Pasco County is finalizing plans for a huge sports complex in the southeast part of the county.
- Pasco County finalizes plan for huge sports complex
- $44M project to include hotel and 98K square foot complex
- County plans to start construction in 2018
The portion of land currently has an outlet mall and the largest hockey facility in the state, and will soon be home to the Wiregrass Sports Complex.
“What you see is 130 acres that will encompass some outdoor facilities, eight outdoor ball fields, an amphitheater, restrooms, trails, and a park area,” said Commissioner Mike Moore.
The $44 million project will include a hotel and a 98,000 square foot multipurpose building.
“We’re going to have indoor sports--cheerleading, basketball, volleyball—anything that can be done inside with youth sports,” Moore said.
New parent Laura Highfill is thrilled about the new sports complex.
“We’re really excited because by the time he gets to that age it will be built, hopefully,” Highfill said. “We’re really excited about the indoor sports, so in the summer, to play volleyball or something like that, we won’t have to be out in the heat the whole time.”
The county has set aside $11 million in tourism tax dollars for the project. It hopes to raise additional funds by raising the 2-percent bed tax to 4-percent.
“We still have the lowest bed tax around of all the surrounding counties, in Florida actually, so if that's raised people who come visit here, you can almost look at it as a user fee for people who come to Pasco County," said Moore.
The rest of the funding will come from a county backed loan and private funding, so residents won’t have to foot the bill.
“We estimate that over the next 10 years we’re projected to see probably $100 million in economic impact for our county,” Moore said.
The county’s goal is start construction in early 2018 and take 18 months to build.
The county still needs to approve the 2 percent increase in the bed tax.