LAND O' LAKES - The national housing collapse has claimed another victim in this once-booming area.

The developers of Connerton, a high-profile residential and commercial project in Central Pasco, announced last week that their project is defunct.

Terrabrook, the company that began Connerton on the cusp of the mid-decade building boom, has shut down the project.

In a statement, Terrabrook officials said the financial burden of running the project overwhelmed their ability to keep it going. The company still hopes investors will take over the project.

"Although we have been working with potential investors since April, we just weren't able to close the transaction in time," Terrabrook's Pat Fox said in the statement. "We remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached soon."

The announcement cast a pall over what had been one of Pasco County's most lauded residential developments.

County officials were so taken with plans for Connerton they granted the project its own category - New Town - in the county's long-range planning document in the hope similar developments would follow. The enormous project was envisioned as a largely self-contained community where residents had homes, jobs and recreation all within easy reach.

Connerton was quiet on Tuesday afternoon, except for a landscaper going about his chores and the occasional runner or cyclist.

Six full-time and four part-time Connerton employees lost their jobs. Offices at Arbor Square plaza and the Rose Cottage sales center in Connerton are closed. Signs at Rose Cottage said nothing about why the office is closed and directed house-hunters to the three builders still active in Connerton.

The project's three top employees remain on the job as volunteers, trying to arrange a sale to an as-yet unnamed group of investors, said Stew Gibbons, the now-unemployed former president of Terrabrook subsidiary Connerton LLC.
Gibbons said the investors planned to meet with his group and with county officials Tuesday as part of the due diligence that could lead to a final purchase. County Commissioner Michael Cox was on the list of those meeting with the investor group.

"I specifically asked Stew what we could do to assist," Cox said. "We want to see that project move forward."

Connerton sits between U.S. 41 and Ehren Cutoff in the heart of Pasco County. It covers nearly 7,800 acres of the former Conner Ranch, from which the development takes its name.

As originally planned, Connerton was supposed to have more than 9,000 homes, 1.7 million square feet or retail and 1.4 million square feet of office and government space. The project is also slated for more than 800,000 acres of industrial space and a 36-hole golf course. Most of those plans remain unfulfilled.

Terrabrook got its first construction approvals for Connerton in 2003. Shortly thereafter, Terrabrook sold most of its projects to Newland Communities but kept Connerton.

Plans called for the development of Connerton to move in five phases. The first phase, The Arbors, wrapped up in 2006. Work had just begun on the second phase, The Gardens, when the housing market capsized.

County property records show that about 40 percent of Connerton's 840 existing lots are developed. Connerton LLC owns about 330 undeveloped lots. The rest - about 180 lots - is split among various developers and investors.

The collapse of Connerton LLC shouldn't affect day-to-day life in Connerton, Gibbons said.

Three builders continue to work in the community on lots they own. University Community Hospital's long-term acute-care hospital and Arbor Square shopping center, neither of which is owned by Connerton LLC, will remain open.

Club Connerton, the community's $8-million activity center, was turned over last week to Connerton Community Council, a nonprofit group owned by the residents. That nonprofit group recently loaned money to the homeowners association so it could continue operating, Gibbons said.

The community development district is now in the hands of its bondholders after Terrabrook defaulted on a bond payment last month. Gibbons, who sits on the CDD board, said he expects the district to continue maintaining Connerton's public spaces.

Work will continue on an elementary school under construction in Connerton. That school is due to open in August. Another elementary is promised at a later date.

"The community can continue as it has been and hopefully with an infusion of new capital from a new investor," Gibbons said.