Operations have shut down, but that should have little immediate impact on residents and businesses, community leaders say.
By Ashley Reams Dunn
News Editor
LAND O’ LAKES — Just weeks ago, Ron Levondosky, owner of Amalfi Pizza & Pasta could count on at least $1,000 in business every month from Connerton.
Levondosky’s restaurant is located in Arbor Square, the shopping center in Connerton. Levondosky catered parties and other functions that Connerton would organize. He would also see Connerton employees in his eatery for lunch about three times a week.
But he won’t be getting that business anymore — at least not for a while.
On Dec. 4, Connerton’s developer, Terrabrook, ended operations at its offices and welcome center and laid off six full-time and four part-time employees. It announced Dec. 8 that it would be leaving the entire project. Developers are now in the process of trying to sell Connerton to an investor.
“It’s regrettable,” said County Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, “… I’m optimistic that it will come back.”
Connerton is a 4,800-acre mixed-use community in Land O’ Lakes on US 41. It encompasses an area bordered by SR 52 to the north and Ehren Cutoff to the south and east.
Developers envisioned that the community would be self-contained with homes, businesses, a hospital, schools and recreation opportunities. County officials even gave the project its own category called “New Town” in the county’s long-range plan. The state designation of New Town is a planned urban community created in a rural or undeveloped area and designed to be self-sufficient with its own housing, education, retail, government, recreation and commerce. It is designed to encourage development that is compact, mixed-use, pedestrian oriented, environmentally sensitive and provide a balance between housing and employment.
In total, approximately 8,500 residential units and more than 3 million square feet of commercial space for office, retail and industrial uses were planned.
Terrabrook received its first approvals for construction in 2003. Homes were priced from the $130,000’s to the millions.
There were going to be five villages, and homes in the first village, the Arbors, were nearly sold out. Homes in the second village, the Gardens, were up for sale. Before the housing market slumped, Connerton developers expected to sell 700 to 800 homes each year. Little more than 200 homes have been sold so far.
University Community Hospital opened in March in Connerton Commerce Park, the development’s industrial, office and service complex.
“We don’t anticipate any problems or interruptions,” said CEO Debi Martoccio.
UCH draws patients from Pasco, Hillsborough, Hernando, Polk and Citrus counties. The hospital has 76 employees and has doubled its amount of patients since Nov. 1.
Three schools were planned for the community. The first, an elementary school, is under construction now and on track to open in August 2010, according to Chris Williams, the Pasco school district’s director of Planning. There is also land for a middle school at the same location and another elementary school at another location in Connerton, but the district has no immediate plans to build those schools, Williams said.
Connerton has it’s own recreational activity center, Club Connerton, which opened recently and cost $8 million. Hildebrand said that the greatest impact on Connerton residents would likely relate to Club Connerton. Since Terrabrook pulled out of the development, the activity center has been turned over to Connerton Community Council Inc., a nonprofit group owned by the residents.
Five shopping centers were also planned for Connerton. The first shopping center, Arbor Square, opened in March 2007. It has banks, restaurants and other businesses and is anchored by a Publix supermarket.
“That’s always going to be a draw there,” Hildebrand said.
The project might be shut down for now, but most businesses shouldn’t be impacted, explained Kathy Dunkley, executive director of the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce.
“The homeowners aren’t leaving,” she said. “The people who are living there that support those stores are still there.”
The economy is to blame for the closing of Arbor Square stores such as the UPS Store and Chick Chat, Dunkley said.
“Nothing is going to happen until the economy starts changing,” she said.
“I think there’s been probably a disappointment because the businesses thought there would be a lot more in the area,” she added.
Levondosky, who opened Amalfi Pizza & Pasta nearly a year ago, said his business would probably be impacted more than others because of the catering he did for Connerton activities.
With only about 200 homes in Connerton and a total of 2,713 homes within a three-mile radius, staying in business is “a challenge,” Levondosky said.
Rent rates are higher at Arbor Square compared to other shopping centers in the area because of the Connerton name, and many of the businesses there have found it difficult to meet those rates in the slow economy, Levondosky said.
He said business owners are hoping a new developer comes in and takes over soon.
“We all realize what potentially is going to be here,” he said, “but getting to that point is going to be the difficult part.”
