Work in progress

The old Pasco Beverage plant roars back to life as the Dade City Business Center. Next up: a residential, retail and entertainment complex.

DADE CITY - Citrus was a dying king in this city. That obituary was written long before the juice company laid off its last 300 workers two years ago.

But the king's castle has been another matter.

In less than two years, the old Pasco Beverage juice plant has turned into a home to companies that build walkway awnings and bottle perfume. Companies that make decorative concrete and distribute bird cages. Companies that make safety devices for roofers and pack coffee for cruise ships.

In less than two years, a shuttered citrus processing plant turned into the Dade City Business Center, half full with 35 companies that employ nearly 550 workers. And things are expected to get more interesting: Plans are in the works for a retail and residential project in front of the plant, which, along with a future entertainment complex, would be called Uptown Dade City.

The speed of the plant's transformation so far has surprised even Jim Guedry, the energetic center owner who at the beginning of the project described his plans as "awesome."

"I always knew it was going to be big," Guedry said. "I just didn't know it was going to be successful as fast as it was."

In advertisements, the center markets its location near Interstates 75 and 4, its CSX rail spur, its loading dock.

But perhaps the most obvious reason for the initial success, business leaders said, is that the center is filling a demand for affordable industrial space.

Guedry said he charges between $3 and $6 per square foot for manufacturing and distribution space - dirt cheap prices because Guedry is simply renovating existing buildings and doesn't have to pay county impact fees. Elsewhere, the leasing cost for industrial space is more like $6 to $8 per square foot, said Bryan Kamm, project manager for the Pasco Economic Development Council.

"With the rates they have out there," Kamm said, "you can't beat it."

Saint Leo University's business school dean, Michael Nastanski, said the redevelopment is a classic example of an entrepreneur coming in at the right time.

"Any time you have a collapse," he said, "it presents a unique opportunity for the next guy."

Not that Guedry had things planned exactly this way.

With buildings totaling more than 900,000 square feet, Guedry was initially angling for a few big companies that wanted huge amounts of space. The first six months after he opened in late 2004, he said, the place was dead.

The market demand was for smaller spaces, with room to grow. He started dividing up the buildings. He negotiated with potential tenants.

"I go in and say, 'What can you afford?'" he said. "That's my niche. They need to be comfortable with the rent."

That's how Metal Creations by Ziggy Inc., a decorative metal company, ended up at the business center in January.

Owner Greg "Ziggy" Zeigler said the spot he got at the center is twice as big as his space in Zephyrhills - and at a cheaper rate.

Guedry also agreed to pay the up-front costs of renovating the space to fit Zeigler's particular demands.

"There's so much room for growth," Zeigler said.

Guedry and his partners, Don Dueker and Ronnie Triplett, have spent about $3.5-million so far sprucing up the plant and getting spaces ready for tenants.

Counting all of the layoffs before the plant closed for good, close to 1,000 citrus workers lost their jobs. Because the losses were steady and not all at once, City Manager Harold Sample said, the community was able to gradually absorb some people into the workforce while others moved away.

The Dade City Business Center's biggest boon to the city has been the variety of jobs - most of them higher paying than the citrus plant work - that the companies have brought back, Sample said.

"It's re-establishing a diversified employment base," he said. "We're not single-industry sensitive."

Lykes, the conglomerate that owned the citrus plant for more than 40 years, was notoriously secretive about the plant's operations. When the Leadership Pasco group got a rare tour of the plant in 1998, employees stayed in front and back of the visitors to make sure that no one used cameras or made drawings.

But Guedry has plans for people not only to visit the site but also to live there.

An architect is working on four three-story buildings with office and residential space along U.S. 301. He's remodeling the executive suites into additional office space.

"This is going to be the next big deal," Guedry said. "As fast as the town is growing, they're going to need offices."

And to prove his point that industrial and residential uses can co-exist, Guedry has turned one of the buildings' floors into his own apartment. It's got hardwood floors and a bar. He has moved in his three dachshunds and his Coca-Cola memorabilia.

Mayor Hutch Brock, a lifelong Dade City resident who is also the attorney for Guedry's company, said he didn't doubt that the plant would eventually be fully transformed.

"This guy is truly a visionary," Brock said of Guedry. "If anybody's going to get it done, it's Jim Guedry."

Sample said Dade City did not follow any particular formula to help make the business center happen. Indeed, he said, the project resulted almost entirely from private initiative.

"I'd like to say we had a key role in it," he said, "but Dade City was trying to hang on and survive at the same time, too."

Guedry, for his part, said he's staking his legacy on the future success of the project.

"I don't want a statue," he said, "but I want them to say, 'Hey, they had the right idea.' "

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Jodie Tillman can be reached at jtillman@sptimes.com or 727 869-6247.