By Gary Nager
We always have great guest speakers at my Wesley Chapel Rotary Club meetings (Wednesdays at noon at Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass mall), but the speaker on March 5 definitely earned page 1 billing in this issue, as JD Porter, who is heading up his family’s development of the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) made some blockbuster announcements.
Porter said that the Wiregrass Ranch DRI will feature the first-ever urban skyline in Pasco County, but that’s not the biggest news he announced. When asked by Rotary member Dane Parilo about the possibility of Major League Baseball coming to Wiregrass, Porter said that although the Tampa Bay Rays were not likely to be moving to a facility within the Porter Family Trust, “I am very confident that we will soon be announcing that a Major League Spring Training site will be coming to Wiregrass Ranch.”
But, if not the Rays, which team might be building the only Spring Training facilities in (and/or moving its Florida State League Minor A team to) Pasco County? “Thanks to the existing road network in our area and the fact we will have such great connectivity — with multiple access points from the area’s major roadways into Wiregrass Ranch — we’re confident that there’s no better location for a new Spring Training facility similar to what the Yankees built near Raymond James Stadium than here,” Porter said.
He explained that the 6,500-seat Steinbrenner Field and its adjacent, multi-field training facility only occupy about 6.5 acres, which, “would be a perfect addition to the planned upscale urban development we’re already bringing to Wiregrass Ranch.”
And yes, he said, that Major League Spring Training could be included at the already-planned, nine-diamond “Fields at Wiregrass” baseball complex, “but it doesn’t have to be there.” With the plans also in place for a Wiregrass Town Center that Porter said will be, “twice the size of downtown Winter Park (a very successful neotraditional walking village located north of Orlando), we easily could put a six-acre Yankees-style Spring Training and Minor A complex in that Town Center area and leave the ‘Fields at Wiregrass’ as its own youth and lower-level competitive baseball complex.”
Best of all, he adds, “We could surround that complex with great shops, restaurants and even a performing arts center to bring a lot more visitors every year to Pasco County.”
What About That Skyline?
Porter says that the way some of the pieces of the puzzle have come together at Wiregrass Ranch can be attributed to “being in the right place and having the right idea, at the right time,” but the fact is that his family’s plan to build the first true skyline in Pasco County already is under way.
The newly renamed Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC) and its built-in parking facility already are seven stories tall and Porter notes that the now-best-funded state college in Florida can build up to ten times its current size on its 65 acres (donated by the Porter family) in Wiregrass, “and that can include many other multi-story buildings.”
In addition, although Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) is only three stories tall today, the hospital does have the ability to add up to four additional floors, and the planned Florida Medical Clinic office building near FHWC also has the ability to “go vertical.”
“And, Raymond James Financial, which is getting ready to build up to 600,00 square feet of offices on its parcel along S.R. 56 just east of the mall (and across 56 from PHSC and the North Tampa Behavioral Health facility), also will build multiple floors.”
In all, he says, the 1 million square feet of office and commercial uses approved for Wiregrass Ranch, “is more than exists today in all of Pasco County. And, with us being good stewards of the land, ensuring that only quality developments can be built here, we’re confident that Pasco’s first skyline is coming to Wiregrass.”
And, Porter noted, “We’re actually being forceful about the densities we want for the area. “Five or six years ago, (former Pasco administrator John) Gallagher told me we had too many houses planned for Wiregrass Ranch. Now, the county is asking us, ‘How high can you go?’ Suburban subdivisions in the Tampa Bay area have been done to death. If we were only planning to build single-family houses and another Publix, why would anyone want to invest in that? We’re trying to create something unique for Pasco County.”
And, Porter says, that with the proper densities, public transportation should be part of the mix. “Pasco is talking about adding bus lines out here and we’ve already donated five miles of right-of-way for passenger rail service. If the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) is ever able to build that rail system, we believe the Wiregrass Ranch area will be one of the first ‘legs’ built.”
Porter also acknowledges that now that Raymond James is finalizing its plans along S.R. 56, it’s getting easier to sell Wiregrass Ranch’s potential to other large companies. “We’ve been negotiating with two other big potential office users, but everyone wanted the biggest gift under the tree. Now that Raymond James has that piece, we’re confident the other 400,000 square feet will fall in place soon.”
And, it’s not just more commercial coming to this DRI which today still has not even one residence, although (as we’ve announced in previous issues) Standard Pacific Homes will soon be the first with Estancia at Wiregrass Ranch, which will feature homes ranging from the $200,000-$600,000+ — but it’s not the only residential development coming to Wiregrass.
Porter says GL Homes, which built a lot of Weston, FL, is planning a luxury community in Wiregrass, with homes ranging from $300,000 to more than $700,000, and Lennar Homes is planning a community of 202 smaller homes on 19 acres in Wiregrass, “with pools on the roofs.”
Of course, we’ll keep you posted and we do plan, in an upcoming issue, to show you the updated map of the Wiregrass Ranch DRI, so you can better visualize everything that’s coming to the area.
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