County's building boom focuses squarely on malls

While residential development slumps, three malls are quickly taking shape.

By CHUIN_WEI YAP, Times Staff Writer
Published December 29, 2007

Never mind the home-building blues - here come the malls.

If there's any upside to 2007 worth remembering on the development scene, it would be the rumble of machinery that's bringing three supersized malls - or "lifestyle centers," in developer-speak - to the pastures of central Pasco.

In 2007, the malls hit the ground in quick succession, marching into Wesley Chapel with millions of square feet and business dollars.

The 800,000-square-foot Grove at Wesley Chapel was first off the block, breaking ground in March and opening its first phase just in time to drawThanksgiving shoppers.

In May, Cypress Creek Town Center got the last of the government stamps of approval it needed.

Planned for just over 1-million square feet at Interstate 75 and State Road 56, it will be among the biggest malls in the Tampa Bay area - and the size of its ambition was matched by the controversies it brought.

Environmentalists have since sued in federal court to stop the mall, focusing on alleged mistakes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made in the approval process and in allowing the developer to pave 56 acres of wetlands at the site.

"It's a square peg being forced into a round hole," said Dan Rametta, a Land O'Lakes environmentalist who has consistently opposed the project.

But while the legal challenge hangs in the balance, construction has leveled the 100-acre area.

Two miles to the east, steel has risen at a third mall, the 750,000-square-foot Shops at Wiregrass.

Together, the trio are luring marquee names such as Macy's, Kohl's, SuperTarget, Dick's Sporting Goods and two cinema chains, with the likelihood of Barnes & Noble, Williams-Sonoma and Apple joining the dozens of new restaurants arriving in central Pasco.

It's a far cry from the doldrums of the residentialmarket.

As Pasco limps out of 2007, it is likely to see just slightly more than 2,000 new single-family homes in the county.

That's about 3,000 fewer than last year's total - already considered bad by Pasco's pace of development.

Epperson Ranch, a 2,000-acre Lennar Corp. project, was on the verge of getting county approval when Lennar sold out to Metro Development Group, which has put the project on hold while it digests its big haul from Lennar's fire sale.

Other big residential projects also pulled the plug in Pasco, including the 611-acre Grantham Ranch in Wesley Chapel, the 280-acre Crosswinds community in Dade City and a Richmond American development in Land O'Lakes.

Questions remain about Pulte Homes' willingness to push forward with building the 5,000-acre Wiregrass development - the residential component of the Shops at Wiregrass. Those shopping for homes there have been told the builder is putting the project on hold.

There was virtually only one big name that got off the block this year: Starkey Ranch, the last 2,500 acres of a once mighty land empire. But the proposal to turn that into a huge mixed-use development is now only just plodding through the regulatory paces.

"The best-case scenario is we have the shovel in the ground at the end of 2008," said J.B. "Trey" Starkey III.

But new services are coming.

Central Pasco is getting its first full-service acute-care hospital. University Community Health and Adventist Health System joined forces to build the new hospital on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56, a location they settled on after neighbors opposed another proposed site farther north.

Another business proposal is still wafting in the air. A Largo company wants to put a big landfill just outside Dade City and is awaiting the results of state and county evaluations. The controversy it has aroused among politicians, residents and businesses has gotten into full swing - and it's likely to get hotter in 2008.

"I just have great concern that if you open a landfill of that size, literally it becomes a dumping ground for everyone else," said state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey.

Chuin-Wei Yap can be reached at (813)909-4613 or cyap@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 28, 2007, 20:53:39]