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Trinity Center Moving Forward in Stages

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: September 12, 2007

TRINITY, Fla. - TRINITY, Fla. - Touted to become the largest "lifestyle center" in West Pasco, the multimillion-dollar Trinity Town Center expects to breathe a new air of freshness into this already thriving community in southwestern Pasco County.

Developers plan to officially open the center's roughly 200,000 square feet of office and retail space in three phases, ending August 2008.

The center will create more than 1,000 jobs and add millions of dollars to the Pasco County property tax base, according to its developer.

The first phase comes in October, when Old Harbor Bank begins taking customers in its permanent structure. The bank has been operating out of a mobile unit next to the Trinity Town Center site, at the corner of Little Road and Trinity Boulevard.

Conceptually, lifestyle centers are fashioned as boutique style shopping and business complexes that create a town square type atmosphere. The notion has been increasingly in vogue across the nation and they typically spring to life in areas of higher affluence.

"We want it to be a destination for people," said Stephany Dawson, public relation coordinator with Quality Holdings of Florida Inc., which owns the property. "They can go for more than just to shop and eat, they will be able take care of their day-to-day business in addition."

Paul Aiello, vice president of real estate development for Quality Holdings subsidiary South Capital Construction, says a key factor that landed this center in Trinity was a lack of services for those now calling the community home.

"While the New Port Richey and Trinity areas have expanded, services haven't kept up with the type of growth," Aiello said. The area's median age is 43 and the median income of people living within a one-mile radius of the retail center is roughly $100,000, he noted.

"There is not a lot of Class A space available for legal and medical offices, health clubs, salons or spas," he added.

According to Aiello, as a general rule of thumb when searching for a suitable lifestyle center location is a $60,000 median income within the one-mile radius is desirable.

This makes the Trinity locale ideal, he said.

Class A space is exactly what the Trinity Town Center will flaunt. Its office space will be geared toward professionals and retail room for many high-end vendors and restaurateurs.

All will be packaged in an aesthetically appealing environment including tree-lined walkways, a fountain square and a clock tower, to name a few.

Trinity also lacks a true town center or downtown-style area, both Dawson and Aiello said. They hope and expect this development to naturally fill that void to become Trinity's "Main Street."

Dawson said they would like to see the Trinity Town Center be formally named as Trinity's Main Street down the road by local officials once everything is up and running.

The project has also run smoothly along its schedule since ground was broken in February, Aiello said. The property was initially obtained by Quality Holdings approximately four years ago.

William C. Calary, a retail property specialist with the Tampa Bay office of real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis, said roughly 80 percent of all office and restaurant space has already been leased in the Trinity Town Center buildings involved in the first two phases.

Once fully functional, visitors can expect the center to be reminiscent of other lifestyle centers in the Tampa Bay area, such as West Park Village in Westchase and Hyde Park in South Tampa.

Aiello said developers certainly looked at local centers, as well as others state and nationwide, while drawing inspiration for their final design plan.

Trinity Town Center "will be much more stunning than the other areas we viewed," he said. Calary also reiterated that opinion.

"There was definitely a concerted effort to go after something different," Dawson said of the center's design as well as the shops and restaurants to be occupying its space.

Major chain eateries and retailers are surely not what to expect when visiting Trinity Town Center in the future.

"The restaurants are very eclectic. The idea is to have something a little bit off the beaten path," she said.

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