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Developer Big On Toledo Blade
Sun Herald - March 20, 1998
By Greg Williams
The movers and shakers who carved the Bobcat Trail community out of 480 acres of flatwoods on Toledo Blade Boulevard aren't ones to dally, says their vice president of sales and acquisition, Jonathan Baltuch. Jonesboro, Ark.-based KEB Inc. moved from planning Bobcat to building the first of 540 homes in about a year. Now the long-idle Panacea development likely will spring to life under their ownership. KEB bought the 2,300-acre tract in the northeast corner of the city along Toledo Blade about six months ago and will awaken the sleeping giant with plans for a lake-front community. Baltuch said KEB plans to break ground on the project by October. It's just one part of a much larger plan. The original plans to develop Panacea, labeled a "development of regional impact," are more than a decade old. KEB officials met with city planners this week to go over some changes to the aging development order. "There certainly will be changes to it because it's an antiquated, outdated DRI. What changes, I can't comment on now because we're in the process of deciding what changes need to be made," Baltuch said. Looking at a map of North Port, its network of short residential streets spread throughout the city like tiny capillaries, even if most of the streets are now only grassy rights of way. But Panacea is a large, relatively clean slate. Any changes, though, would have to be approved by the city and drastic changes by regional and state planning councils. Baltuch did say plans for 3 million square feet of commercial and industrial space will be scaled back. "There will be dramatically less than that because it's not necessary," Baltuch said. Panacea is bounded by Interstate 75 on the north and east and Toledo Blade and the Snover Waterway on the west and south. Baltuch said there probably will be a hotel, restaurant, gas station and stores in the corner of the tract that makes up the southeast quadrant of the I-75/Toledo Blade interchange. Baltuch said KEB is big on the boulevard because it's one of the city's gateways and a portal to all of Charlotte County. "When you come down Toledo Blade," Baltuch said, "you have access to 130,000 people. We thought, 'Why isn't anyone building here?'" |
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