Shopping, grocery complex proposed

Trammell Crow Co. has proposed building a community shopping center on a 15-acre parcel on the site of Hillsboro Farms.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 6, 2000

LAND O'LAKES -- One of the nation's largest commercial developers is proposing building a shopping center anchored by a supermarket at U.S. 41 and School Road in Land O'Lakes.

The development of the 15-acre parcel into what developer Trammell Crow Co. calls a community shopping center could happen as early as this fall.

The site is framed by the Pasco County Health Department on the south, West Lake Ellis on the west and U.S. 41 on the east.

"You would have a 44,000-square-foot grocery store and 10,000- to 15,000-square-feet of shops and maybe a small food outlet," said Paul Rutledge, who manages Florida retail development for Trammell Crow.

It would be the first supermarket on the semirural stretch of U.S. 41 north of Bell Lake Road.

Land O'Lakes has four grocery stores: Winn-Dixie and Publix at State Road 54 and Collier Parkway, Kash n' Karry in Village Lakes Shopping Center and U-Save at State Road 54 and U.S. 41.

Rutledge said his company will search for tenants among all the major grocery chains in Florida. It's no secret that Kash n' Karry, hoping to beef up business in Land O'Lakes, has considered relocating to U.S. 41.

Trammell Crow, headquartered in Dallas, has developed such projects as the Largo Mall, the First Union tower in Tampa and the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel.

Housing growth in Land O'Lakes, combined with the upcoming widening of U.S. 41 north of Bell Lake Road, inspired his company to take the plunge into central Pasco, Rutledge said.

"I think Hillsborough is very saturated," Rutledge said. "This is a good opportunity."

Trammell Crow has contracted to buy the land from Hillsboro Farms, a Carrollwood dairy, owned by the Zambito family, that paid nearly $1-million for the hay field in 1985. To build an entrance to the project, developers also need a sliver of land to the southeast of the property.

Hillsboro Farms has requested to rezone the land from residential to commercial. Current zoning allows the owner to build up to four homes per acre.

The planning commission and county commissioners are scheduled to consider the request next month.

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