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Developer secures right to buy Cannon Ranch
By CHASE SQUIRES © St. Petersburg Times, published October 19, 2000 DADE CITY -- Arizona-based Del Webb Corp., known for its upscale Sun City active retirement developments, has locked up the exclusive purchase rights to the 2,000-acre Cannon Ranch near San Antonio, according to County Court records. The agreement between Del Webb and ranch owner Thompson Station Enterprises was signed Oct. 3 and recorded with Pasco County. It grants purchase rights to Del Webb. The agreement is the first recorded purchase option Del Webb has signed in Pasco County in the 25 years covered by computerized county records. Del Webb spokesman Kyle Reinson said the option-to-buy agreement does not necessarily mean the developer is going to buy the Cannon Ranch. He said it is common for Del Webb to secure the rights for a property while it is under consideration. "We are still very interested in that property, as we are in other different properties in Central Florida," Reinson said. "It's a long, tedious process." Thompson Station Enterprises, based in Tennessee, bought the ranch last year from the Cannon family for $7-million. Company President Leon Heron Jr. told county planners in the spring about plans to build about 5,200 homes, 1,500 condominiums and a "village district" of small shops and restaurants. The village concept was proposed as a way for developers to keep motor vehicle traffic largely inside the development, reducing the impact on public roads and the financial share the project should bear for improvements to State Road 52 and the intersection at Interstate 75. But the state Department of Transportation, in a letter to property managers dated Sept. 7, rejected the traffic projections, calling them "arbitrary." Reinson said Del Webb is investigating the Cannon Ranch property, and the agreement -- in the works since July, according to records -- allows developers to invest time in a study of the property without the risk of having it sold meanwhile to someone else. Court records show the Cannon Ranch agreement is the first purchase option secured by Del Webb in Pasco County going back to 1975. Reinson said Del Webb has a history of securing purchase options all over the country while investigating property. If Del Webb does come to Pasco, it would not be under the name Sun City. The corporation known for Sun City developments in Arizona, Texas, Nevada, South Carolina and other areas developed Sun City Center in Hillsborough, but sold the project and no longer uses the monicker in Florida, Reinson said. According to the company's Internet site, Del Webb is the nation's seventh largest builder of single-family homes, specializing in active senior communities. Since 1960, the company has sold nearly 70,000 homes and currently controls or owns more than 78,000 home sites. - Information from Times archives was included in this report.
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