K-Bar Ranch Driving Growth In New Tampa

By Gary Nager

When you’ve been doing the same job for more than 21 years, you’re likely to see a lot of things change. Well, in my capacity as the publisher and editor of the Neighborhood News for New Tampa and Wesley Chapel since 1994, I’ve seen housing booms and housing busts come and go — with the biggest boom hitting New Tampa in 2004-06, followed by the bursting of the local housing bubble in 2007-08 — and the slow, but inevitable resurgence of resales and new homes being built in our area ever since.

Check out the above map that shows the areas where new homes are being built — including the names of (we hope) all of the builders constructing those homes — in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, although the emphasis on the map is on the few communities where new homes are still being built in New Tampa — of which there are only four:

• The Tuscany subdivision in Tampa Palms (with just a couple of lots remaining and those homes to be built by Taylor Morrison Homes); 

• Capri Isle in Cory Lake Isles (or CLI, with only about 20 lots left of 115 homes being built by Ryan Homes, although M/I Homes does still own a few lots scattered within the CLI community);

• Grand Hampton (where ICI Homes owns all ten remaining lots); and

• In the still-growing K-Bar Ranch DRI, where three builders are actively building in the community at our press time. 

Even in K-Bar Ranch, however, Mobley Homes, Lennar Homes and M/I Homes (Meritage Homes also is listed as an “active” builder in K-Bar, but doesn’t seem to have lots still available, as none are listed on its website) have fewer than 50 available home sites to build on between them. 

But, those will be all the lots available only until the K-Bar DRI is rezoned from its current 1,199 homes, although current K-Bar developer M/I Homes (as we’ve reported in a previous issue) is presenting its case to add 1,400 more single- and multi-family units (to give K-Bar a possible final total of 2,599 residences) to the Tampa City Council on Thursday, July 23, 6 p.m. The rezoning also would add about 20,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and include nearly 60 acres for a long-awaited city park.

Without the 1,400 additional units in K-Bar — and until Taylor Morris Homes begins building homes in the 300-unit Esplanade community (between Bruce B. Downs {BBD} Blvd. and County Line Rd., west of the Winn-Dixie shopping center and east of Grand Hampton and The Hammocks townhomes; we’ve reported on The Esplanade in a previous issue) — New Tampa is currently all but built out at between 25,000-30,000 total single- and multi-family residential units. (Note-Our New Tampa direct-mail circulation of 25,300  includes more than 300 units in Lake Forest, which is located off BBD, but has a Lutz address).

The good news is that all of the new homes being built now are helping to raise the overall average values of homes in our area, as most are in the $300,000-and-higher category and many will cost $500,000 or more to construct. So, while New Tampa isn’t adding many homes, we are filling up our 33647 zip code with still more quality. 

*Matt Wiley and Chelsie Rosatone contributed to this report.