Thanking The Pasco County Development & Growth Updates Facebook Page! 

According to admin Kelly Gilroy’s personal Facebook profile, the Facebook page called “Pasco County Development & Growth Updates” (PCDGU) was first created and started posting in July of 2023, and there’s no doubt that it has quickly become the most trusted online source for new information about new residential and commercial developments — not just in Wesley Chapel but for all of Pasco County — in a very short time. 

And, for good reason. As the editor of the most trusted print source of news and information about Wesley Chapel and New Tampa for the last 30 years, all I can say is that page administrators David Hutsell and Kelly Gilroy have done — and continue to do — an amazing job of releasing information supplied to the county, usually the same day these development applications are filed. 

Rather than express any kind of professional jealousy about how they’ve captured the imagination of local residents, I have found that PCDGU and the Neighborhood News have developed a kind of synergy — they make the announcements and we (myself and editorial researcher/correspondent Joel Provenzano) follow up to try to give additional information about them. A few times, we’ve been the first to note that a previously announced development was scrubbed or its application was withdrawn, but most of the time, the information, site maps and other graphics in PCDGU are truly spot-on. 

One of the things that makes the volume of information they put out on an ongoing basis so impressive is that Kelly and David both apparently have full-time jobs. We found this out when we exchanged private Facebook messages with Kelly — once — and have tried a few times to get an actual interview with her and/or David (which she said they were amenable to do, but that they’re both super-busy; she also said that it was probably best for us to interview David, since PCDGU is his page), but as of the day I am writing this column, no such interview has yet been set up. 

A few local news reporters, including yours truly, have tried to find out from our county commissioners and county staff if perhaps either David or Kelly or both currently or previously worked for the county, but several months ago, one Pasco commissioner told me, “No one in Pasco County government even knows who they are or how they keep such close tabs on everything that comes before us. Some of our staffers have even said they think their profiles are fake or that the administrators don’t use their real names on their page.” 

Whoa. This mythology about them has grown in part because Kelly has only one photo on her personal profile page and, according to many people I’ve spoken with about it — and it seems that everyone I talk to about it wants to know — “it looks more like an illustration or AI-generated than a photo.” Her profile also says her work is “AVP – Risk Analytics at Banking Industry” and that she is married and lives in Lutz. Whenever she is asked in the comments of a post what her actual job is, she says “I work in commercial banking” (the same thing she told me on the phone). 

Meanwhile, David’s personal profile says that he works at St. George Capital Partners, LLC, which is based in Palm Beach Gardens. 

Considering the amount of valuable information Kelly and David put out, and the fact that (it seems) everyone wants more information about them, it’s probably a good idea that they have remained mostly anonymous doing what I assure you is not easy to do. 

Back in the “good old days,” before everything submitted to a county or city government was available online, in order to get information about new developments, I’d have to go to the New Port Richey Government Center (for Wesley Chapel) or to downtown Tampa (for New Tampa), pull the files and take film pictures of the maps, charts and development info. Easy, right? 

Nowadays, however, all of that info, once it’s been filed, is available online — if you know where to look. We have usually waited until a development review has been put on an agenda of the county’s Planning Commission or Board of County Commissioners (BOC) before putting that information in front of our readers. But, even though some of what PCDGU puts out is preliminary and subject to change — and Kelly and David always mention when it is — there’s no doubt that they continue to do an amazing job of providing that information. 

And, this is true despite the fact that whenever someone asks on their page, “What’s coming to…,” too many people are still making the same tired jokes about car washes and self-storage facilities, while others try to turn every post into a political argument (usually) condemning the BOC and county staff. It’s a lot for them to put up with, considering that this isn’t either of their full-time jobs. Kelly, in particular, continues to try to shut down such unnecessary nonsense, but I’m sure it isn’t easy. 

We also appreciate it whenever Kelly or David post Neighborhood News stories in response to comments on their page. Keep up the great work, you two! Let’s make that interview happen! 

Above is a list of new developments from PCDGU since Aug. 1 that we plan to update. 

The Good & Bad Sides Of Wesley Chapel’s Explosive Growth

We recently changed printers again, and since it had been a while since we updated our distribution numbers, I decided to log onto the U.S. Postal Service’s website to see just how many residences and businesses we were now mailed to and how many people that included.

I’ve been saying for years that it was only a matter of time before Wesley Chapel and its planned (and ongoing) explosive growth would one day cause our direct-mail distribution to Wesley Chapel’s three zip codes — 33543, 33544 & 33545 — to surpass the number of homes, apartments and businesses (and the number of people those households include) in New Tampa’s 33647 zip code.

Well, it’s finally happened. As of the mailing of this issue, we are now mailed to 28,900+ residences and businesses in Wesley Chapel and, according to the Post Office’s Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) website, which give estimates of the number of people per household in every postal carrier route, those households represent nearly 82,500 people. By contrast, our Dec. 7 New Tampa issue was directly mailed to 28,600 residences and businesses and a Post Office-estimated 74,000+ people. 

That means that when you combine those numbers, businesses that choose to place ads in both of our markets are now reaching more than 57,500 residences and businesses and more than a whopping 156,500 total people every four weeks!

If New Tampa, which is located in Hillsborough County, and Wesley Chapel, which is in Pasco, could be considered together as one market (as I sort of always have considered them), that would make the Wesley Chapel-New Tampa “metro area” as large as Decatur, AL, which is the 268th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the U.S.

For me, as the owner of the Neighborhood News, that is both good and bad news, but mostly good. That reach is larger by far than any local online community and significantly larger than any other publication distributed to our areas. And, it has helped us increase the total number of advertisers both expressing interest in advertising and actually buying ads with us by more than 40% from our Covid-related drop from March-December 2020.

But of course, it also means that in order to reach that unique audience, I have to be willing to pay to continue to grow with our two communities — as I have for nearly 28 years (my 28th anniversary of owning the Neighborhood News is Feb. 25, 2022; with my first issue as publisher and editor Apr. 1994).

Not Everyone Is Happy…  

It’s been an amazing journey for me personally to see this growth, even though, throughout the years, people living and working in both of our communities have complained about all of the new homes, apartments and businesses being built here.

The ironic thing about it is that if the folks who have been unhappy with all of the growth in our two markets, especially here in Wesley Chapel, had been reading our publications from the beginning, they had a pretty good idea that it was all coming. We certainly have been the primary, if not the only,  local news medium that has been reporting about all of our growth — nearly all of which has on been on the books and records for as long (or nearly as long) as I’ve owned this publication.

I didn’t go back to our old issues to figure out exactly when we knew about the plans for Wiregrass Ranch, Epperson, Watergrass, Avalon Park Wesley Chapel, the Connected City and not-yet-developed areas like Wyndfields (located east of Wiregrass Ranch), but rest assured, whenever we did know about those plans, we’ve been reporting about them.

And yes, I’ve known for at least 10-15 years that Wesley Chapel’s expansion of master-planned communities would one day see its population surpass New Tampa’s.

But, while I agree with the sentiment that the plans for expanding our roads have not progressed as quickly, or kept up with, the growth of Wesley Chapel, the simple fact is that most of us who live and/or work here (me included) moved here from someplace else, too, and Florida in general and Wesley Chapel in particular are extremely desirable places to live — so that growth is likely to continue.

But, while many applauded the sentiment of the picture shown above (from St. Cloud, where locals are protesting the same kind of development we have here) and the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page post about it, I say that not only is it a crime to deface a sign that Lennar Homes paid good money to put up on its own private property, anyone who believes that actions like these are a good way to slow down our growth is sadly mistaken.            

TPOST Residents Share Concerns About New Apartments

Tampa City Council member Luis Viera (center, pink shirt) meets with Tampa Palms-area residents who are concerned about a new apartment complex slated to be built near their homes in the TPOST CDD/Tampa Palms Area 3.

More apartments are coming to the Tampa Palms area, and Kevin Hawley knows there is little he can do to stop them.

But, the Tuscany at Tampa Palms Homeowners Association (HOA) president is still going to try.

On Oct. 28, he organized a meeting — socially distant, of course — in a cul-de-sac in Tuscany in the hopes of formulating a plan to convince developer Warren Kinsler of New Tampa Inc. to not build 400 apartment units at 7970 Tampa Palms Blvd., just west and across the street from the Emerald Pointe Townhomes. 

However, New Tampa Inc., which bought the property in the Tampa Palms Open Space & Transportation (TPOST Community Development District in 1994, already has the entitlements to build them, going back to 1985, when the property was first annexed into the city.

Still, Hawley’s meeting, which included Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera (who represents District 7, which includes most of New Tampa) and various HOA board members from neighboring communities Chelsea, Buckingham and Stafford, stirred the debate. Hawley said more than 30 residents attended.

“Our concern is that it (the apartments) will have a negative  impact on Tampa Palms Elementary, which is already beyond capacity, and a negative impact on traffic, where we already have problems on Tampa Palms Blvd.” Hawley says. “There also is concern about the possible impact on property values, and some also voiced concerns about environmental impacts.”

A City of Tampa Variance Review Board meeting for the property had been scheduled for Oct. 13, creating the stir. However, that meeting did not need to be held because the planned development has an allowance for 40 percent tree retention, and “they actually have 50 percent retention,” according to Abbye Feeley, the Director of Tampa’s Development & Growth Management Department (formerly known as the Planning and Development department).

“The notices (for the variance meeting) went out prematurely,” she added.

Feeley said the area has already gone through the first round review to ensure that it is compliant with all of the codes that govern it, and the city is waiting for the developers’ resubmission. Feeley says little can be done to stop Kinsler from building the apartments.

“Unfortunately, the builders of these villages (like Tuscany, Chelsea and Buckingham) never properly briefed their buyers about the developer’s rights and plans for the whole area,” said Maggie Wilson, the vice-president of the Tampa Palms Owners Association (TPOA).

The TPOA represents the owners and residents of 3,000 single family homes and 1,500 apartments in Tampa Palms. TPOST 3, which was once part of the Tampa Palms DRI before being purchased by Kinsler, already has more than 1,000 homes in its various villages and apartment communities.

When asked by Hawley to join him in opposing the apartment project, the TPOA declined.

“They are the big dog,” Hawley says of the TPOA. “I reached out to them, and they said this has been zoned this way for a long time and they decided as a board not to oppose it,” says Hawley, a USF faculty member and Tampa Palms resident for 18 years.

With no way to stop the project, Hawley is hoping for at least some traffic mitigation from the developer, or some way to “soften the impact.”

Hawley doesn’t think that entitlements and plans developed two decades ago necessarily still make sense today, and would like to see other things considered for the property that better meet the needs of the area.

He even has his own suggestion — instead of yet another apartment complex, why not build something for older residents in their 60s and 70s? “That way, there will be less impact on the schools,” he says, “but it would still bring in more residents to support local businesses and restaurants.” 

Viera said he will meet with Hawley and the residents in a few weeks, and intends on bringing some planning officials from the city to also participate.

Down On The (Wiregrass) Ranch

JD Porter and his family don’t look at themselves merely as developers trying to make a buck. They look at themselves as curators of a 5,000-acre family heirloom that has been in the family since 1937, when James “Wiregrass” Porter bought the sprawling ranch land and moved to Wesley Chapel.

That land now has an elementary, middle, high school, a state college and multiple residential subdivisions. 

There is a mall and a hospital, a hotel and a high-end car dealership, and so much more already standing, with a state road that was built with six lanes long before it actually needed that many lanes slicing through it.

“We’ve done some great things,” says JD, the developer and driving force behind Wiregrass Ranch’s residential and commercial expansion.

And there’s more on the way. Even as developed as his family’s ranch is, if you take a peek at what is still to come, it doesn’t even feel half done.

So, as the Wesley Chapel area surrounding Wiregrass Ranch explodes with lagoons and trendy shipping container crates, restaurants and town centers, Porter continues to bide his time and slowly build something different.

The State of The Ranch

“It’s good. It’s busy,” Porter says.

While nothing new has been announced recently for Wiregrass Ranch, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing new planned, or any negotiations ongoing.

In fact, there’s plenty new planned, and talks almost daily.

In poker parlance, Porter always plays his cards close to the vest, and will only reveal those cards well after the hand has been finished.

“I’m not trying to be coy,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’s just how we’ve always done business.”

While there won’t be any details announced until later this year, Wiregrass Ranch chief operating officer (COO) Scott Sheridan says it will be a busy time on the ranch.

“We’re pretty excited about 2020,” he says. “We don’t see any slowdown on the near-term horizon.”

Porter says he is content playing the long game. No flashy restaurants or activity centers or trendy grocery stores are coming anytime soon. 

While others may be filling immediate needs and desires, “We are working on infrastructure” that in the end, will make Wiregrass Ranch vibrant and sustainable for years, like it did building S.R. 56 as a six-lane highway long before the area was bustling. 

In The Plans

Porter says a 200,000-sq.-ft. office project will come out of the ground later this year. 

“We have a unique blend of users,” he says. “It’s going to be nice.”

Porter also has submitted plans to build another retail strip on S.R. 54 at the northernmost edge of Wiregrass Ranch, next to the recently completed first retail project, which is anchored by a new Glory Days Grill, on the S.R. 54 side of Wiregrass Ranch, which runs all the way from 54 to south of S.R. 56. Another restaurant is planned for the latest budding retail project, but Porter says no leases have yet been signed.

But, later this year — Porter won’t exactly say when — you might have to buckle up for an announcement or two.

“There’s some exciting things coming down the pipeline,” Porter says. “Some of the things will be game-changers for the area that I don’t think anyone has expected.”

Who doesn’t love a little suspense?

Building The Donut

Porter has had plans for a town center — which he has claimed will serve not only as Wesley Chapel’s downtown but a downtown for the entire North Tampa Bay area — for a while now. But, before that project sprouts to life, he says it is important to build an apparatus — revolving around residential — that will support it, which they are doing.

“I know there has been a ton of stories about town centers recently,” he says (see story on page 6). “We’ve talked about that for, what, 15 years? But we’re working in a direction that surrounds that donut hole.”

Which would make that donut the residential support, Sheridan says. “We’re getting that donut, for lack of a better word, closed in.”

The town center would be located in the heart of Wiregrass Ranch. It will be connected to all of the development by a series of trails and sidewalks — a vast spiderweb, if you will, with the north-south spine running through the middle of it being the under-construction Wiregrass Ranch Blvd., which should be completed from 54 to 56 by 2023.

That road will have traffic-calming roundabouts throughout, another way that Porter and Sheridan are trying to stay ahead of the game.

Meanwhile, Wiregrass Ranch’s future town center area is slowly becoming surrounded by homes. 

Estancia, The Ridge and the Arbors at Wiregrass Ranch, the Altis apartments and a Fairfield Inn hotel are already in place, and Persimmon Park and the 800+ home Esplanade 55-and-older community are under construction. And, now, S.R. 56 has been extended to U.S. 301, which will bring with it more homes and even more residents who will be flocking to the area.

Porter says he is thrilled to have Esplanade starting with Taylor Morrison Homes on board as the builder. The 55-plus community, the residents of which will likely consist of many retirees, will provide much of the daytime business when the town center is built.

“It was an underserved market, and a great fit for us,” Porter says.

More people means more businesses, which leads to a need for more entertainment and neighborhood retail, leaving developers with a greater responsibility to find the right combination to make the “live here, work here, play here” model work.

In the past, Porter has talked about a performing arts center in Wiregrass Ranch, but that is no longer necessary due to the one the county is building next to Cypress Creek middle and high schools to the north. But, something with a similar impact will take its place as an anchor.

“We are actively working on, and looking at, some unique catalysts in our town center,” Sheridan says. 

“The end of the earth used to be Meadow Pointe Blvd., but that’s not the case anymore,” Porter says. “The town center is 10 times more viable than it was 10 years ago, and it was viable then. We’ve just been extremely patient to get the right blend.”

As for the town center, well, just you wait, says Porter says. It won’t be anchored by a Publix and a laundromat, he jokes. It will be something special.

“It will be a true, mixed-use, walkable, pedestrian-focused town center,” Sheridan says.

Still Waiting… 

Raymond James Financial filed plans last year to build its massive 1-million-sq.-ft. satellite campus on 65 acres at the corner of S.R. 56 and Mansfield Blvd.

When that actually will happen, though, no one knows.

“They own the property. They have the permits. Everything is ready to go,” Porter says. “They are a big company and when they decide they are ready, they are going to do it. It’s been put on a silver platter.”

Since Raymond James, which will create thousands of new jobs when it finally builds its campus, closed on the property last year, Porter says other projects in Wiregrass Ranch have already created 2,000 jobs.

Another long-anticipated project is the move of the Publix grocery store from the corner of S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. to a space across Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. from Walmart.

It’s still happening, says Porter, who adds that Publix may be looking to build two other stores within Wiregrass Ranch.

Wrapping It Up

Just consider the things that are open, underway or wrapping up this year:

•Esplanade and Persimmon Park: Persimmon Park, which is geared towards families and will have 340 townhome units by David Weekley Homes and ICI Homes, should have models ready to view and future homes ready to sell by April.

•The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County will open in July, and will host its first event in September. The massive campus will feature a 98,000-sq.-ft. indoor sports facility, plus outdoor fields on the 80-acre parcel, and eventually a 128-room Marriott Residence Inn. The public-private partnership facility will provide an economic boon to the Ranch.

•And…AdventHealth Wesley Chapel: Built on the land where Porter was raised, is expanding, in partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center. A three-story, 100,000-square-foot medical office complex, with 28,000 square feet dedicated to a cancer outpatient center, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

• Plus…Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch of Pasco Hernando State College (which started as a community college and has room for expansion) and Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch Adult Living & Memory Care. All of these are Wiregrass Ranch projects that have been patiently developed for years, and have come to fruition. 

Flashy? No. 

Pillars for building a strong community that will contribute to residential and commercial growth? Absolutely.

Developing Wiregrass Ranch is a job Porter says he takes personally and that he is in it for the long haul, he says, which makes his approach different, and more careful.

While he enjoys the competition from other developers and seeing what they will be building — and rooting for them, by the way, because he says he wants to see Wesley Chapel flourish — he feels he has a greater responsibility to make the right decisions.

“This land has provided a huge opportunity, not only for my family but the whole area,” he says. “We’ve been here 80 years, why wouldn’t we want to make it better for the next 80 years? That business model doesn’t work for publicly traded companies that have to make 25 percent for investors every year. That allows us to work on filling the gaps and being sustainable.” 

Wesley Chapel 2017 Year in Review: Development

Residents who live near the Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club golf course packed the Dade City Courthouse hoping to keep a developer from replacing the golf course with 400 homes.

Connected City, Sports Complex & Quail Hollow Kept The BCC Busy In 2017

We could probably dedicate all 48 pages of our upcoming Wesley Chapel issue to its rapid growth in 2017. It was just that crazy busy.

In fact, one could argue it was the busiest year on record in Wesley Chapel, with massive projects either gaining approval, moving ground or sprouting up in almost every corner of the area.

Let’s focus here, however, on what was approved in 2017 and coming down the road, and save what actually opened its doors for our story on 2017’s best new businesses.

The biggest project, the 7,800-acre “connected city,” was approved by the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) in February by a 5-0 vote, which is expected to help create something no other city in America has — a built-from-the-ground-up gigabit community.

District 2 Pasco commissioner Mike Moore, who represents much of Wesley Chapel, said after the vote, “We actually made history today.”

After nearly two years of studies and planning, the BCC’s green light has already triggered major development in the connected city sector, which includes the area running north from Overpass Rd. in Wesley Chapel to S.R. 52 in San Antonio, and west from I-75 to Curley Rd.

Metro Development owns roughly 35 percent of the land, and has already begun, well…connecting. Metro’s Epperson development has its first residents (as we reported last issue) and the first-ever Crystal Lagoon is already filled (see page 8).

Still to come — another Crystal Lagoon in the nearby Mirada development, more homes, schools and business, alternative transportation along integrated roadways and, potentially, jobs as developers and planners have touted the connected city as a futuristic economic engine.

While Wesley Chapel is jumping into the high-tech community pool headfirst, it also is looking to take a piece of the $15-billion a year pie that is youth sports.

A large sports complex with adjoining hotel was also approved by the BCC in the spring by a 5-0 vote, which later agreed to double the county’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT), or bed tax, in order to help finance it.

The $44-million project will be built on part of a 224-acre parcel located northeast of the Shops of Wiregrass in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of  Regional Impact (DRI). The parcel is owned by the county and has had a history of failed efforts to build something sports-related on it.

While the project is currently only in the planning stages, RADD Sports, which will develop it, says it is shooting for a spring 2019 opening.

In conjunction with Mainsail Development, the sports complex will have one of the first full-service Marriott-branded Residence Inns, a 120-room hotel that will be L-shaped to create a courtyard at the entrance to the sports complex — which also will have an amphitheater for concerts, a trail system, seven soccer fields and a 98,000-sq.ft. indoor facility expected to attract the top youth sports tournaments and athletes from around the country, with thousands of visitors expected to make an economic impact on the area.

And, residents who live near Quail Hollow Country Club lost a long fight with the course’s owners and developers, who received approval in June to replace the golf course with homes.

Andres Carollo and his Pasco Office Park LLC received a zoning change, by a 3-2 vote, which allows him to build 400 single-family homes, 30,000-sq.-ft. of office and retail space and a 10,000-sq.-ft. daycare center on the former golf course property.

Hundreds of Quail Hollow residents attended a handful of BCC and other meetings to make their voices heard, and successfully delayed approval of the project for months.

All around Wesley Chapel, new businesses started construction. A slew of restaurants — including a much-awaited Bahama Breeze on S.R. 56 — and boutique or green grocery stores are planned to begin building on or near S.R.s 54 and 56 in 2018.

Will 2018 be as busy? Wiregrass Ranch’s J.D. Porter recently hinted at some more major developments coming this year, so our guess would be:

Buckle up!