Casper Family Proposes 550-Acre Resort, Farm and 50 Estate Homes Northeast of Dade City

A Tampa family that built its fortune on fast food wants to put a 130-room luxury resort, an equestrian center and a working farm on 550 acres of ranchland northeast of Dade City. Blake Casper and his sister, Allison Casper Adams, of Caspers Company unveiled the plan Wednesday, Aug. 19, for a project called Clay Hill, addressed at 18424 Clay Hill Road. About 330 of those acres sit in Pasco County, inside the rural corner of the county that residents have spent years fighting to keep rural.

The remaining 220 acres fall in Hernando County. Both counties will have to sign off.

The Caspers do not own the land yet. Property records show it belongs to Evans Properties Inc., a Vero Beach company founded in 1951 that runs citrus, cattle and real estate operations across Florida. The siblings have not closed on the purchase.

What's on the drawing board

At the property's high point, atop the hill the project is named for, the plan calls for a main resort building called the Manor House. It would serve hotel guests, homeowners and paying members, with tennis and pickleball courts, yoga and meditation space, a sauna and a cold plunge.

A chapel would sit above 130-acre Dowling Lake and host weddings and private events. A working farm would grow food for some of the on-site restaurants. Trails for walking, biking and horseback riding would run through the property, with bike and kayak rentals available.

Element	Proposed
Total acreage	550 (330 Pasco, 220 Hernando)
Resort rooms	130
Estate homes	No more than 50, on 1 to 2 acre lots
Food and beverage	Four concepts

Homeowners would automatically become members of the resort community. The development team says the houses would use natural materials and architecture meant to disappear into the landscape rather than read as a subdivision.

The design references, according to the company's announcement, are Canyon Ranch in Malibu, Blackberry Mountain in Tennessee and Soho Farmhouse in England, mixed with the equestrian traditions of Argentina and Uruguay.

The rural-character question

Northeast Pasco is not neutral ground for a project this size. Nearly two decades ago the county adopted the Northeast Pasco County Rural Special Area Plan, a framework built around low density, farmland preservation and scenic landscapes. That plan is the reason the area still looks the way it does while Wesley Chapel and Land O' Lakes filled in.

The Caspers appear to know it. Their announcement leans hard on preservation: keeping a large share of the property as natural acreage, holding on to the rolling terrain and oak canopy, limiting vehicle traffic inside the development with some roads reserved mainly for emergency access. The company also says the project would not require Pasco or Hernando to extend central water or sewer lines out to the site, which is often the flashpoint in rural development fights because utility extensions tend to pull more growth behind them.

Whether neighbors buy that argument is a different matter, and that fight has not started yet.

A lot is still blank

No construction cost. No timeline. No room rates, no prices for the estate homes. The company has not said what zoning changes or comprehensive plan amendments it will need in either county, and no applications have been detailed publicly.

What the Caspers have committed to is community town halls as the proposal moves forward. Dates have not been announced.

Who the Caspers are

The family's Tampa story starts in 1958, when Fritz Casper opened the city's first McDonald's on South Dale Mabry Highway. Blake Casper and Allison Casper Adams are the third generation to run Caspers Company. The family exited the McDonald's business in 2022 and has since pushed further into hotels, restaurants and hospitality ventures. Clay Hill is among the most ambitious things they have attempted since.

The next real milestones are the land closing and the first filings with Pasco County's planning department. Until an application lands, there is nothing scheduled for a public hearing, and no vote for residents to show up to. Anyone who wants to track it can watch the county's Planning and Development agendas for a Clay Hill Road item.

We'll keep following this one as it moves through both counties. For more on what's being built around the county, read our business development coverage, and find the rest of our reporting at Pasco County Community Website. Follow us on Facebook for daily updates, and if you live out that way and have thoughts about 550 acres changing hands, join the conversation in our Community Forum.

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