Tampa Suburb Getting $100M Retail-Residential Complex

WESLEY CHAPEL, FL-This quiet suburban community of 22,000 permanent residents, 20 miles north of Downtown Tampa, may not be too quiet any longer as Echo Real Estate Services/Development of Pittsburgh plans to break ground this fall on a $100-million, 835,000-sf mixed-used venture along the west side of Interstate 75 in fast-growing Pasco County.

Echo vice president Aaron J. Savin says the project will highlight an undetermined amount of retail and entertainment development, along with 300 residential units. The project is tentatively scheduled to open in summer 2007.

The Grove at Wesley Chapel will stretch for more than a mile along the highway, bounded by Interstate 75 on the east and Oakley Road on the west. The project will be the largest of its kind attempted in Pasco County, local industrial brokers tell GlobeSt.com.

Savin says tenants are being lined up with the focus on attracting large format specialty retailers, restaurants and national entertainment chains. Echo is also completing contract talks with a major theater chain for a 14-screen theater. Savin says he will disclose further project details at a formal press conference next week.

"Echo views this area as extremely valuable to the overall development of central Pasco County, especially with the planned widening and improvements to State Road 54 and related feeder roads, some of which will be paid for by the developer," Savin says.

"Most important in this overall development plan is that the site has minimal environmental issues," he adds. Pasco County residents have told their elected officials they are concerned about the rapid development taking place in other parts of the county and the resulting impact on the rural environment, the developer notes.

Lyman Davidson Dooley Inc. of Tampa designed the Grove at Wesley Chapel. Echo and Colliers Arnold of Tampa will handle leasing for the project.