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City Feels Fizzle Of Housing Boom

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 8, 2008

DADE CITY - Four years ago, this small northeast Pasco city found itself in the middle of the Tampa Bay area housing boom.

As the growth of Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills crept north, Dade City no longer was considered the boonies. Developers snatched up land and laid out plans to build houses and gated communities.

Now though, ground has broken for only a fraction of the 2,200 houses expected to be built here.

Two projects - one of which would have included more than 1,100 houses - have been stalled until late 2009 or early 2010, city officials recently learned.

They weren't exactly surprised. The reason for the slowdown is the sluggish real estate market, City Planner Karla Owens said.

Metro Development, the developers on Suwanee Lakeside, a 350-house development at Thomas Jefferson and Adair roads, and Highland Trails, an 1,143-home project on the east side of U.S. 301 between Clinton Avenue and Morningside Drive, said they don't want to build in this economic climate, Owens said.

The stalled projects mean the city won't be able to collect property tax revenue that comes with new rooftops. Owens is looking on the bright side, though.

"I'd rather not have vacant houses on overgrown lots," she said. "I'd rather just leave the property in its natural state."

Of the five residential developments slated for Dade City, one small subdivision - Abbey Glenn, a 113-home development off Adair Road - is under construction.

The slowdown in residential development gives the city time to catch up on infrastructure improvements and try to attract more commercial projects, Mayor Hutch Brock said.

"Maybe there'll be some further commercial development to serve some of those residences and to keep those residences filled with folks who live in this area, as opposed to creating what is in so many other neighboring communities, commuter communities," he said.

Sometimes, though, commercial and residential development are intertwined. That seems to be with the case with the Wal-Mart Supercenter slated to be built at U.S. 301 near Clinton Avenue.

In October 2006, Wal-Mart officials told the city the store opening would be pushed back until January 2008.

January has come and gone - still no Wal-Mart.

"I think they're truly waiting on the rooftops; everyone is," Owens said.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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