were skeptical," he said. "This area is similar to what Bruce B. Downs was 10 years ago."

Simply, it means more business for Freeman's venture.

Hammett may be taken aback by the change of plan, but she said she's been impressed by Freeman.

"He's very good at what he does," she said. "He's kept it very quiet."

Chuin-Wei Yap covers growth and development. He can be reached at (813) 909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 20:53:15]