LARGO — The city of Largo owns and operates one golf course. By the end of the year, it could own two.
However, it has no intention of keeping the Pinecrest Golf Course property at 1200 Eighth Ave. SW a golf course.
City commissioners on May 17 approved an agreement with OB Golf Investment Group LLP to purchase the 26.7-acre property across the street from Taylor Park for $600,000.
The goal, City Manager Henry Schubert said, is to create a stormwater retention area that could aid private construction in the area to the north.
“The proposed use of the property is as regional stormwater retention, which would facilitate redevelopment within the Medical Arts District, which lies immediately to the north of this site,” he said.
The city hope turning the 26.7-acre Pinecrest Golf Course property into a passive park and stormwater retention area will spur redevelopment in the Medical Arts District directly to the north. Some of those businesses include HCA Florida Largo Hospital, formerly known as Largo Medical Center, show in the background, and the Diagnostic Clinic.
The Medical Arts District is an area that encompasses about 37 acres in the western portion of Largo’s West Bay Drive Community Redevelopment District and includes some of the city’s largest employers like HCA Florida Largo Hospital, formerly known as Largo Medical Center.
The Pinecrest property could also serve as a passive park with similar features as Bayhead Park, he said.
The road to this agreement began in 2019 when the city approached the owner with an offer based on an appraisal, Schubert said.
“It’s taken quite a while, a long period of discussion for them to come around to this purchase price,” he said.
Work to do
The deal is far from done, though.
The city now has 240 days to conduct an extensive due diligence process to find out if a stormwater pond is even feasible on the property.
To find the answer, the city will pay roughly $229,000 for a feasibility study and analysis, which the commission must approve next month.
Ann Rocke, an engineer with the city, said the analysis would be in two phases.
The first phase would include a series of tests to determine if the site can be converted to a stormwater pond. It would also include an environmental and contamination assessment.
If the site can be converted, phase two would be concept planning that includes the possibility of extending 13th Street to the south, which could connect West Bay Drive to Eighth Avenue. The analysis would also determine the feasibility of including an urban trail network and passive park features.
Mayor Woody Brown expressed some reservations about the potential of creating a cut-through roadway, but said the changes could create some improved connections for pedestrians.
“I would suspect that there would be some vastly improved pedestrian connectivity if we’re going to connect Taylor Park to the Medical Arts District and to our downtown,” Brown said.
Schubert said it could be good for nearby businesses as well.
At the start of the process, he said the city had discussions with property owners to the north, but they didn’t make any commitments about whether they would use a new stormwater retention area.
“We think it would be significantly advantageous for them to do so as they redevelop their properties and add additional buildings, additional impervious surface because they wouldn’t have to build their own retention ponds,” he said.
Therefore, he said staff intends to speak with them again soon to make them aware of the city’s intentions so they can plan accordingly.
City commissioners on May 17 approved an agreement with OB Golf Investment Group LLP to purchase the 26.7-acre Pinecrest Golf Course property across the street from Taylor Park for $600,000.
Why not something else?
Brown asked Schubert to explain how the city has been able to acquire 26 acres of prized green space in Pinellas County for just $600,000 — a price that hasn’t gone up in the past three years.
“It’s an interesting piece of property,” Schubert said. “There are no development rights on this golf course.”
He explained that back in the 1980s when the neighboring assisted-living facility was built on the eastern side of the course, all of the development rights were used for the parcel with the building. That facility has had several names since, but it is now called Elison Senior Living of Pinecrest.
“The golf course itself has no development rights,” he said. “Once they’re stripped off, you never can put development rights back on the property. So the only thing the property can really be used for is a recreation open space use, such as a golf course or, like in this case, stormwater retention.”
