More apartments coming to Pasco County

WESLEY CHAPEL — Plans are underway once again to bring nearly 250 apartments to a part of Pasco County scheduled to get its own dedicated off-ramp from Interstate 75.

David Fleeman, a Tampa division project manager for the Genesis Group engineering company, is set to meet with county officials next week to discuss a proposed 243-unit apartment complex on 104 acres at 8554 Old Pasco Road.

The location is about a mile from Overpass Road, where the county and the Florida Department of Transportation will build a $55 million interchange, with plans to eventually create a larger east-west road across the county to U.S. 301.

The area off Old Pasco Road is known as Grantham Ranch East. It was originally intended to be the first phase of a larger master-planned community in the area that was a victim of the housing collapse. The original plans were to build a 288-unit multifamily complex on the land, according to county officials. The current permitted maximum density is 276 units.

The developer of the project was not revealed, but the site is on land purchased by an affiliate of JES Properties in Clearwater in October 2013 for $1.7 million. JES is a land company involved in other projects, including the Grey Hawk and Swan Cove subdivisions in Pasco, as well as Rye Wilderness Estates in Bradenton. Last year, JES sold 260 acres of land to Newland Communities for $6 million, giving the developer its final piece for a master-planned project on State Road 54, just off the Suncoast Parkway.