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Epperson Ranch Project OK'd

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: November 7, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - After taking over the development of Epperson Ranch from Lennar Corp., Tampa-based Metro Development Corp. won county approval this week for a revised vision for the property off Curley Road.
County commissioners on Wednesday approved a new development agreement with Metro for the 1,700-acre ranch just north of Well Road.

The approval came about a year after Metro took over the project from Miami-based Lennar, which was hit hard by the collapsing housing market. Lennar sold its rights to develop Epperson Ranch as part of a restructuring that dumped nearly 20,000 home lots across the country at steep discounts.

Metro expects to spend as long as two years preparing the property for development, company spokesman John Heagney said Thursday. Normally, that process would take about half that time, he said.

"That's if the economy is cranking on all eight cylinders," Heagney said. "It's not."

In its deal with Lennar, Metro inherited the job of building half of a county-mandated town center straddling Curley Road, extending Overpass Road to Curley and realigning the southern portion of Curley to meet Meadow Pointe Boulevard at State Road 54.

The new plan for Epperson echoes Lennar's original design for 50,000 square feet of office space, 209,000 square feet of commercial space and 3,905 homes.

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

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