Fifteen Years and Counting: The Raymond James Campus Wesley Chapel Was Promised

Promised More Than a Decade Ago, Raymond James Campus in Wesley Chapel Remains an Empty 65-Acre Lot

Hundreds of jobs, millions in incentives, and years of missed deadlines later, the financial firm’s Wiregrass Ranch site has yet to see a single building go up.

A high-profile corporate campus that was pitched as a game-changer for southern Pasco County in 2011 still has not produced any construction nearly 15 years after it was first approved, leaving one of Wesley Chapel’s most prominent parcels of land sitting idle in the middle of a rapidly developed corridor.

Raymond James Financial, the St. Petersburg-based financial services company, acquired 65 acres near the intersection of State Road 56 and Mansfield Boulevard with the stated intention of building a satellite office campus in the Wiregrass Ranch area. The property sits just east of the Shops at Wiregrass and across from the Pasco-Hernando State College Porter Campus—one of the most visible locations in Wesley Chapel.

According to Pasco County records, the original deal was approved unanimously by the Pasco County Commission in September 2011. In exchange for roughly $15 million in combined county and state incentives, the company committed to constructing two 100,000-square-foot office towers and creating 750 jobs in the county by 2024, with 100 of those positions expected within the first few years.

As of April 2026, no vertical construction has taken place on the property.

Where the Public Money Went

The incentive package that Pasco County and the State of Florida committed to the project drew from several sources, all aimed at making the Wesley Chapel site attractive enough to lure a major employer away from its home base in Pinellas County.

An economic analysis prepared for the Pasco Economic Development Council at the time projected the campus would generate around $40 million in local property tax revenue and $135 million in taxable sales over a 17-year window. The broader ripple effect was pegged at roughly 1,200 total jobs and $600 million in wages when indirect employment was factored in.

A Pattern of Pushed-Back Deadlines

Construction was originally expected to begin in 2012, with a first building targeted for 2013. Neither happened. Pasco County approved an expanded version of the campus plans in 2013—growing the concept to six four-story buildings and up to a million square feet of office space—but no dirt moved.

By late 2014, CEO Paul Reilly publicly acknowledged that the company was pushing the expansion back by as much as five years. The firm simply did not need the space yet, according to Reilly, though he maintained the project was still in the company’s plans. That news landed alongside another disappointment for the region: T. Rowe Price, a separate financial firm courted for Pasco County, also opted not to move forward.

Wiregrass Ranch developer J.D. Porter spent years reassuring the community that the deal would hold. At a public meeting in March 2016, Porter addressed the growing doubt head-on, telling attendees the land transaction would close.

It eventually did—in September 2016, a full five years after the original announcement. According to public property records, Raymond James paid approximately $1.7 million for the 65 acres, roughly $26,153 per acre, well below prevailing market rates for the Wiregrass area. The Porter family set the price to help secure the deal.

That amendment, according to reports at the time, effectively eliminated the only mechanism that would have required the company to follow through on a schedule.

Brief Momentum, Then a Pandemic

The project showed its most concrete signs of progress in late 2019, when Raymond James filed a preliminary site plan with Pasco County and requested a meeting with planners. The revised proposal called for five office buildings and two parking garages across the 65-acre property. Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore told area media at the time that he expected activity on the site within weeks.

Then 2020 brought the COVID-19 pandemic, which fundamentally reshaped how companies nationwide approached office space, remote work policies, and real estate decisions. No further public movement on the Wesley Chapel site was reported.

Growth Everywhere Else

While the Wiregrass Ranch parcel collected dust, Raymond James expanded its footprint elsewhere. According to publicly available information, the company acquired three additional buildings at its Carillon Office Park headquarters in St. Petersburg, growing that campus to roughly 1.2 million square feet and adding about 650 jobs there.

Reilly has also noted publicly that Raymond James’s acquisition of brokerage firm Morgan Keegan gave the company a second operations hub in Memphis, Tennessee—reducing the operational pressure that originally motivated the search for a Pasco County satellite location. While Reilly has described the Wesley Chapel land as a long-term growth opportunity with access to a different employee base, he has not committed to any construction start date.

The Latest Promise That Didn’t Pan Out

The most recent meaningful public update came in May 2023, when developer J.D. Porter told area media that Raymond James had already invested several million dollars in preliminary site work and that vertical construction could begin within months. That target also passed without any buildings going up.

Full Timeline

A Vacant Parcel in a Booming Corridor

The land around the Raymond James site tells a very different story than the site itself. When the deal was struck in 2011, much of the surrounding Wiregrass Ranch area was still open pasture. Today, the 65-acre parcel is flanked by development on nearly every side—the Shops at Wiregrass, Pasco-Hernando State College’s Porter Campus, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant, the Audi of Wesley Chapel dealership, and a growing roster of residential, medical, and retail projects. A new Orlando Health hospital is also taking shape nearby.

The parcel at State Road 56 and Mansfield Boulevard remains one of the largest undeveloped tracts in the heart of Wesley Chapel’s busiest growth corridor. Raymond James still owns the land, and there has been no public indication the company intends to sell. But there has also been no confirmed construction date, no announced revision to the plan, and no visible building activity on the property.

No additional details were immediately available from Raymond James Financial or Pasco County officials at the time of publication.

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