Patels' Hillsborough County estate is beyond big
By Keith Morelli
Tampa Tribune
Published: Apr 17, 2015

TAMPA - On the traffic-stuffed intersection of Busch Boulevard and North Dale Mabry Highway rises what may become Hillsborough County's most visible signature home - a 17-acre, lake-front compound that will include a half-dozen luxury houses surrounding a great house for one of Tampa's best-known philanthropic families.

Kiran and Pallavi Patel, their son and daughters and grandchildren will move into the compound when it is finished, probably sometime next year. Now, the 15,000-plus square-foot main house is rising above the wall that separates the busy highway intersection from the property that fronts White Trout Lake.

The Patels bought the acreage, which takes up most of the southwestern corner of the lake, in 2003 for $3.2 million, and construction began three years ago on the family estate. The combined square footage of the buildings within the estate - 35,000 - will make it the largest single-family estate in the county, property assessment records say.

How much the project will cost when the last paver is laid remains unknown, though it likely will be well above $10 million. Each of the six adjacent homes is more than 7,000 square feet.

"Hopefully, we will move in in a year, maybe a year-and-a-half,” Kiran Patel said this week. "It's slowly proceeding as planned.”

When he says "we,” he means his whole family, three generations.

"The design is for the entire family to be there, for my children,” he said. "We will have five grandkids on the property and my daughters and my son; all of them will be there.

"I am very blessed and fortunate,” he said, "to have such an opportunity to spend time with the family.”

A successful cardiologist, Kiran Patel founded the Tampa-based HMO WellCare in 1985 and sold the company to a New York investment group in 2003. The deal made him a multimillionaire.

The family has been generous in the Tampa Bay area and beyond.

The Patels gave $18.5 million to the University of South Florida to establish the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions and $5 million to what became the Dr. Pallavi Patel Performing Arts Conservatory at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. The family also donated to build the USF/Patel Partnership Elementary School on the USF Tampa campus.

Besides its philanthropy in Tampa, the family also has donated overseas, including funding the construction of a 50-bed charity hospital serving 100,000 villagers in India and donations for annual scholarships for underprivileged children.

The Patels also sponsor 25 orphans from India to come annually to the United States and participate in cross-cultural programs.

Having done all that, Kiran Patel said, he has reached a time in his life to turn his focus inward.

"I have some responsibility to my family,” he said, " and I am trying to find a way where all of us - the next generations - will be staying in the same place as one unit.”

There will be plenty of room.

A 3,700-square-foot banquet room fronts a 600-square-foot kitchen, and plans call for a 450-foot-long swimming pool with waterfalls and fountains. Besides the homes for the Patel families, plans call for three guest homes and a house for the staff as well as a 12-car garage and maintenance building.

Patel said he seldom visits the construction site that is passed each day by thousands of motorists.

"I should be enjoying it a lot more,” he said. "I barely go out there.”

The median home value in Hillsborough County is $157,000, according to Zillow.com, a real-estate property assessment website, which said the values of homes here has gone up nearly 6 percent over the past year and is expected to rise another 2 percent next year.

The median price of homes for sale in the county is $210,000, the website said.

Assessing this one-of-a-kind property can be a challenge, said Tim Wilmath, a valuation specialist with the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's Office.

"The first thing we do is go out there and collect all the structural improvement information or the features the property has and input that information into our computer system,” he said. "That generates a value based on analysis of other homes. Even though this is a unique home, we still use a combination of sales (of similar houses in the county) and cost to come up with a value.”

The one-of-a-kind aspect of the Patel property might mean assessors will have to closely look at it once it nears completion. Once the property is occupied, assessors likely won't go inside, he said.

"Generally, we like to get out there before it's occupied, but when it's finished enough to see the quality of the improvements,” Wilmath said.

This may become the county's biggest, most expensive estate, though there a few that are 30,000-plus square feet. At 35,000 square feet, the Patel homes would be large enough to house the 26,000-square-foot Publix on Bayshore Boulevard, with enough space left over to fit in a few four-bedroom houses.

"It is a unique piece of property,” Wilmath said. "We want to make sure we take a close look at it to get an assessment that's fair.”

kmorelli@tampatrib.com
(813) 259-7760