By MICHAEL W. FREEMAN
The Ledger - Published Tuesday, March 21, 2006

FOUR CORNERS -- From a new Target superstore plaza to a movie theater and even a new golf resort that will provide its own roadway, Four Corners continues to be a magnet for commercial developers hungry to meets the needs of all the residents settling in here.

"There's a lot of development planned for County Road 54 and U.S. 27," said Sean Fullerton, a real estate broker with the firm of Richard L. Fullerton Inc. of Orlando.

Much of that growth is not only commercial developers following the explosion of residential units in the past decade, but also a sign that the local counties have started providing the infrastructure that businesses need to operate in what were once vacant citrus groves.

That's particularly true of the U.S. 27 and CR 54 corridors, Fullerton said.

"Polk County began to develop primarily along 27, and then it spilled off onto 54," he said. "Why it happened is Polk County was building the utility infrastructure out here."

That opened the doors for new subdivisions and then commercial strips, and more are on the way.

CR 54 is already home to large developments like ChampionsGate with its Omni Hotel and the nearby Reunion resort, and is expected to soon become home to another, Stoneybrook South.

It will be built by U.S. Homes, a major player in golf course developments. In November 2000, U.S. Homes opened the Stoneybrook West Golf Club in Winter Garden to accompany the original Stoneybrook Golf Club on the east side of that town.

Now U.S. Homes is expanding to the CR 54 area, said Rob Bonin, the company's vice president and project manager for Stoneybrook South.

Bonin said Stoneybrook South would be another residential golf development. This one on 3,036 acres.

"It will be a resort with shortterm rental products," Bonin said. "We'll have a golf course and a clubhouse on the property," he said. "Right now, the golf course will be slated to be open to the public, but that could be subject to change depending on what we decide to do there."

Fullerton and Bonin were guest speakers at a recent meeting of the Four Corners Area Council, a group of business owners in Four Corners. The meeting was held at Prudential Four Corners Realty on U.S. 192.

Marc Reicher, chairman of the council and the vice president of operations for ChampionsGate, said Stoneybrook would be a welcome addition to the region.

"They're creating lifestyle in our marketplace," he said. "That's a pretty exciting project that's going to come on line."

Bonin said Stoneybrook South's plans include the construction of an elementary school and a recreational facility, as well as a new roadway called TriCounty Road to help accommodate the traffic that growth brings.

"From (U.S.) 27 all the way to Goodman Road, we'll be constructing a four-lane road," Bonin said.

And Reicher said, "This becomes a major connector road for Four Corners."

Bonin said he expects construction to begin by spring or summer 2007, and 600 units will be built in the first phase.

"Our hope is that we're going to be getting our approvals in the next 60 to 90 days," he said.

Reicher said this project is what the region needs: a developer who not only builds a quality recreational project, but also contributes to the region's infrastructure needs.

"We talk about growth and who is going to pay for it," Reicher said. "This is a private developer who is building TriCounty Road and is building an elementary school there. This is a developer stepping up to do its fair share."

It's not the only large project in the works locally.

Mary Ellen Kerber, who runs the Formosa Gardens complex on U.S. 192, said some of her tenants have been notified that a Target superstore is being built close by, and the plaza is looking for new tenants.

"It will be a large, big-box Target superstore at the old Days Inn West," Kerber said, adding that the plans include a large movie theater.

"It's kind of bringing some excitement to the Four Corners area," she said.

Kerber said the former Splendid China theme park property is probably a year away from being redeveloped.

The 10-year-old theme park, which celebrated the nation of China, closed in December 2002, blaming the downturn in the local tourism market and the national recession for an economic slump that it simply couldn't overcome.

"Rumor has it that it will become a short-term rental type of thing," Kerber said.

Fullerton specializes in land sales, and his firm was the one that sold the land in Osceola County in 1997 that became ChampionsGate.

Back then, he said, "We always referred to this area as the Baseball City area," he said, in reference to the now-defunct attraction off U.S. 27.

Today, he said, Four Corners has its own identity has become a highly desirable location for homeowners, the vacation rental market and commercial developers alike.

But it's also becoming extremely expensive, he said.

"We were dealing with $10,000 to $15,000 per acre in 1999," Fullerton said. "Fast forward six years later, and we're in the range of $150,000 to $200,000 an acre."

Fullerton said he is looking at land sales in the region from Auburndale and Polk City heading south, as it becomes harder and harder to find property to sell in Four Corners.

"We've been through about 15 years of growth along (U.S.) 27 and (CR) 54," he said. "Back then, things tended to be ignored south of the (U.S.) 192 exit (on U.S. 27). That was considered the end of the world for a while. Then the line went down as far as 54.

"We've been in a good real estate market here, and we've seen a lot of money come into the area," Fullerton said. "We don't expect it to last forever."