Unnamed company needs rail spur to create manufacturing jobs in Pasco
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Apr 14, 2022

An unnamed company is asking Pasco County to pay for the construction of a rail spur to service a light-manufacturing facility that would create 100 high-paying, full-time jobs.

Pasco County Commissioners on Tuesday will vote on an economic development incentive agreement that funds the $723,400 construction of the rail spur to connect to CSX Corp.'s mainline on the property. The company, code-named Project Lexus, says it will build a 150,000-square-foot light manufacturing facility on a 32.7-acre site off of Bower Road in Dade City.

CSX provided the construction cost estimate for the rail spur, according to county documents.

The unnamed company will create 100 jobs; the county's economic growth department estimates that the project will create 149 direct, indirect and induced full-time jobs. It also estimates the new facility's contribution to the gross county product at $35.4 million.

The property was purchased by One Lacoochee Center Inc. in 2019. OLC is the party seeking the incentive agreement. Before OLC bought the property, it was home to abandoned structures, according to county documents. Those have since been demolished, and all debris has been removed from the site.

Bill Cronin, president and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council, told the Business Journal on Thursday that Project Lexus is a "special one." He declined to name the company.

"We’ve had a really hard time trying to find the right company to create jobs there," he said.