What would you do with 1,000 acres of land if you had a chance to buy it?
A small group of owners are experiencing that first-hand in Wesley Chapel right now after a bunch of agricultural land just west of Quail Hollow was gobbled up in a $4.2 million land sale.
Will it become homes? A new commercial center? Or will it stay as grazing land. Bill Eshenbaugh, the owner of Tampa’s Eshenbaugh Land Co., wasn’t a part of this deal involving 1,000 acres off Mangrove Drive, but he knows the owners — Charles Bruck through his SoHo Dayflower company, as well as the Aprile family.
“The Apriles are good dairymen, and they can work that land just the way it’s been for the past few decades,” Eshenbaugh told reporter Michael Hinman. “They really have nothing to lose on this. It’s one of the lowest prices I’ve seen.”
However, Bruck is known for his development work, originally planning to build a 260-acre corporate park on State Road 54 near the Suncoast Parkway that is now part of the Bexley Ranch project.
What do these owners have planned? And are there clues in the recent past on what could go there? Find out in this week’s print edition of The Laker, available now on newsstands and driveways throughout the region. Or you also can read the full story online for free through our e-edition, available right here.
Not terribly far from this land purchase, Pasco’s first magnet school continues to come together quickly.
Sanders Memorial STEAM Magnet School — which focuses on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics — already is being flooded with applications from potential students, and even more are expected before the Jan. 15 deadline.
“As a district, we know we must compete for the students we serve,” Pasco County Schools superintendent Kurt Browning said, as reported by B.C. Manion.
The campus is being built on the site of the old Sanders Memorial Elementary School at 5126 School Road in Land O’ Lakes, and is expected to be open for the upcoming school year next fall.
Want to see and learn more about the new magnet school? Then check out this week’s print edition of The Laker/Lutz News, available for free now. Or read it online in our free e-edition: just click here.
And not every school needs to be new to get attention. The Old Lutz School is back in the news, thanks to its annual celebration of Christmas.
The 18th annual event will have everything: music, cookies, hot chocolate, trains and plenty of Christmas-themed decorations, including nutcrackers and trees.
“We never miss it,” Suzin Carr, a two-time Lutz Guv’na, told reporter Michael Murillo. “We make it part of our holiday.”
How can you make it a part of your holiday? Read this week’s print edition of the Lutz News, available now. Or check out our online e-edition by clicking here. And yes, it’s free.
And finally, photojournalist Fred Bellet has some great pictures to share from the 35th annual Lutz Arts & Craft Fair hosted by the GFWC Lutz-Land O’ Lakes Woman’s Club. See it online by clicking here.
All of these stories and more can be found in this week’s The Laker/Lutz News, available in newsstands throughout east and central Pasco County as well as northern Hillsborough County. Find out what has your community talking this week by getting your local news straight from the only source you need.
If The Laker/Lutz News is not coming to your door, call us to see where you can get your copy at (813) 909-2800, or read our free e-edition by clicking here.
