Largo’s Horizon West Bay’s opening has long been in the air.
More than a year after its original opening date, the $85 million project is scheduled to open on Tuesday at 8 a.m. This follows several delays involving supply-chain issues and 2024’s hurricane season.
“Navigating those challenges, Biltmore and our city team focused primarily on building a quality facility that will serve our community well for decades to come,” Largo Mayor Woody Brown said.
Horizon West Bay houses the new Largo City Hall, the City Commission Chamber, and 20,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.
The “mixed-use” facility highlights a countywide trend as cities attempt to revitalize their downtowns with modern projects. Clearwater is currently constructing a new $31.6 million City Hall building, expected to open in October 2026. And Pinellas Park’s $30 million Sprowls Horizon Sports Park is slated to open in the next year.
Commissioner John Lauser said, “I am excited to see the opening of our new mixed-use Horizon project.”
“As most of the community would agree, the delays have been frustrating, but I think our staff has done a great job providing as much transparency as possible,” he added.
In March, city officials were involved in a heated debate regarding a $500,000 change order issued by Biltmore Construction. The change order required Horizon West Bay to fix “basic code compliance” issues.
“This is way late in the game to catch things now. How did they miss these? How did we miss these,” Commissioner Michael Smith said in March.
The $500,000 change order reflects the uncertainty Horizon West Bay faced throughout its construction timeline.
As Largo prepares for the building’s opening, Mayor Brown says that the transition plan has been bumpy “due to some circumstances out of our control.”
Still, the mayor assures that the city operations will be up and running on Tuesday.
“Our team is very excited to be in their new home and we are all looking forward to welcoming the public to Horizon,” Mayor Brown said.
The city is expected to host a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, June 2, followed by the City Hall’s first Largo City Commission meeting.
For more information on the Horizon West Bay project, visit https://www.largo.com/news_detail_T27_R1239.php.
