PARRISH FLORIDA GROWTH – WHAT’S TO BE EXPECTED IN HOMES AND BUSINESSES

The first time I visited Parrish, Florida was more than 20 years ago, not long after I moved to the Sarasota-Bradenton area. I had to meet a prospective client in the small east Manatee hamlet and was in route to the address they had given me. After driving on a two-lane country road for what seemed like far too long, I began to think there must have been some sort of miscommunication. Parrish was in the middle of nowhere, I thought. Who would want to live here?

20+ years later I have my answer. Everybody, it seems, wants to live in Parrish. Because today, instead of being in the middle of nowhere, Parrish is now in the middle of everything.

The astonishing population growth that has overtaken Parrish is about more than Sarasota and Bradenton continuing to bulge east of I-75, which was once the unofficial border between rural and urban living in Sarasota and Manatee Counties. It is also about the explosive growth taking place throughout the entire Tampa Bay region.

What’s the attraction? When you opt to live in Parrish, its location offers a world of possibilities in terms of the places you can comfortably commute. Because of its proximity to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, you can easily work in Tampa while your wife or partner heads south to Venice without either of you having to endure an unreasonable commute. St. Pete is only 21 miles away, while Venice and Tampa are each about 34 miles away. Both very doable commutes.

Meanwhile Bradenton is 13 miles west of Parrish and Sarasota 26 miles to the south and west. Indeed, as one who used to shuttle daily between Sarasota and Tampa, living in Parish would have cut my commute in half.

With population growth comes the usual traffic headaches, but Manatee County has done a pretty good job of modernizing the area’s infrastructure, particularly it’s roads. Included in the highway improvements is the beautiful new Ft. Hamer Bridge which provides a fast and easy new link to Lakewood Ranch (and points south) thus reducing congestion on other major roadways.

Another benefit of such rapid growth is that residents with school-age children can rest assured that the facilities for learning—as exemplified by the new Parrish Community High School and Barbara A. Harvey Elementary School—are mostly new and state of the art. Both schools opened in 2019. For higher education, plans are well underfoot for a Parrish campus of the State College of Florida.

Commercial growth along the U.S. Rte. 301 corridor linking Parrish with Ellenton, Palmetto and Bradenton has more than kept pace with the area’s massive residential growth. Prime Outlets Ellenton, a major retail destination for shoppers from all over the Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida regions has already been a major impetus for growth in the Parrish area for many years. Originally opened in 1991 as the Gulf Coast Factory Shops, the open-air outlet mall has more than tripled in size and continues to expand its retail footprint. It is now home to 130 designer and brand outlet stores that range from women’s apparel and accessories to home furnishings and specialty items. The current lineup of stores includes Kate Spade New York, UnderArmour, Victoria’s Secret Outlet, Coach, Michael Kors, Bath&Body Works, American Eagle and Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, just to name a few. Moreover, the all-star lineup at Prime Outlets Ellenton has attracted other large national retail, restaurant and hotel chains hoping to cash-in on the huge volume of upscale shoppers who regularly converge here to shop. Not a few of Parrish’s newest residents first discovered the area as tourists visiting the mall.

Right next door, the Ellenton Ice & Sports Complex is another one-of-a-kind facility that has trained a spotlight on the area. The 115,000 square foot ice skating complex—shaped like a giant igloo, of course—features two NHL size ice rinks, a 13,500 sq/ft roller/ball hockey rink, a fitness center and cross-fit gym; and is the home ice for many Olympic figure skating medalists and hockey greats.

For outdoor recreation, the area can hardly be beat. Residents have easy access to some of the best beaches in America and closer by are excellent facilities for golf, tennis and soccer, fishing, kayaking, hiking, biking, tennis, archery, and target shooting.

Publix Super Market is also banking on Parrish’s explosive growth, with Florida’s beloved grocery chain having opened not one, but two new supermarkets on Rte. 301—less than five minutes from one another. Clearly the chain is expecting major additional growth.

From a residential perspective, every national or regional builder worth its salt is developing at least one new community in the Parrish area. These include all the big names in national home building, including Centex, David Weekly, D.R. Horton, K.B. Home, Maronda, Meritage, M./I. Homes, Pulte, Ryan, and regional powerhouse Neal Communities.

Just a year ago, Neal CEO Pat Neal predicted that Parrish would become the “new center of the universe” within five years. That remains to be seen, but Parrish has certainly become central to Neal’s universe. His company has no fewer than five new communities in and around Parrish with new homes starting in the mid-$200s.

The lonely two-lane country road that formed much of my earliest memory of Parrish is now a busy four-lane highway. Still, with upwards of 23,000 new homes expected to be built in the near future, it’s amazing to me that the actual town of Parrish still manages to project a pleasant country ambiance. A couple of small grocery stores, a feed store, farm stand and the Florida Railroad Museum live on as remnants of the town’s rural past. In the blocks leading away from the main highway there are still many fine old cracker houses, their weather-beaten facades offering a fleeting glimpse into life the way it was once lived along Florida’s Gulf Coast.