TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Lennar Corp. Unloads All Of Epperson Ranch Parcel

ADVERTISEMENT

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 5, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - After months of being dragged down by Florida's sinking housing market, Miami-based builder Lennar Corp. on Tuesday walked away from its planned Epperson Ranch project on Curley Road.

The struggling home builder - one of Pasco County's busiest two years ago - sold the entire Epperson project to Tampa-based Metro Development Group for an undisclosed sum.

The deal gave Metro all 1,742 acres and the 3,905 homesites Lennar had secured in its dealings with county and regional planners. The deal also makes Metro responsible for building part of the county-mandated town center Epperson will share with neighboring Watergrass.

The project also comes with a commitment to realign and widen Curley Road between State Road 54 and Elam Road. Under its deal with the county, Lennar was expected to pay more than $50 million for Curley and more than $20 million more for the town center.

"Everything that we had under the contract, they have now," said Ken Wagner, president of Lennar's Tampa office.

The Epperson transaction was the single largest of seven between Lennar and Metro announced Tuesday. It accounted for nearly half of 8,300 homesites Metro bought from Lennar.

Metro picked up 530 sites in Waterleaf in Hillsborough County. Other projects were in Polk, Sarasota, Brevard, DeSoto and Lee counties.

The deal increases Metro's holdings in Florida by 40 percent, company spokesman John Heagney said.

Pasco County officials approved development of the Epperson family homestead in October. But the project remains in bureaucratic limbo, awaiting approval of a necessary land-use change from county and state planners.

"That would be theirs to continue on with," Wagner said Tuesday afternoon.

That approval has been delayed several times in recent weeks, most recently during Tuesday's county commission meeting.
Heagney said the purchase deal is beneficial for both companies.

"Lennar is looking to convert some of its land holdings to cash in the face of the slower housing market," Heagney said. "Metro saw it as an opportunity to position itself for when the market turns around."

The Epperson project had stirred some controversy in recent weeks, particularly among the handful of longtime residents who live across from the property on the west shore of King Lake.

Residents raised concerns with Lennar that the development would mar the largely pristine landscape with rooftops, streetlights and other signs of suburbia.

"We're at a new starting point," said Margo McConnell, who raises miniature donkeys on 10 acres along the lake.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski

@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT