Story by Gary Nager of the New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News

We always have great guest speakers at my Wesley Chapel Rotary Club meetings (Wednesdays at noon at Ciao! Italian Bistro in the Shops at Wiregrass mall), but the speaker on March 5 definitely earned page 1 billing in this issue, as JD Porter, who is heading up his family’s development of the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) made some blockbuster announcements.

Porter said that the Wiregrass Ranch DRI will feature the first-ever urban skyline in Pasco County, but that’s not the biggest news he announced. When asked by Rotary member Dane Parilo about the possibility of Major League Baseball coming to Wiregrass, Porter said that although the Tampa Bay Rays were not likely to be moving to a facility within the Porter Family Trust, “I am very confident that we will soon be announcing that a Major League Spring Training site will be coming to Wiregrass Ranch.”

But, if not the Rays, which team might be building the only Spring Training facilities in (and/or moving its Florida State League Minor A team to) Pasco County? “Thanks to the existing road network in our area and the fact we will have such great connectivity — with multiple access points from the area’s major roadways into Wiregrass Ranch — we’re confident that there’s no better location for a new Spring Training facility similar to what the Yankees built near Raymond James Stadium than here,” Porter said.

He explained that the 6,500-seat Steinbrenner Field and its adjacent, multi-field training facility only occupy about 6.5 acres, which, “would be a perfect addition to the planned upscale urban development we’re already bringing to Wiregrass Ranch.”

And yes, he said, that Major League Spring Training could be included at the already-planned, nine-diamond “Fields at Wiregrass” baseball complex, “but it doesn’t have to be there.” With the plans also in place for a Wiregrass Town Center that Porter said will be, “twice the size of downtown Winter Park (a very successful neotraditional walking village located north of Orlando), we easily could put a six-acre Yankees-style Spring Training and Minor A complex in that Town Center area and leave the ‘Fields at Wiregrass’ as its own youth and lower-level competitive baseball complex.”

Best of all, he adds, “We could surround that complex with great shops, restaurants and even a performing arts center to bring a lot more visitors every year to Pasco County.”