Valrico

Valrico sits east of Brandon and reads quieter than it is. It is unincorporated, largely residential, and organized around Bloomingdale Avenue and Lithia Pinecrest Road.

What it is like

Established neighborhoods, mature trees, and a mix of older Florida ranch homes and newer subdivisions. The Bloomingdale corridor carries most of the commercial. A lot of families here moved out from Brandon for the schools and the lot sizes.

The library is the anchor

Bloomingdale Regional Public Library, 1906 Bloomingdale Avenue, is 25,000 square feet and serves a good part of east Hillsborough, not just Valrico. It has a dedicated genealogy room, it handles passport services, and it holds legal research resources, a children’s room, RFID express checkout, Adobe Creative Cloud workstations, assistive technology and several meeting spaces including the McLean Community Room. The public artwork is by local glass artist Lisa Vogt. The building was expanded by 10,000 square feet in 2014, which is when the collaborative workspaces went in.

Passports and genealogy are the two people drive here for.

Parks, near and worth the drive

Valrico Park at 707 S. Miller Road is the one with a Valrico address: a basketball court, playground, picnic shelters and a concession stand, free, sunrise to sunset. Bloomingdale West Park carries a Brandon address on Canoga Park Drive but sits just over the line and serves this side, with nineteen acres of paved trails, basketball, tennis, racquetball, sand volleyball and an open field.

The honest thing to say about Valrico is that the good outdoor recreation is a short drive rather than down the street, and it is very good.

Edward Medard Conservation Park, 6140 Turkey Creek Road in Plant City, is built around a 700-acre reservoir. There is a three-mile trail open to hiking, biking and horseback riding, a disc golf course, a boardwalk and observation platform, forty-three campsites for RV and tent camping, beach volleyball, shelters and a playground. Entry is $2 per vehicle for up to eight people. Canoe and kayak rentals run $25 for four hours. Camping is $24 a night, less for seniors and county residents. The boat ramp is currently closed while the water management district draws the reservoir down; canoe and kayak access continues.

Alafia River State Park, 14326 S. County Road 39 in Lithia, is a reclaimed phosphate mine, which is why it has what the state describes as some of the most radical elevation changes in Florida. That is also why it is a nationally known mountain biking destination. Twenty miles of trails, camping, glamping rentals, equestrian trails, paddling, fishing, and a full-service bike shop on site. Open 8 a.m. to sunset, every day of the year, $5 a vehicle.

Schools

Bloomingdale Senior High School, 1700 E. Bloomingdale Avenue, are the Bulls. Mulrennan Middle School on Durant Road are the Mustangs; the school was established in 2003 and is named for the Mulrennan family homestead. Burns Middle School carries a Brandon address but describes itself as operating in the Bloomingdale area, so it serves part of this side too.

Getting around

Bloomingdale Avenue and SR 60 are the two ways east and west. Lithia Pinecrest, Valrico Road and Mulrennan run north and south. Valrico has no interstate of its own, so I-75 means going west through Brandon on SR 60 or on Bloomingdale.

The jams are Bloomingdale at Bell Shoals, Bloomingdale at Lithia Pinecrest, and SR 60 heading west into the Brandon commercial core. Durant and Miller work as local cut-throughs, and heading east on Bloomingdale toward Lithia avoids SR 60 entirely.

On the widening everyone keeps hearing about: FDOT does have a project to take SR 60 from Valrico Road to Dover Road to six divided lanes with a buffered bike lane and new sidewalk. It is in the design phase, and FDOT’s own project page says construction is not funded at this time. Two further segments east, Dover Road to SR 39 and SR 39 to Clarence Gordon Jr. Road, are also on the books. Resurfacing between Lithia Pinecrest and Valrico Road is separate and is moving.

Bell Shoals is the other change worth knowing. The county finished widening it from Bloomingdale down to Boyette in December 2023, which made it the practical north-south run to Riverview.

The chamber calendar

The Valrico/FishHawk Chamber of Commerce runs six recurring events a year, which is a lot for a community this size.

The Annual Dinner in January carries the Business of the Year Awards. A kickball tournament fundraiser runs in April, with proceeds going to designated charities. The Back to School Teacher Appreciation Event is in August at Bloomingdale Senior High School. Music Bingo runs every October, benefiting Seeds of Hope and We Are The Essentials. The Shop Local Holiday Expo Market is in November at the Presbyterian Church of Bloomingdale. In December the chamber co-hosts the Brandon Parade of Lights.

Their site is valricofishhawk.org.

If you run a business out here, it is the room worth being in.

What we cover here

Bloomingdale High sports, chamber events, road work on Lithia Pinecrest and SR 60, and the local businesses our readers actually use.