Marsha and Jerry Hayne were ready to make a move. But with a top-floor, water-view condo in Palmetto, the Haynes already had a home many folks would envy. “It had a fantastic view,” Jerry Hayne says. “You could see the bay, you could see Anna Maria Island and cruise ships coming from Tampa Bay.”
So why change? The active retirees—he’s 64, she’s 57—wanted something with more room and a garage. And being boating enthusiasts, they wanted a home near the water, away from the urban hustle and bustle. Finally they wanted something affordable. Mission impossible? Not at all. In June, the Haynes moved into a 1,600-square-foot villa with two bedrooms, a den and a woodsy area behind it. It’s in the Centex Homes community of Southshore Falls, and the price was $208,000. “It’s kind of away from town,” Marsha Hayne says. “It’s like a rural area and yet it’s close to town, close to the water” Turned out, to find exactly what they wanted, the Haynes simply had to do what more and more Bay-area buyers are doing: They looked in South Shore. LONG IGNORED, A few years back, southern Hillsborough County, then known simply as South County, was rural and agricultural. For a long time, “nobody wanted to move all the way down there. It was not a very desirable place to be,” says John Heagney, president of John Heagney Public Relations, which represents about two dozen local builders and developers. “Now, it’s really a hot area.” After years of being bypassed by the Bay Area’s building boom, southern Hillsborough County has suddenly caught everyone’s attention. That’s because South Shore offers large tracts of undeveloped land, much of it with coveted water access, as well as reasonable prices. For developers, that meant opportunity. And for homeowners, it meant a chance to live on the water without dropping a couple of million dollars to make it happen. Suddenly, South Shore became the fastest-growing area of Hillsborough County. Over the next 20 years, the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission is projecting its population to swell by as much as 450,000—and a good portion of these newcomers are expected to wind up in South Shore. That’s welcome news for longtime landowners ready to sell out. But it might not be such good news for longtime residents who—until now—haven’t had to deal with growth and the challenges it brings. The area now known as South Shore—the chic name fits better with its gussied-up image—is really a collection of communities that together make up about 385 square miles encompassing Apollo Beach, Balm, Gibsonton, Riverview, Ruskin, Sun City Center, Sundance and Wimauma. “For a long time, it wasn’t on developers’ radar,” says local homebuilder Charley Hannah of Hannah Bartoletta Homes. It was thought of as the leftovers of waterfront for the Bay Area. “It had the power plant, the sewer treatment plant, it had this stigma.” That began to change, says Hannah, when surrounding areas started to reach population overload. “Suddenly, the West Coast is running out of waterfront and there’s this beautiful stretch available,” Hannah adds. “It got discovered and bloomed practically overnight. It’s an emerging area that’s going to have legs for a long time.” In fact, the area was perfectly positioned for growth because property values weren’t inflated and because of its easy access to Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota. “What you’re seeing now is a major recognition in the building and development industry that this really is a very accessible area, because of the road system, to Hillsborough County services,” Heagney says. As a result, the area that Heagney says had “always been kind of the stepchild of Tampa” is being reshaped with new luxurious waterfront estates, retail centers and affordable townhome communities. The South Shore development boom started about five years ago, says Rob Ahrens, director of acquisitions for Metro Development Group in Tampa. That’s when San Diego-based Newland Communities began MiraBay, an upscale, 750-acre community in Apollo Beach. MiraBay, with its easygoing coastal ambiance, is situated on saltwater canals that offer direct, deep-water access to Tampa Bay. Streets are lined with pastel-hued, Key West-style homes priced from the high $300s to more than $5 million. In 2004, the community received national attention by hosting the Coastal Living magazine Idea House. “Newland took a leap,” Heagney says. “MiraBay set the tone for that area. They [Newland] were the pioneers.” Pioneers generally take risks, and Newland was no exception. The area was considered to be off the beaten track and there were those old image problems to overcome. But at MiraBay, Newland had a secret weapon: its already existing canals. They had been neglected, Heagney says, “but it was an existing gold mine.” Newland improved the canals, built beautiful waterfront homes and “suddenly changed the whole perception of southern Hillsborough County,” says Hannah. Actually, the company did more than that, spearheading a drive to unite the area chambers of commerce to work toward establishing a new regional identity. “Before this development push started, there was no cohesive identity down there,” Heagney says. “The (city and county leaders) deserve a lot of credit for putting aside their individual identities for the greater good.” South Shore, with its abundant natural resources, proximity to cities and existing infrastructure, already had a lot going for it. Now, with a united coalition of business organization touting the area, it was ripe for development. Today, new communities are rising in and around the existing towns of Ruskin, along the Manatee River and a hodgepodge of inlets, and Riverview, along the banks of the Alafia River. And equestrian communities have sprung up in Sundance and Wimauma. Buyers love the variety, with everything from moderately-priced single-family homes with acreage to pricey waterfront estates, says Mike Speakman, a Keller Williams Realty agent who specializes in South Shore properties. For example, a five-bedroom estate home in MiraBay was recently listed at $1,999,000 while also on the market was a three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home in Apollo Beach listed at $250,000. Bargain-hunters can find an 800-square-foot, one-bedroom condo in Sun City Center for as little as $37,500—yes, $37,500—or a 928-square-foot, one-bedroom bungalow in Ruskin for $118,000. Buyers are, in fact, getting considerable bang for their buck in communities such as Hawks Point of South Shore, a Centex Homes development where townhomes are priced from the $150s and single-family homes are priced from the $190s. When complete, this gated community in Ruskin will encompass 1,180 homes with two clubhouses, a resort pool, a playground and sports courts. “We put a lot of thought into the amenities,” says Brian Bullock, West Florida division sales manager for Centex. “But we wanted to keep it affordable.” Along with MiraBay, Newland is developing two other communities in Apollo Beach: Covington Park, a 394-acre development with preservation areas, and Waterset, which will feature an esplanade linking the community’s recreation centers to its shopping and dining venues. Along with all the enthusiasm, however, comes concern. The changing landscape isn’t welcome news to some longtime residents, who prefer cattle ranches and vegetable farms to new, amenity-filled communities. “There’s an ‘I’m here so I want to stop all the growth coming next to me’ mentality,’” Ahrens says. “Everybody prefers rural to high density, green space to parking lots. But when there are employment centers, where do those [workers] live?” And the reality, most observers say, is that since you can’t stop growth, South Shore communities should plan for it and control it. “Figure out where the density should be, where it should stay rural and what’s important to protect,” Ahrens says. In any case, it’s clear that South Shore’s boom is only beginning. New homes are going up in record numbers. And plans are on the drawing board for a $2 million shopping center with 1 million square feet of new stores at the southwest corner of I-75 and Big Bend Road. Plus, the area could soon get a movie theater and hundreds of new hotel rooms. “Before South Shore became South Shore, there was nothing down there,” Heagney adds. “Now, essentially, its time has come.” New South Shore Communities Name: Southshore Falls Name: Spyglass at River Bend |
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