What the Great Recession took away, boom times are bringing back.
Three properties in Land O’ Lakes, along U.S. 41 and State Road 54, are poised to deliver new restaurants, retail and offices. All three sites languished as the economy tanked.
Now, Strategic Properties Group is ready to build the first of three new shopping centers on land that the real estate development firm held onto for nearly a decade.
Two more centers are in planning stages.
First up is Camp Indianhead Crossings, a triangular swath of land fronting State Road 54, at the corner of Camp Indianhead Road.
(Photos courtesy of Strategic Properties Group)
Hungry Greek and OTB Café are the first announced tenants. Both restaurants also have locations at The Shoppes of Wesley Chapel on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.
A groundbreaking will get dirt moving this week on the slightly more than 1 ½-acre site, according to Barry Jackson, managing member of Strategic Properties.
The swath, just west of Pep Boys, will be home to a one-story building with approximately 12,700 square feet of restaurant, retail and office space. Facades on both sides of the structure will match. Multiple driveways onto the site will include an entrance off State Road 54.
In addition to Hungry Greek and OTB, Jackson is negotiating with a national chain restaurant for a third dining spot at the center.
A nationally known hair salon also is anticipated at Camp Indianhead.
Exit Prime Realty and Jackson’s own company will relocate offices to the new center.
Another 6,500 square feet remains leasable.
Jackson said a nail salon likely could be another tenant.
“I’ve had several talking with me,” he said.
Jackson expects to have the building ready for occupancy by the end of the year. Tenants then will complete the build out for their individual spaces.
Some shops could open in February, with restaurants likely to open in March.
Visibility and traffic volume along State Road 54 made the location an attractive real estate buy in 2006. But, just as Jackson anticipated construction, the bottom fell out of the economy, and the project stalled out.
With the economy rebounding and development on State Road 54 humming again, Camp Indianhead finally is ready for its debut. Its attractiveness is still intact, Jackson said.
“Demographics in the area are terrific,” he said. “The county counts about 70,000 cars a day between Collier Parkway and U.S. 41. You pick up all the traffic going both ways from the two intersections.”
Strategic Properties is eyeing development of two more shopping centers in Land O’ Lakes that also had to wait out the economic downturn.
Though Wesley Chapel has been in the development spotlight with the opening of Tampa Premium Outlets, development at Cypress Creek Town Center — the Land O’ Lakes area is starting to share in the action.
“It’s not happening as fast as Wesley Chapel and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard are,” said Jackson. “But, it’s not far behind, probably a year behind.”
Land O’ Lakes Landings is in the planning stages, Jackson said. That center likely will begin construction in 2018.
It will be similar in size to Camp Indianhead at about 13,000 square feet, located on U.S. 41, more than a mile south of State Road 52. The site is next to an approximately 500-home master-planned community from Ryan Homes that will be built on land formerly part of the Lester Dairy farm.
Leases are not in place, but Jackson said he is in discussions with a national chain restaurant.
“We’re waiting on them (Ryan) to get stuff moving,” Jackson said. “We are the first commercial parcel outside of this development’s entrance.”
Another shopping center is in the planning stages, as well, Jackson said. That center, Lake Thomas Crossings, likely will begin construction in 2017.
It is a 16,000 square-foot shopping center on U.S. 41, about three miles north of State Road 54, and south of Ehren Cutoff.
“There is a desperate need for restaurants and retail up there,” Jackson said.
Connerton is another of Pasco’s housing developments that came to a standstill during the recession. But now, new homes are sprouting, and a McDonald’s restaurant is under construction at an entrance into the community.
Jackson said the draw to that area remains 100 percent the development of Connerton.
“If Connerton didn’t happen, we wouldn’t have bought the property,” he said.
Revised on July 8, 2016
