The site, near Gunn Highway and the Veterans Expressway, was rezoned to a planned development. Daye, through his firm, Commercial Development Consultants, expects to build two 100-foot-high buildings at about seven or eight stories. The buildings might include a hotel, upscale restaurant and office building.

It'll be Daye's first project as a developer, though he has overseen other Tampa area construction jobs from call centers to department stores. He will now start marketing the 252,000-square-foot Citrus Park Crossings project to commercial brokers and others, including real estate investment trusts and companies interested in owning or leasing space.

It's a project that the former Beck Group project manager has worked on for three years as he developed relationships with about four property owners, convincing them to sell to him. He has invested his life savings into making the project viable.

"I've been looking at that intersection for many years," said Daye, 34, who lives near the site.

Seeking success where others have failed

Others have tried to develop there but failed to work out deals with the property owners, who weren't inclined to sell their homes, he said. Daye has until January to close on the property acquisitions. He attributes the ability to get the contracts to a commitment to developing relationships with the property owners rather than a hard sell.

Big Cat Rescue on Easy Street runs through the project, which is across Gunn Highway from the Westfield Citrus Park mall.

Project details will be worked out as companies, investors and others commit to the site, Daye said. In the meantime, he plans to obtain required site permits from local and state authorities. He will also extend Citrus Park Lane, which now ends short of the site, and he will build a shelter for the nearby bus stop.

Daye said he expects a hotel and upscale restaurant to be built at Citrus Park Crossing because northwest Hillsborough is home to some of the more affluent property owners in the county.

He also expects the project, adjacent to the Upper Tampa Bay Trail, to be part of the green building movement. It's accessible by foot, car or bus.

He's working with Beck, Commercial Site Solutions and Hartley Purdy Architecture.

News of the commission's zoning approval was an important milestone and bittersweet for Daye, who said he wished he could call his father to celebrate. Unfortunately his father, one of his biggest supporters, died unexpectedly in November.

jleiser@bizjournals.com | 813.342.2468