Owners of Amici Pizza & Deli are planning to build a new stand-alone restaurant, with additional retail space, on Wesley Chapel Boulevard.
The new restaurant is a short distance from the existing Amici restaurant in Grand Oaks Square, at Wesley Chapel and Pet Lane.
Andrea and Josephine Mannino, are heading toward a construction start of Amici Plaza in spring with an opening likely by the end of 2016.
Pasco County records show a conceptual plan with about 3,000 square feet for the restaurant, and about 1,800 square feet for retail.
“We’d like to have our own building and a bigger kitchen,” said Andrea Mannino.
No decisions have been made on the additional retail space, he said.
The site is located at the corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Wesley Chapel Boulevard, which is also known as County Road 54.
Pasco County is moving forward with acquisition of right-of-way along County Road 54 to prepare for the expansion of the two-lane road into a four-lane road at the junction of State Road 56 and State Road 54 to Progress Parkway.
The road design also would allow for future expansion to six lanes.
County records show that construction on the $46 million project would begin in fall 2018 and would be completed in fall 2019.
To accommodate the placement of the restaurant and plaza, the Manninos’ requested the county reduce by 9 feet the amount of land acquired for the road project, and also requested a reduction in building setbacks.
The county’s Development Review Committee has recommended approval to the Pasco County Commission, which has the final say. Commissioners are scheduled to consider the request on Feb. 9.
At the same meeting, commissioners also will consider the restaurant’s request for a beer and wine license.
Construction of Amici Plaza will adopt “low impact development principles,” said Stuart Artman, director of engineering projects for Moody Engineering, Inc.
Instead of an open-air storm water pond, the site would have an underground storage vault to capture and disperse rainwater. That can decrease potential flooding problems, and provides more area for amenities such as a sidewalk around the restaurant that is separate from the public sidewalk built along the roadway.
The site also places parking spaces to the side and rear of the restaurant, another “smart growth” trend in development.
“It makes for a more compact and walkable site, which the county is encouraging,” said Chief Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein.
Published February 3, 2016
