ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT briefings, which are hosted by the North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) monthly and designed to introduce local business leaders to incoming developers, new business owners or regional leaders, range from being buzzworthy affairs to merely informational.
Unless JD Porter is speaking.
Then, the Chamber briefings become more like a local version of an Apple Event where, in this case, a standing room-only crowd at Hunter’s Green Country Club gathered to hear what great coming attraction — New restaurant? New corporation? New housing development? — the Wiregrass Ranch developer would be announcing.
Porter didn’t deliver anything major, however, like an Apple “one last thing” flourish.
There was, however, notable news he shared on April 26 about the coming developments in the 5,100-acre Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which is being developed by the Porter family’s Locust Branch, LLC, and extends from S.R. 56 north to S.R. 54, and west to east from Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. to Meadow Pointe Blvd.
The best news — things are good in Wiregrass Ranch. Really good. According to Porter, developers are lined up trying to get in, and home prices are rising. The average sales price of a home located in the Wiregrass Ranch DRI is a staggering $485,000, which he says is 2.3 times the average home price in Pasco County.
According to Metrostudy, which specializes in housing and construction data, Wiregrass Ranch is the No. 1 community in the Tampa Bay area for home closings in the first quarter of 2018, and is No. 3 for starts.
And much more is on the way…
*JOBS: Porter was proud to proclaim that Wiregrass Ranch has created 2,500 new jobs over the last two years.
“We have created more jobs than homes,” Porter said. “I know there’s not another community in Pasco, and you would be hard pressed to find one in Hillsborough, that can say that.”
And, he added, those job numbers don’t even include the 5,000 or so that Raymond James Financial is said to be bringing to the area when it finally opens, or current construction jobs. Porter’s job news earned him the loudest ovation of his presentation.
*RAYMOND JAMES: Speaking of Raymond James, which was announced in 2011 and has become a long, painstaking effort for Porter, ground will be broken sometime this year. Porter couldn’t say exactly when dirt will begin moving on the 65-acre property at S.R. 56 and Mansfield Blvd., but the huge Raymond James campus is finally close to taking off.
That area east of the Shops at Wiregrass also already includes the new Altis at Wiregrass Ranch apartments, which are already leasing and will be built out by the end of the year, a Morningstar Storage facility (finishing this fall) and a Fairfield Inn hotel, set to open later this summer. A daycare center is currently in permitting.
Also coming and already under contract is a major new restaurant, which Porter did not name, although he did admit that it was likely a major chain that he said would be breaking ground this summer.
“We’re expecting to close here real quick,’’ he said.
Also in the Wiregrass Ranch DRI and expected to finally break ground this summer is the long-awaited indoor sports facility and park, and a Marriott hotel on the same property, which was donated by the Porter family. The project is a public-private partnership venture between developers and the county, which Porter says Pasco County will see more of down the road “because they work.”
BIGGER THAN RAY-JAY?: If you think Raymond James is big, Porter says Wiregrass Ranch is “in the running” for something even bigger.
Declining to name names, Porter said Wiregrass Ranch is on the shortlist of places two Fortune 200 companies are considering as a new location.
One would occupy a 600,000-sq.-ft. space; the other would take more than 1.2-million sq. ft. of space.
Both businesses, he added, are higher on the Fortune 500 list than Raymond James. Porter says he is hopeful.
“It would be nice to have another big one like that,’’ he says, adding that he also is hoping find the right balance between big and small, and is encouraging smaller, localized businesses to make their homes in Wiregrass Ranch.
While grabbing some of the bigger corporations to put on large campuses, he also plans to build office space vertically, in buildings 4-7 stories high, in the hopes of creating Pasco County’s only skyline.
Porter said Class A office space — which generally is located in good and easy-to-access buildings that are professionally managed with high-end tenants — is in the works, as well as a 150,000-sq.-ft. medical office, which would be three times the size of the Farina Orthodontic Specialists “cube” building on BBD in Wiregrass, just south of FHWC.
*TOWN CENTER?: One of the most exciting subjects discussed by Porter was the potential for a town center area in Wiregrass Ranch, which he foresees as being something of Wesley Chapel’s downtown and much-needed in the area.
It will be located on Meadow Pointe Blvd. — which is being expanded all the way to S.R. 54 ahead of schedule — and about a 10-minute walk from the Shops at Wiregrass, which is the primary gathering place in Wesley Chapel right now.
“I think the town center will become that place,” he says.
He foresees a lot more retail in the area, as well as homes and apartments. However, in order for local businesses to succeed, he said that there must be people in the area, and that the plan the past two years with all the home development has been to build that density.
*MORE MULTI-FAMILY: Porter also said that he has 18-20 letters of intent sitting on his desk from multi-family developers who want to come in and build Class A apartments or condominiums/townhomes, but he is proceeding slowly and cautiously. with them.
“We are definitely in the right area at the right time,” Porter said. “I want to make sure that the businesses that are here will stay here and live here, when they see what (the potential downtown area) is all about.”
When Porter was asked by local Realtor (and NTBC Board member) Karen Tillman-Gosselin (who introduced Porter on behalf of the Chamber at the event) about creating a town center like the one in the Westchase area, which is responsible for nearby homes getting multiple contract offers on them, Porter pointed out that Westchase’s town center is on only about 16 acres of land.
The Wiregrass Ranch town center is envisioned to be built on 120 acres.
“I think we’ll start seeing come growth, some development, in the next 24 months,” Porter said. “If we get some ground broken and land a couple of users, it will accelerate that quickly and things will happen real fast.”
*IT’S ALL ABOUT CONNECTIVITY: Porter said that unlike the surrounding areas, Wiregrass Ranch will have the kind of transportation network of which residents can be proud.
S.R. 56 west of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. is already four lanes in each direction, and the expansion east to U.S. Hwy. 301 in Zephyrhills will be a game-changer, Porter said, making the area even more attractive to home builders and businesses.
He noted that the development of Wiregrass Ranch has always carefully considered the roads, and built them for the future, not the present. “If you don’t,” he says, “you’ll never catch up.”
Porter also said that there are 3-4 miles of rapid bus transit or light rail planned in Wiregrass, although he thinks rapid bus transit will happen first and that light rail “may never happen here.”
And, because a new Park & Ride bus station near Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel has been successful since opening, the potential is there to build a vertical parking garage to accommodate more bus riders.
“We are definitely setting things up the right way from the start,” he said. “What we’re doing right now is how everybody should have been doing it.”
During his question & answer session following his briefing, Porter said that he is not in favor of the BBD bypass, which would connect BBD to Meadow Pointe Blvd. a half-mile or more south of where businesses like Sun Trust Bank and Sonny’s BBQ are located, because it will hurt those existing businesses on BBD located north of the bypass. He called it a “waste of money” and “one of the dumbest ideas” he has heard.
He did not weigh in on the much-discussed Kinnan-Mansfield connection in Meadow Pointe (see story on page 10), but said he was in favor of connectivity in general. “I think the more connected we are, the better for everyone.”
*SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE?: Porter also said a 55-plus adult community planned near Estancia will have 850-900 units, as Wiregrass Ranch becomes a player in the quickly growing adult community market.
“We have a younger demographic, people making more money and they want their parents to be close by,” Porter said. “So, we’re going to fill that gap, we’re going to knock it out of the park. I think its going to benefit everybody.”
Although people get the most excited about big box stores and brand name chain restaurants, Porter said he hopes Wiregrass Ranch finds a balance with local businesses and mom-and-pop restaurants.
When it comes to more and better schools, Porter seemed to throw up his hands at the way Pasco County has gone about funding new school construction.
“I think you’ll see a lot more charter schools, I think you will see good charter schools,” Porter says. “You’ll see some private schools opening up, too.”
Two charter schools are scheduled to open in Wesley Chapel over the next two years, including Union Park Charter Academy in August.
And, at the end of the day, Porter hopes Wiregrass Ranch becomes the model for future developers. From making sure the roads were in place to handle future traffic, to bringing in big and community-based businesses first such as the Shops at Wiregrass and Florida Hospital, as well as Pasco-Hernando State College, to carefully easing into the housing developments, he thinks Wiregrass Ranch has been done right.
Judging by the response of his latest presentation in front of local business leaders, many agree.
