Hot properties

"Things are cooking in Pasco," says the county's property appraiser. And as the Suncoast Parkway opens up formerly hard-to-reach ranch land to development, property values and population growth should continue to rise.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 16, 2000

Got waterfront property along the Pithlachascotee River? How about a piece of ground in Wesley Chapel? Or an orange grove along U.S. 41?

Chances are you're sitting on a Pasco County hot spot.

Maps drawn by the Pasco Times using county property values show Rubik's Cube-like assortments of red, representing the torrid zones:

A splotch of red along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in Wesley Chapel. A fiery stretch of State Road 54 and U.S. 41 in Land O'Lakes. The river of red running south of Ridge Road near De Cubellis Road.

We're talking places so filled with traffic that drivers can barely pull into the street, where construction crews dot the landscape and real estate agents are buying Lexuses.

"Things are cooking in Pasco County," said Pasco Property Appraiser Mike Wells. "It's a good time to be in the business of insurance, selling mortgages and to be a Realtor."

But the maps -- they reflect values only through 1998 -- don't tell the whole story.

The Suncoast Parkway, the $500-million, three-county toll road, is expected to transform lots of previously hard-to-reach scrub land into a home-building Eldorado.

Yet much of that former no-man's land, belonging to ranching families such as the Bexleys, still is assessed according to its agrarian past and not its possible suburban future.

"In the next two to three years, all along that parkway is going to light up red," Wells said. "The interesting thing this shows is that the parkway is going right through some of the most depressed areas of the county."

No one would mistake Wesley Chapel for depressed.

The fastest-growing community in Pasco since the 1990 Census, Wesley Chapel, based on housing growth projections, could add as many as 20,000 residents over the next 10 years.

Development is spreading outward from two locations: from the Interstate 75-SR 54 interchange, which thrives as the first exit north of Tampa, and the Pasco-Hillsborough border, where developments such as Meadow Pointe are drawing families to the suburbs.

The proximity of major job centers in north Tampa ensures most of the new homes are filling fast. The University of South Florida is only 15 minutes away.

"There's no mystery to it," said Don Buck, whose Devco Development Corp. sired Meadow Pointe. "People like to be as close to work as they can in a nice neighborhood."

Also lighting up the map is Land O'Lakes, which boasts, unusual for much of Pasco, a preponderance of young families over retirees. That's reflected in the community's median income of $40,000, Pasco's highest.

For years developers eyeing Land O'Lakes had to contend with narrow lanes and congestion at U.S. 41 and SR 54. That's changed since the opening of a widened U.S. 41 in December. North Tampa and Carrollwood are 15 minutes away. Ten minutes west of Land O'Lakes is the Suncoast Parkway.

Construction beckons on U.S. 41 north of SR 54. Three housing developments totaling more than 16,000 homes -- Connerton, the Groves and Bay Lake -- should dominate the east side of U.S. 41 north of Ehren Cutoff.

South of Ehren Cutoff will be the commercial district to serve those future residents. Property values are climbing to account for U.S. 41's recent widening to six lanes. Mom-and-pop businesses are succumbing to corporate chains with deeper pockets.

Roads are also driving development near the Starkey family land between Odessa and New Port Richey, parts of which light up red on the map of property values.

Jay B. "Trey" Starkey and his brother, Frank, are building Longleaf, a 1,000-home neo-traditional community where most homes will cost between $100,000 and $250,000. Some, along the Anclote River, will cost as much as $750,000.

Neo-traditional developments are part of a movement trying to re-create the benefits of a city in the suburbs: Homes, many with porches, are generally closer together. The Starkeys want to build around a central green with shops and restaurants accessible to pedestrians.

Southwest of Longleaf is the megadevelopment Trinity, which has driven up property values north of the Pinellas County line. At completion Trinity, one of the fastest-selling subdivisions in the region, is expected to have 22,000 homes.

A YMCA, a medical center, a college campus and a championship golf course are all part of the transformation of the former Mitchell family pasture land.

Already Trinity has seen impressive non-home growth, offering nearby amenities for new buyers. Two years ago, VLOC opened a 45,000-square-foot optics plant at Trinity. The plant, which employs about 160, makes components for industrial and medical lasers.

Trinity also boasts a 50,000-square-foot medical center featuring more than 25 physicians in specialties such as nuclear cardiology, pulmonary medicine and gynecology. Along with 10,000 square feet of doctors' offices, the center has space for diagnostics, physical therapy, mental health counseling, surgery and recovery, and after-hours emergency care.

The $15-million facility offers almost everything except primary care physicians, surgery that requires overnight stays and a full-service emergency room.

The medical center shares a 92-acre campus laden with oak trees, cypress heads and 20 artificial ponds with the James P. Gills Family YMCA. This is the first phase of a four-phase plan that calls for a complete hospital with overnight beds.

Not surprisingly, values have shot up along the Ridge Road-De Cubellis Road corridor, which will soon have speedy access to Tampa. The county will extend Ridge Road this year to connect with the Suncoast Parkway.

"If I had some disposable income, I would try to lock up large sections of land near the Suncoast corridor. . . . It's an excellent investment opportunity," Wells said.

Much of the renaissance in west Pasco is driven by the escalating values of waterfront property. Maps show scattered red spots in a sea of blue or white -- mostly property blessed with proximity to the Gulf of Mexico.

Houses along the Pithlachascotee River, which opens into the gulf with a relatively well-maintained channel, are appreciating in value. When they hit the market, waterfront homes sell like hot cakes.

"I would expect to see a significant increase in all gulf-front and riverfront property in New Port Richey," Wells said. "The growth is definitely there, and people are paying higher and higher prices to live there."

Even those neighborhoods where property values have cooled -- Embassy Hills, Regency Park -- could be due for a turnaround. Wells said the new construction boom in the east is likely to ignite new interest in west-side homes.

"Many of the older, established neighborhoods in west Pasco are not enjoying growth now," he said. "But as the price of new homes climbs, it's going to make those older houses more attractive."

Dade City has been a latecomer to the real estate boom, tucked as it is in the northeastern corner of the county. But that's beginning to change.

Its shopping district specializing in antique shops, sleepy Southern atmosphere, oak-draped streets and walkable downtown has attracted the artistic-minded.

"When a "For Sale' sign goes up in Dade City, it seems it's there for a few days, then it's gone," Wells said.

That gentrification is not necessarily reflected in average property values. The reason: Some of the county's most economically depressed neighborhoods sit only a few blocks away from half-million-dollar lots.

Lake Jovita, upscale homes hugging a first-class golf course, became a groundbreaker in 1999 as the first large subdivision in the virgin territory around Saint Leo University.

Although SR 52 in eastern Pasco remains mostly undeveloped ranch land, Wells said its time will come as home buyers look north beyond Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes.

"I think that Lake Jovita project is really going to drive the growth in the whole region," he said. "That's going to make the whole area go."

- Times staff writer Beth Glenn contributed to this report.

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