Developer Plans Future for Former Wagon Wheel Flea Market Site in Pinellas Park, Rules Out Data Centers

A Pinellas Park developer is under contract to buy the land that was home to the Wagon Wheel Flea Market for more than five decades and has started the process of bringing the property into the city, though it has not settled on what it will build. Belleair Development Group, co-owned by Christian Yepes and his father, Carlos, is weighing a mix of uses on the roughly 150-acre site along Park Boulevard and has ruled out data centers, Yepes told the St. Pete Catalyst in a story published by WUSF on Sunday.

The property, centered on the market's longtime address at 7801 Park Blvd., is a rare large, mostly undeveloped tract in densely built Pinellas County, which makes any plan for it closely watched by neighbors and local governments alike.

What Belleair is planning

There is no final plan yet. According to the Catalyst, Belleair is still working through the site's layout, the mix of uses and how dense the development should be, along with parking, traffic and slope conditions. The company has brought in traffic and geotechnical engineers to study the land.

Yepes was direct on one point: the company is definitely not considering data centers. He also said there is no timeline yet, describing the company as still figuring out the whole picture as it goes along.

The market itself operated on about 50 acres along Park Boulevard, but the full holding is 150-plus acres, much of it undeveloped and including wetlands. Over the years, the family of founder Hardy Huntley also bought some neighboring land to the north. The Huntley family still owns the property and is the seller in the pending deal.

Annexation and approvals ahead

Although it carries a Pinellas Park address, the site is technically in unincorporated Pinellas County. Yepes told the Catalyst that Belleair is starting the annexation process and working through the appropriate zoning categories.

That puts several agencies in the picture. The developers are working with the city of Pinellas Park, Pinellas County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which oversees permitting that affects wetlands and stormwater. Annexation would put land-use and zoning decisions in the hands of the city, and any project of this size would face public hearings before the city's planning bodies and council.

Questions about what is buried there

A rumor circulating on social media claims parts of the site were once a landfill and cannot be developed. That claim has not been verified. Yepes acknowledged to the Catalyst that some construction debris was buried on the site at one point and said the company is still investigating how extensive it is.

The question is not new. A 2020 TBN Weekly story cited by the Catalyst reported that the land had been used as a dump for appliances, wood, tree stumps and other material, though not actual household garbage. The geotechnical work Belleair has commissioned will help determine how much of the property can support buildings and what it would cost to prepare.

Who Belleair is

Belleair is a family company that Carlos Yepes started in 1997; Christian Yepes joined in late 2007, according to the St. Pete Catalyst. The firm already has a major footprint a short drive away. In October 2022 it bought The Shoppes at Park Place, a shopping center of more than 360,000 square feet on about 42 acres at Park Boulevard and U.S. 19, for $85 million, financing the purchase with a $51 million loan, according to commercial real estate reports at the time. The company has since worked on the center's tenant mix and has pursued plans to add a hotel and other uses there.

Yepes also has a personal connection to the flea market site. He told the Catalyst he has fond memories of taking his children to the Wagon Wheel and that he drives past the property every day.

A Pinellas institution for 54 years

The Wagon Wheel's story began in 1966, when Hardy Huntley opened a roadside fix-it stand on four acres. It grew into "Trade Days," where vendors paid $2 to rent a table, and eventually into a sprawling market selling mostly used and surplus goods along with a food court and karaoke entertainment. For many Tampa Bay families it was a weekend ritual.

The Huntley family later acquired the nearby Mustang Flea Market, which had started on the grounds of the former Mustang Drive-In. Combined, the operation had more than 1,500 vendors, according to the Catalyst; FOX 13 reported in 2020 that the market had nearly 2,000 vendor booths. The market famously stayed open rain or shine and reopened the day after a 1986 fire, FOX 13 reported.

Huntley died in 2013. The market closed in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down public gatherings, and it never reopened. In June 2020 the family announced the closure would be permanent, saying in a Facebook post that it was saying goodbye with tears and fond memories, according to FOX 13.

Where the vendors went

The closure scattered hundreds of small sellers. Shawn Yang, a former Wagon Wheel mainstay, launched the Pinellas Farmers and Flea Market in Largo in 2021, then had to move after Pinellas County bought the 21-acre property on Icot Boulevard for $33.3 million in November 2023 to make way for a government campus. Since November 2025, Yang has run the Farmers and Flea Bazaar on weekends at Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, with about 150 vendors, WUSF reported earlier this year. Admission and parking there are free, and Yang estimated 500 to 1,000 visitors a day.

What's next

Belleair has not filed a public site plan, and no hearing dates have been announced. The next milestones are the annexation request to Pinellas Park, zoning decisions and environmental permitting with the water management district, along with completion of the traffic and soil studies. The sale itself is still pending. Until the company settles on a plan, the former Wagon Wheel grounds will remain what they have been since 2020: a large, quiet tract on one of Pinellas County's busiest commercial corridors.