Wesley Chapel Leading The Growth In Pasco, K-Bar Ranch Driving New Tampa’s Completion
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 and Wesley Chapel in 2004-06 (followed by the bursting of the local housing bubble in 2007-08).
We’ve also seen the slow, but inevitable resurgence of resales and new homes being built in our area ever since, especially in Wesley Chapel. These new units definitely are adding value to the overall community and raising the average home prices in our 33543, 33544 and 33545 zip codes.
In this issue and at WCNeighborhood News.com, we are providing you with an exclusive, updated map outlining where new homes are being built in both of our distribution areas. We’ve been documenting all of the amazing commercial additions to Wesley Chapel over the past few years — Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), The Grove and the Shops at Wiregrass, Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC)’s Porter Campus, the Tampa Premium Outlets mall and the Florida Hospital Center Ice skating facility, to hit a few of the highlights — and there’s no doubt that the area is now the fastest-developing area in Pasco County.
We are proud to provide a complete update on the new residences being constructed in Wesley Chapel and where those new homes are being built — including the names of (we hope) all of the communities and the builders constructing those homes — in Wesley Chapel (there’s some New Tampa info, too), although the emphasis in this issue is on the major Developments of Regional Impacts {DRIs} and Master Planned Unit Developments {MPUDs} in zip codes 33543-45, including:
• Watergrass — A Wesley Chapel community with a large number of builders is this MPUD located off Curley Rd., which has a built-out Phase I of 400 homes and is in Phase II development, which will add another 350 single-family (SF) homes and 126 villa units. The Watergrass MPUD, which is approved for a total of 1,999 residences, currently has four builders — with prices starting from $179,990 for villas by DR Horton and SF homes from the $230s by Ryland, SF Standard Pacific Homes (SP) homes starting in the $300k-$400k range and Bakerfield Luxury Homes starting from $400k to more than $1 million. Watergrass has been developed by Chicago-based Crown Community Developments, which also is still developing Seven Oaks (see page 22) and is getting ready to develop Chapel Crossings across S.R. 54 from the north end of Meadow Pointe.
• Wiregrass Ranch — Of course, with the Shops at Wiregrass mall, FHWC and PHSC all already in place, it was only a matter of time before the residential phase of development in the Wiregrass Ranch DRI finally got rolling. There currently are two large subdivisions building new homes on the property being developed by the Porter Family Trust. The first section is called Estancia, where the infrastructure for the second of four phases is now under development and 300 homes (about 85 closings to date) are being built in Phase I. Estancia is planned for a total of 1,181 SF homes and Standard Pacific is the builder, with 3-6-bedroom homes ranging between 2,021-5,359 sq. ft., and $255,000-695,000.
A second large, also upscale section of Wiregrass Ranch is called The Ridge. For more info about this subdivision, see the GL Homes Builder Spotlight on page 22.
• Avalon Park West/New River Township — Another huge development which still has thousands of approved units to be built is the New River Township DRI, although the portion currently under development is being called Avalon Park West and is being developed separately from the existing New River development (off S.R. 54).
The entire DRI is planned for a total of 4,800 residences in six phases and Avalon Park West (which currently is in its Phase I of development, with surveying for Phase II also under way) has SF homes by the following builders:
Avex Homes-80 homes built on 120 lots, 3-4 bedrooms, 2,227-3,659 sq. ft., $196,000-225,000;
Beazer Homes – 60 homesites, 4 inventory homes, $241,000-$291,000, 2,056-3,042 sq. ft.
DR Horton – 50 sites (15 homes built), $249,000-329,000, 3-5 bedrooms.
• Meadow Pointe — Although it is one of the older “names” among Wesley Chapel developments, there are still new homes being built in Meadow Pointe. (Note-Pasco County calls Meadow Pointe III-IV by its original DRI name, Wesley Chapel Lakes).
In fact, Meadow Pointe actually has four active builders in a number of new subdivisions, and the Country Walk subdivision (just south of S.R. 54) has three active builders:
Pulte Homes – Building on 32 homesites (11 sold) in Country Walk. The homes are all 3 bedrooms with between 1,565-2,443 sq. ft. of living area, ranging between $205k-$260k.
Meritage Homes – Building on 221 lots (180 remaining), with homes ranging between 2,010-4,158 sq. ft., and prices ranging between $251k-$389k.
Cardel Homes – Building on 97 lots (only 19 still available) in Country Walk. The homes are 2,200-3,363 sq. ft., and range between $297k-$352k.
Two other sections of Meadow Pointe also are selling new homes. Standard Pacific Homes (SP on the map; which also is building in Estancia at Wiregrass, Union Park and Seven Oaks) has a total of 42 lots in Phase 1 of Windsor at Meadow Pointe (with only two remaining), plus 66 Phase II lots (33 remaining). The homes range between 2,915-4,853 sq. ft., and start at $344k-$436k. SP also is just starting Phase I of Meridian at Meadow Pointe and has 37 homesites, with floorplans from 3-6 bedrooms, 2,292-4,443 sq. ft., and prices starting at $325k-425k.
• Union Park — Previously known as Golden Ranch or Livingston, the MPUD now being called Union Park (located east of Meadow Pointe III & IV, with access from Meadow Pointe Blvd.) has been purchased by Metro Development, which has four builders and 1,600-1,800 homes planned, in three phases. Below are the four Phase I builders in Union Park:
David Weekley Homes – 2,537-3,231 sq. ft., starting at $313k-$352k.
Homes By West Bay- 90 lots (55 sold), 1,996-4,846 sq. ft., $250k-$379k
K. Hovnanian Homes – 47 lots (24 sold), 2,416-3,188 sq. ft., $283k-$330k.
Ryland Homes- 48 lots, 3-4 bedrooms, 1,804-2,595 sq. ft., $234k-$277k.
• Seven Oaks — Crown Community Developments has sold all of the land in Seven Oaks, which still has a few active subdivisions. The total number of units (excluding apartments) in the Seven Oaks DRI will be about 2,180 homes at build-out, but here are the remaining lots and builders:
DR Horton is selling townhomes in the Lakeside neighborhood, starting from $180,990. Standard Pacific Homes is selling SF homes in the Bellafield neighborhood priced from the $300s to mid $400s. And, Ryland Homes has townhomes in the Maple Glen neighborhood priced from $239,990.
• Northwood — Taylor Morrison homes has 202 homesites, with about 100 sold and 76 built. The builder has nine floor plans, 2,055-5,073 sq. ft. & $274k-$438k.
Smaller communities in Wesley Chapel also adding new units are Brookside (east of Saddlebrook on S.R. 54), where Javic Homes is the primary builder; Forest Oaks on Boyette Rd. (Avalon Building Corp.); and Quail Woods off Old Pasco Rd. (Southern Crafted Homes).
Meanwhile, In New Tampa
While building is booming to the north, development continues in New Tampa, as well, especially in these four communities:
• 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 was 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. as we went to press with this post. 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.
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