Company behind Saddlebrook Resort completes 248-room rental community in Wesley Chapel

WESLEY CHAPEL — While Mast Capital’s most prominent project in Pasco County is the redevelopment of Saddlebrook, it’s not its first.

That would be The Harlow, a new 248-room rental community that recently announced its completion.

The Harlow is located at 5101 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., just north of BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel.

It offers four-story garden-style living, with elevators, and apartments ranging from 750 to 1,500 square feet, at prices ranging from $1,599 to $2,400.

The amenities include a clubhouse, co-working lounges with private offices, a resort-style swimming pool and a pet park and children’s playground.

It was a project that made it through county planning just as commissioners were looking to impose an apartment moratorium in, primarily, the Wesley Chapel area. By a narrow 3-2 margin, it was approved by county commissioners.

“It’s just an amazing location on Bruce B. Downs, south of 54,” said Jordan Kornberg, the chief investment officer for Mast Capital. “So it’s central, close to 75, great access.”

Kornberg said the proximity to hospitals and medical facilities made it an attractive location as well.

“We’ve seen the growth going into that market, that hospital use, etc., and so to be in a central location delivering new, high-quality product and just such a need for housing in the area, it was a really attractive opportunity for us,” he said.

Mast Capital purchased the Harlow property in 2021, marking its initial foray into Pasco County, a place it has pinpointed for future development.

A year later in 2022, Mast Capital purchased what for years had been the jewel of Wesley Chapel, the once-renowned Saddlebrook Resort.

The resort, showing its age in recent years, was in desperate need of a facelift and Mast Capital will provide that. It spent nearly a year meeting with residents and planners in what at times was a highly charged debate about what to do with the resort.

Last July, after multiple meetings with county commissioners, its plans were approved.

Not only is Mast Capital renovating the resort itself, including the golf courses, it will be adding to the property’s 480-acre footprint with a pair of new town center-type projects along State Road 54.

Both Mast Capital projects, The Harlow and Saddlebrook, will have significant impacts on the local housing markets.

“It was really the same fundamental ideas underlying both of them,” Kornberg said, “which is belief in this area and seeing the growth in this area, but you know, playing out of different ways.”

In Saddlebrook’s case, Mast Capital has a massive undertaking with the first step being the relocation of the driving range (which also included the teaching academy) from the front of the property to the southeast corner closer to the golf courses.

Kornberg says that could be completed within the next three months. It is practically done, he said, and they are literally waiting for the grass to grow back.

“The first piece will be the driving range,” Kornberg said, “and then the rest of the resort will follow.”

The resort work will lead off the Saddlebrook project before Mast Capital moves to some of the new projects on S.R. 54, which are still being planned.

“Our focus, number one really, is the resort, and getting the resort going,” Kornberg said, “and then the residential will follow.”

Kornberg thinks updating the resort could be completed by next summer.

“There are almost 500 rooms, and so much meeting space and common area, square footage, it takes some time,” he said. “The majority of the work will be done next summer. But in terms of being fully done, then you’re really looking at next fall.”

Kornberg says a “ton of work” has already been done. Most of the roofs have been repaired or replaced, and the tennis and pickleball courts have been modified — four tennis courts have been replaced by pickleball courts and additional parking.

The Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) and Professional Pickleball Registry (PPR) have moved their headquarters from Hilton Head Island in South Carolina to Saddlebrook.

Kornberg said the rest of the tennis courts will remain, and Mast Capital understands the importance of them to the history of the resort, which has served in the past as a training ground for tennis stars like Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, John Isner, Martina Hingis and Bob and Mike Bryan, to name a few.

“Tennis is important to what Saddlebrook historically has been,” Kornberg said. “Our big thing has always been, we don’t want to turn it into something new. We really just want to kind of make Saddlebrook 2.0 which is, let’s take all the things that have made Saddlebrook successful, but bring them into today’s era to meet the needs of today’s traveler.”

Beginning early next year, work will also begin on converting the two Arnold Palmer-designed 18-hole golf courses into three 9-hole courses.

Once the resort is updated, which includes a new clubhouse, restaurants and retail, Mast Capital will begin on some the new projects.

A “pedestrian friendly village” is planned for a 35-acre parcel that once was home to the driving range, and will include multistory buildings with retail, restaurants and apartments.

Also, along S.R. 54 further east, 25,000 square feet of commercial, retail and office space will share a 20-acre parcel with 120 proposed townhomes.

Kornberg said Mast Capital’s improvements and new additions will bolster what was once a great, nationally known resort.

And the better Saddlebrook is, the better Wesley Chapel will be, Kornberg said.

“We’re excited for where we’re going to take Saddlebrook and what it’s going to be,” he added. “Saddlebrook was successful when there wasn’t as much development in Wesley Chapel, and now Wesley Chapel is thriving and Saddlebrook’s been left behind. And we need to change that.”

John C. Cotey is the managing editor of the Tampa Beacon. He can be reached at jcotey@tampabeacon.com