A Modern-Day Gold Rush
by Janan Talafer

SAY THE WORD KAZOO AND YOU ALMOST HAVE TO smile. The small plastic musical instrument is built for fun, and scores of business managers must think so because Kazoobie Inc. in Port Richey supplies corporate parties around the country. Even a U.S. Embassy in the Middle East placed an order this year for its Marine security detail. “Kazoos are a great morale booster,” says Steve Murray, vice president of operations of Kazoobie. “If you can hum, you can play the kazoo.”

HO-HUM Steve Murray of Kazoobie Inc. finds Pasco the perfect place to manufacture kazoos.

Kazoobie owner Rick Hubbard has a passion for kazoos that started more than a decade ago when he began entertaining children and parents at schools and community events with his unique style of music. Today, he regularly travels the country to make kazoo appearances. But now he also manufactures them. Three years ago he bought an existing plant in Michigan and moved production to Hilton Head, SC. Then last year he decided to relocate to Pasco, shifting kazoo production to a 2,000-square-foot facility, double the plant’s previous size.

The move brought Kazoobie (www.kazoobie.com) closer to its major suppliers, an injection molding company and a packing firm, both in Pinellas County. After scouting several locations in Tampa Bay, the company selected Pasco

County for its affordable land prices and low cost of living. “It just seemed we could get more for our money here,” says Murray. That seems to be a common theme for Pasco these days. “We still have a lot of land available and competitive prices,” says Mary Jane Stanley, executive director of the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC). Steve Simon, Pasco County commissioner, agrees: “We have a friendly environment with beautiful, pristine land at a cost that is very competitive. And now that we have better transportation routes that extend into metro areas, we’re becoming a destination of choice, especially since other areas in Tampa Bay are so densely populated.”

Slow Out of the Gate
Business leaders and county officials have been putting their heads together to create an aggressive plan for Pasco that will encourage growth and remove the mindset that Pasco is only a bedroom community for Tampa and St. Petersburg.

SERENE GREENS Playing 18 holes is the order of the day at Saddlebrook Resort.

Simon admits that Pasco is playing catch-up to its neighboring counties in developing a strong industrial-commercial base that attracts higher-paying jobs. “Because we didn’t have the transportation linkages until now, we were a little late in blooming, a little sleepier than our neighbors to the south,” he says. Some 64,000 people continue to commute south out of Pasco each day for employment opportunities.

Chip Howison, recently elected president of the Pasco EDC and vice president of Pall Aeropower (www.pall.com), a major employer in the county, praises the current county commission, saying the group is “very pro-business.” And the county is certainly moving in the right direction. In the last three years, the number of business parks has gone from 11 to 23.

A&S Laboratories recently moved into the West Pasco Industrial Park after making a $350,000 capital investment on a new 10,800- square-foot facility last year, almost five times the size of its previous facility in Clearwater. The firm, which conducts long-term corrosion testing on cement, concrete and other materials, needed a larger building to accommodate expanding business in new testing areas.

CHIP HOWISON Pall Aeropower 2004 President, Pasco EDC

When Jane Group Inc. outgrew its 2,000- square-foot Hillsborough County facility, owner Fred Tedrow first looked for property in north Tampa, but prices were out of sight, he says. He bought an existing 3,600-square-foot facility in Zephyrhills last May. The company, a document imaging service bureau and Eastman Kodak microfilm distributor, also sells turnkey information management.

Aeronautical Systems Engineering Inc. was in business elsewhere for eight years before making the move to Pasco two years ago. The company invested $1 million in a new 7,200- square-foot facility where it manufactures flight simulators. “We could get a much larger piece of property for less cost,” says owner Faike Zora.

Enter the Developers
Even the Hogan Group – with a Tampa headquarters and regional offices in Atlanta, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale – is moving into the area for the first time. The firm purchased a 66-acre site at the southeast corner of the Suncoast Parkway and State Road 54, only 18 miles from the Tampa International Airport, says President Ray Mills. “This is an opportunity for us to be at a major intersection in a high-growth region,” he says. The company plans to develop a retail site that includes office space, a bank and a hotel, with groundbreaking scheduled for early this year. By 2005, the company also expects to be busy in the eastern part of Pasco where it has purchased several undeveloped sites between Zephyrhills and Dade City for big-box retail outlets.

“The Pasco EDC welcomed us with open arms,” says Ed Mazur, owner of Florida Design Consultants, of his decision to consolidate offices into a new 24,000-square-foot facility close to State Road 54 and the Suncoast Parkway. The firm, which offers engineering, surveying, transportation studies and environmental permitting, occupies 21,000 square feet of the new building and has leased the remaining space to TRS Graphic Services.

“We do a lot of land development in Pasco County and now it’s easier for us to get to various sites,” says Mazur. “It was a logical place for us to be.”

Adam Smith Enterprises is attracting new business to its two corporate parks, Trinity Oaks Commerce Park, a 138.7-acre commercial, office and light industrial development in New Port Richey, and Fox Wood Commerce Park, a new 53-acre park near State Road 54 and the Suncoast Parkway.

“In both parks we’re looking at businesses that we believe will offer long-term future growth and more high-tech employment opportunities,” says Dan Aldridge, of Adam Smith Enterprises. At Trinity Oaks, VLOC (www.vloc.com), a subsidiary of II-VI Inc., manufactures optics and crystals for industrial, scientific and medical lasers. In the same park, London-based Enodis PLC. (www.enodis.com), an international distributor of commercial food preparation equipment, has its global operations center and technology operations center.

The Rush for New Residential
While business growth is gradually inching up on the thermometer, the rise in home-building construction is meteoric. Families are flocking to new large master-planned communities that offer them attractive amenities – from a central clubhouse with pool and fitness center to hiking trails and lots of green space – and most importantly, affordable prices.

In central Pasco’s rolling hills, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 41 and State Road 52 near Lake O’Lakes, the Conner family has selected developer Terrabrook to create a unique 4,800-acre, self-contained, large-scale master planned community – a new town built from scratch from pristine farm land.

Connerton will include some 8,700 residential units, along with 3.5-million square feet of retail, office and light industrial space – one of the largest DRI (development of regional impact) mixed-use zonings of its kind in Pasco history, says Stewart Gibbons, vice president of Terrabrook.

Land has already been set aside for up to three schools, as well as recreational areas, green spaces and golf courses to create what Patrick Berman, retail specialist for Cushman & Wakefield, calls a very desirable lifestyle. A pedestrian-friendly downtown center will offer shops, restaurants and office buildings connecting with walking trails. “The whole idea of a master-planned community is lifestyle,” says Berman. “You don’t have to drive 20 miles to work and it saves on energy. It’s a back-to-the-future concept of a simpler, easier life with parks, hiking paths, golf courses and a town square all in one.”

Groundbreaking is expected to take place the first quarter of 2004, with the first village retail and office space center projected to open in early 2005, says Gibbons. “We have a commitment to commercial development that helps meet the need for employment centers,” he adds.

New home construction was at an all-time high, according to Rose Residential Reports, which shows that last year’s 5,883 housing starts in Pasco surpasses the 25-year-old record of 4,826 in 1978 and exceeds by well over 1,000 the total from 2002.

Stanley at the Pasco EDC also reports that 2000 U.S. Census data shows a three-year drop in the median age in Pasco to 44.9. “Twenty years ago, people thought of us as a retirement community,” she says. “Now many more two- income families with kids are moving in.”

A new trend is also underway: for the first time, new home construction also includes upscale, high-end homes. Champion’s Club is a good example. Adam Smith Enterprises is developing this new subdivision in Trinity, a large mixed-use residential-retail property it owns on the Pinellas-Pasco county line. New homes in the Champion’s Club start at $400,000 and go up to $1 million. “Sales have been robust,” says Aldridge. “People are really buying into the concept.”

How will Pasco’s changing demographics affect the economic climate? “Everything follows rooftops,” says Aldridge. “Residential growth spurs retail and then business development. A lot of working families are moving in, bringing valuable job skills – an absolute boom for future employers. You have to have the right workforce first. Jobs will follow.”

Bill Weatherford of Marlin Commercial, developer of the West Pasco Industrial Park agrees. “As more housetops come to Pasco, some of those housetops will be business owners. They’ll want to be closer to their office. Rather than battle the traffic driving south, they’ll want to be across the street.”

New Tampa North
Perhaps the area of most rapid residential and commercial growth is in southeast Pasco. It’s an area that Patrick Berman of Cushman & Wakefield says many people refer to as New Tampa North. It starts at the Pasco-Hillsborough county line and extends to Wesley Chapel. The area has easy access and it’s near the I-75 and I-275 split. It’s also close to State Road 56 and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, which Berman says is “the hottest retail market corridor in Tampa Bay. The demographics are strong here,” he adds. “You have affluent young professionals moving in, the ideal customers for major retailers.”

Wiregrass Ranch, a new master-planned, 5,000-acre mixed-used residential and commercial development, will be located close to the intersection of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and State Road 56, and continue east on open land to Morris Bridge Road. Last fall, the Goodman Company, of West Palm Beach, received rezoning approval for 400,000 square feet for two separate commercial sites, one at the southwest quadrant of Bruce B. Downs and State Road 56, and a 1.6-million-square-foot power center at the northwest quadrant of that popular intersection for retail giants like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Circuit City.

Sierra Properties is taking advantage of the expected population boom with Cypress Creek Town Center, a proposed 500-acre mixed-used retail, office, hotel and residential project now before the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. The property, at the intersection of I-75 and State Road 56, will also include a 100-acre, 1.5-million-square-foot regional shopping mall. Sierra Properties signed a letter of intent in late 2003 with mall developer, The Jacobs Group, and hopes to break ground on the shopping center in 2005, with a completion date of 2007.

Just up the road from there, in Wesley Chapel, is Saddlebrook Resort, known for its champion golf course and tennis courts, and home to tennis superstars like Jennifer Capriati. Saddlebrook (www.saddlebrook resort.com) is partnering with Pasco to develop a new world-class tennis stadium. The 5,000-seat, $5.7-million complex is being paid for with Pasco tourist development funds and will sit on land donated by the Porter family. The venue will be managed by Saddlebrook Resort and is expected to bring in significant tourist dollars for the county.

Further north, progress is beginning to reach the intersection of I-75 and State Road 52, where One Pasco Center offers light industrial business lots. C&M Millwork Inc. has built a new 20,000-square-foot facility to double their production and add three employees.

The area’s growth also is enticing Todd Haag, owner of Greenbriar Landscaping, with headquarters in Orlando, to move his Tampa office there. He’s renovating a 5,000-square-foot facility in One Pasco Center. “We do a lot of work for Pulte Homes and Cen-tex,” says Haag, “and the move will put us along the State Road 52 corridor, a really hot area right now.”

On the Road to Higher Learning
Saint Leo University (www.saint leo. edu), a private Catholic university, is also in this part of Pasco. Saint Leo had its largest freshman class in the school’s history last year (381 freshmen). The university continues to be the nation’s third-largest provider of online higher education and the sixth-largest provider of higher education to the military. Last year, Saint Leo developed an innovative partnership with Beijing Normal University and the Bright China Management Institute to teach business entrepreneurial skills to young Chinese business leaders.

In 2003, the college also recorded a series of firsts in the area of fundraising – its first fundraising drive in the history of the school brought in the first $1-million charitable gift and a $2.5-million endowment, the largest gift in the school’s history. Funds will help pay for various campus renovations.

In the far southeast corner of Pasco, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 301 and State Road 54, sits Zephyrhills. City Manager Steve Spina talks about the many changes underway in what he calls “a small retirement town, now part of the greater Tampa Bay area.”

He points to the new Super Wal-Mart, Chili’s restaurant and Lowe’s Home Improvement store as evidence of progress. Spina says discussion is underway with landowners eager to take advantage of city utilities by annexing land outside city limits.

Taxing Questions
While transportation issues continue to dog Pasco County, with road construction lagging behind the county’s explosive growth, and not enough east-west access, the future shows signs of improvement. Voters will have a chance in March to approve the Penny-for-Pasco tax, a one-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax increase that could generate some $430 million over 10 years, with schools, roads and various other county and city projects benefiting from taxpayers’ generosity.

On another front, the Pasco EDC offers tax incentives to encourage new business that brings in higher-paying jobs. This is through the Qualified Target Industry Program, which rewards companies paying a higher-than-average annual salary. Company D Graphics is one company that benefited from this program. Owner Danya Rose moved her printing business from Hernando County to Pasco last year to expand the company’s commercial printing capability with a 10,000-square-foot building close to the Suncoast Parkway. “We wanted to reach the Tampa market without being in Tampa,” says Rose. TalkAmerica, a telephone call center, also qualified for the program. The company expanded its operations from Pinellas County to Pasco last year, opening an office in New Port Richey and adding 125 new jobs. What brought them to Pasco? “It’s an untapped market for us,” says Frank O’Hanlan, human resources director. The company continues to hire, with a long-term projected goal of 500 employees.