Development surges on State Road 56 near Tampa

State Road 56 (in red)
State Road 56 (in red)

State Road 56 in Pasco County north of Tampa inspired little development after contractors finished building it 13 years ago. In the last year, however, new development along State Road 56 has surged.

A new Mercedes-Benz dealership and a luxury apartment building called Bonterra Parc have opened in the State Road 56 corridor, where a 565-home luxury subdivision called the Ridge at Wiregrass Ranch also will be completed soon. So will  a new elementary school.

The most prominent project in the State Road 56 corridor is a mall called Tampa Premium Outlets, scheduled to open October 29.

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Richard Gehring, strategic policy administrator for Pasco County, told the Tampa Bay Times that real estate development in the State Road 56 corridor stems from population density in neighboring counties.

Pasco has three times as much land as Pinellas County, where St. Petersburg is located, but Pasco’s population of about 500,000 is much smaller.

“Pinellas has 900-something thousand people in it but has no dirt,” Gehring said. [Tampa Bay Times] — Mike Seemuth