This 18.6-acre project consisted of 330 four-story multifamily apartments, and a one acre commercial outparcel. It is located in a high-growth area of Pasco County (Land O’ Lakes), Florida, at the intersection of SR 52 and Shady Hills Road, just east of the Suncoast Parkway and directly across from Angeline, a 6,200-acre master-planned community designed to include approximately 7,500 homes, extensive green space, and a mixed-use town center. Angeline also anchors the 775-acre Moffitt Cancer Center Speros life-sciences campus, planned to accommodate up to 24 million square feet of research, laboratory, clinical, and related facilities and support an estimated 14,000 jobs, reinforcing a live-work-play growth corridor in central Pasco County.
The property carried legacy entitlements dating back more than 20 years, which were maintained through gubernatorial executive orders allowing extensions of permits, development orders, and vested rights following declared emergencies. Over time, however, two material changes occurred: the originally approved multifamily product type became functionally obsolete, and the County amended its comprehensive plan to introduce a vision road bisecting the site. These issues ultimately proved insurmountable for the prior developer, but Eastern Meridian identified opportunity where others saw constraints.
Through a conditional use amendment requiring two public hearings, Eastern Meridian worked collaboratively with the County to relocate the vision road to a configuration that satisfied both public infrastructure objectives and development feasibility, demonstrating our creativity and reputation as a constructive public-sector partner. We then addressed the remaining challenges by untangling prior approvals and resolving a complex stack of title exceptions, including shared encumbrances and cost-sharing arrangements among three separate property owners with interests in Spanish Lake. This cooperative solution allowed the water body to serve shared stormwater needs, increased overall developable land, and created a mutually beneficial outcome for all parties.
As part of the strategy, Eastern Meridian carved out approximately one acre and sold it to our southern neighbor, RMC Property Group, allowing them to assemble a parcel of sufficient size to accommodate an end user that would not have fit on their original site—creating meaningful incremental value for that ownership.
Ultimately, this project produced a win for the community, Pasco County, Middleburg Communities as the buyer of the multifamily site, RMC as the buyer of the retail site, and the adjacent landowners who obtained additional developable land, underscoring Eastern Meridian’s ability to unlock value through creative entitlements and strategic transaction structuring.
