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Plant City Subdivision Plan Gives Way To Industrial Park

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By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 4, 2008

PLANT CITY - Land that once was slated to become the city's largest subdivision has been taken over by a developer who is planning to build an industrial park.

"It's right there in the center of the state," Steven Schafer, president of Schafer Development, said about the 1,263 acres south of U.S. 92 and east of Park Road. The land's proximity to interstates 4 and 75 would provide companies that locate there easy access to all points of Florida, Schafer said.

Three years ago, the city commission approved use of the land for Lakeside Station, a 2,600-home subdivision and commercial development that would have had more houses than Walden Lake.

Bob Appleyard, spokesman for Lakeside Station developer Sunrise Homes, said there were reasons the subdivision never progressed past the planning stages.

"The sheer scale," Appleyard said. "It always takes a little longer to get a project of that scale going."

By the time Sunrise Homes was nearly ready to begin construction, the housing market took a drastic downturn, Appleyard said.

City leaders had approached the residential developer a year ago to discuss construction of an industrial park, which would stimulate more employment opportunities, Appleyard said.

"Plant City really needed -- to avoid being a bedroom community -- was jobs," Appleyard said.

Before Sunrise Homes took over, the Lakeside Station property was part of Gregg Business Centre, a largely undeveloped industrial park.

Schafer said he wants to build warehouse distribution centers and light manufacturing factories on the site but no smokestack industries. The developer, who has offices in Florida and Michigan, said he hopes to rezone the land from residential to industrial.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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