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T. Rowe Plans Still Fluid

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: December 31, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - Financial services firm T. Rowe Price has applied for a development permit for a 95-acre site off State Road 54.

The company applied Dec. 17 for an environmental resource permit from the Southwest Florida Water Management District. The site is part of the Long Lake Ranch project south of S.R. 54 at Sunlake Boulevard.

T. Rowe Price has yet to confirm any final decision on moving to Pasco. The company is looking for a location that could accommodate 1,200 additional workers. T. Rowe Price currently employs 435 people at a leased site in Tampa. About a fifth of those employees commute from Pasco County for work.

Pasco is one of five possible locations for the expansion and the only one in Florida.

The company is still considering its options, T. Rowe Price spokeswoman Heather McDonold said this week.

"We're finalizing our due diligence and are pleased with the progress to date," McDonold said in an e-mail. "While we have identified a location in Pasco County that appears to meet our needs and is our preferred Florida site, no final decisions have been made."

The company's Pasco plans envision three four-story buildings, each of which would have its own three-story parking garage. Together, the three office buildings would encompass nearly 500,000 square feet of space.

A collection of a half-dozen smaller buildings, totaling 50,000 square feet, would offer commercial and retail options close to the office complex, according to plans now under review.

Construction could start in 2010, county officials have said.

Company officials have said the average wage for workers at the new facility would be $47,000.

County commissioners approved a $13 million incentive package last month in hopes of bringing T. Rowe Price to Pasco. It included $7 million in county fee reductions and road construction and another $6 million in state funds.

The incentives would be paid over time as the project evolves, according to county officials.

A study commissioned by the county estimates T. Rowe Price could add more than $58.5 million in taxes to county and school tills.

The site sits in the middle of a corridor centering on S.R. 54 that consultants from the Urban Land Institute earlier this year identified as crucial to developing office parks and other forms of high-wage employment in service-heavy Pasco.

The T. Rowe Price property contains nearly 24 acres of wetlands - judged the highest quality on the entire Long Lake Ranch property by the project's consultants. It's also home to an as-yet untallied population of gopher tortoises.

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

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