Curiosity Creek moves closer to bringing as many as 1,960 homes to northern Manatee
There is no traffic light at U.S. 41, where you turn onto Buckeye Road and travel east past the phosphate stacks at Piney Point to farm country where fields have freshly been tilled.
Turning north off Buckeye Road and looking for 13155 Grass Farm Road, you would find a dirt road surrounded by farm land.
You wouldn’t know it to look at it, but a big change is coming in the name of a planned development called Curiosity Creek.
It’s been coming for some time.
In 2005, Medallion Homes Inc., owned by Carlos Beruff, submitted an application to Manatee County proposing a 1,924-home mixed-use development on 808 acres of farm land.
The project, named Curiosity Creek, also called for 50,000 square feet of commercial development at the site along Buckeye Road and Grass Farm Road and west of Interstate 75, according to Bradenton Herald archives.
“What we have, really, is a new community being proposed,” former county Planning Director Carol Clarke told the Manatee County Planning Commission in 2006.
At that time, eight projects had been approved or proposed for the Buckeye Road-Interstate 75 area: Artisan Lakes, Curiosity Creek, Eagle Pointe, Newport Isles, Robinson Gateway, Stone Dam Preserve, Sweetwater Preserve and Wellington Lake Manor.
Several of those projects, including Curiosity Creek, were delayed or derailed by the Great Recession in 2008-09.
Then in 2013, the Manatee County approved Cargor Partners Investments LLC, owned in part by Beruff, to add 150,000 square feet of commercial space to Curiosity Creek.
Now developers have submitted paperwork for the Curiosity Creek Overlay Master Plan to Manatee County Building Services to increase approvals for 1,594 residential units planned there to 1,960.
Included would be 1,466 single-family detached and semi-detached units, 328 single-family attached units and 256 multi-family units.
No modifications have been proposed or requested for existing commercial and industrial entitlements.
The property could also see a future county park and a future school.
Hawk Curiosity Creek LLC of Tampa bought the property for $32 million on Dec. 21, 2021, according to the Manatee County Property Appraiser.
Newport Isles nearby
Curiosity Creek is near another large residential property between Buckeye Road and the Hillsborough County Line, which has a similar lengthy development history: Newport Isles.
Newport Isles, a 1,555-acre development, is planned for 3,382 homes and has a project address of 14000 Grass Farm Road, Palmetto.
Recently, Newport Isles developer CC Manatee Development LLC of Clearwater filed paperwork with Manatee County government to begin land clearing.
Newport Isles is planned for development in four phases between 2022 and 2030 with its infrastructure — roads, sewer, and water — being financed by a community development district.
The development paperwork history for Newport Isles with Manatee County government can be traced back to at least 2005.
