Industrial park grows as economy booms

Three new occupants have joined One Pasco Center, including a cement plant. And the park plans to expand further.

By JAMES THORNER

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 21, 2000

SAN ANTONIO -- Just months after One Pasco Center began gouging the soil with plans to double in size during the next year, the northeast Pasco County industrial park has landed three new tenants.

The biggest is expected to be a cement plant owned by Florida Rock Industries, a Jacksonville-based company with several other plants in the Tampa Bay area.

Florida Rock tried to rezone land for a $2.7-million concrete-mixing plant 2 miles west of One Pasco Center, but the request was rejected in October by the Pasco Planning Commission.

Most of the opposition came from residents of Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club, who complained about potential truck traffic and the unsightliness of the plant.

But zoning should be less of a problem at One Pasco Center: The land already is pegged for industry, albeit light industry.

Officials with Florida Rock couldn't be reached for comment. But at last year's planning commission meeting, they said the plant would supply raw materials to the booming Pasco construction business.

Pasco officials remained mum about the two other prospective tenants at the industrial park, which sits about a mile east of Interstate 75, north of State Road 52.

"They have apparently closed their contracts at One Pasco Center but haven't announced yet," said Mary Jane Stanley, executive director of the Pasco Economic Development Council.

The upswing in interest is a welcome change for owners of the 13-year-old One Pasco Center, which stagnated during its first decade of existence.

For the past three years, the booming economy and the park's relatively inexpensive land have helped triple the number of tenants from three to nine.

Existing tenants include Marathon Coach, which sells and services custom-made buses, and Custom Equipment Manufacturing, which makes stainless-steel cabinets.

Ownership of One Pasco Center is split 50-50 between First Pasco Service Corp., one of whose officers is Pasco County attorney Robert Sumner, and URADCO, a subsidiary of Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative.

The owners have broken ground on a 49-acre Phase II of the park, expecting to create another 18 commercial/industrial lots by next year. The second phase is the proposed home of the cement plant.

Growth hasn't been limited to One Pasco Center. West Pasco Industrial Park in Odessa struggled for years, but now has a surplus of prospective tenants, Stanley said.

"The economy has just picked up," she said. "And you can see the activity in the industrial parks."

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