Beach House Assisted Living Facility Breaking Ground.

beachhouseThe assisted living landscape in the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa area promises to be more crowded by the end of next year, as two new facilities are scheduled to open, including the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch in Wesley Chapel.

The Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch will break ground Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 30070 State Road 56 (one-half mile east of Mansfield Blvd.) on its new, approximately 93,000 sq-ft freestanding community. The facility is dedicated to seniors who need assistance with the activities of daily living and specialized memory care services for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia. It will accommodate 100 area seniors, with private residences including 67 alcove one-bedroom or two-bedroom plans for assisted living and 33 suites for memory care.

Allan R. Brown of the Dallas, TX-based Prevarian Companies, unveiled his company’s third Beach House Assisted Living & Memory Care community — there also are locations in Jacksonville and Naples — at the Sept. 22 Economic Development Briefing put on by the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) at Pebble Creek Golf Club.

Located on S.R. 56 less than a mile east of the Shops at Wiregrass mall, the Beach House will be the largest assisted living facility in Wesley Chapel when it opens, and will have approximately 50 employees.

Amenities at Beach House Wiregrass Ranch will include a restaurant style dining room and private dining room, activities room, salon and spa, theater and outdoor living areas.

Lifecare Services, which serves more than 33,000 older adults nationwide, will serve as the operator of the Beach House.

“(We) will be applying for an extended congregate care license, which allows us to do more in an assisted living setting,’’ Brown said. There will be a nurse on staff and people to help with medications, but no medical facility.

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Brown says the community also will have a secure, enclosed courtyard, multiple dining venues, a wellness center and even a bar. The name Beach House is meant to evoke old memories of renting a beach house for the summer. “Many of the elderly we serve have that in their family histories,” he says. “It’s a really positive memory.”

Allan R. Brown (left) of Prevarian Companies talks to local business leaders at the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Briefing last month about The Beach House at Wiregrass (above), which will become the fourth living assisted facility in our area when it opens in December 2017.
Allan R. Brown (left) of Prevarian Companies talks to local business leaders at the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Briefing last month about The Beach House at Wiregrass, which will become the fourth living assisted facility in our area when it opens in December 2017.

The newest entry in the assisted living space hopes to soon sign up its first residents for a December 2017 opening.

“It’s going to be a beautiful community and a great complement to the other things going on in Wiregrass Ranch,’’ Brown said.

The average resident in assisted living facilities, according to Brown, is an 86-year-old woman, and the average stay in a facility is 28.3 months.

The Beach House will join the three assisted living communities already located or under construction in New Tampa, including The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve , which was the first such community in the area when it opened in May of 2015.

A few months later, Memory Lane Cottage in Tampa Palms, a facility for persons with Alzheimer’s and dementia-related disease, opened with 20 private suites.

Discovery Village, which is located right across the street from Freedom High in Tampa Palms (and less than two miles from both The Legacy and Memory Lane), recently announced the opening of its on-site Preview Gallery.

If you’re wondering why so many assisted living facilities are popping up in our area, Brown cited statistics that say more than 900,000 people nationwide currently live in such settings, and the number of cases of Alzheimer’s is increasing. Brown said 5.1-million were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2010, and by 2050 that number is expected to be 13.5 million.

No One Hurt In Tampa Palms Wreck, But Residents Fear What Could Have Been

maserati
This $80,000+ Maserati Ghibli caused about $50,000 in property damage when it crashed into the brick monument sign at the entrance to Buckingham at Tampa Palms.

Ryan Hamaker was returning to his home in Buckingham at Tampa Palms when he caught site of a number of cars outside the entrance into his development.

The car that really caught his attention, however, was the 2015 metallic gold Maserati Ghibli planted front-first into the brick wall that once welcomed visitors to Buckingham.

“I was in complete shock,’’ said Hamaker, who is also the Home Owner’s Association president at Buckingham.

According to the Tampa Police Department, Kensington at Tampa Palms resident Mohammed Ahmed Salti was traveling west on Tampa Palms Blvd. when he failed to notice a red pick-up truck with a trailer carting three large drums that was pulling out of Buckingham and turning east on Sept. 17.

Surveillance video, viewed by the Neighborhood News, doesn’t appear to show Salti making any attempt to veer out of the way, but the Maserati clipped the back passenger’s side of the trailer and was redirected into a brick wall on the west side of the entrance.

“We had a contractor coming out of the gate,” Hamaker said. “In his own version (of the story), he saw the car and he had plenty of time to pull out, he just didn’t realize the guy was just flying.”

maseratti-2No one was injured in the crash.

But, some Buckingham residents have been left wondering what might have happened. They shudder to consider that the Maserati, which is valued at roughly $80,000-$90,000, flew through a corner that serves as a school bus stop for Liberty Middle School and is heavily populated on weekday mornings.

“That’s the first thing I thought,’’ said Jennifer Evans, whose 11- and 13-year-old sons wait on that corner in the mornings for the bus. “Someone could have gotten killed. It’s crazy.”

Evans was returning home from errands when she saw police cars.

“I was a little curious why there was a gold car decorating our signage,’’ she said.

Since the brakes were never applied before the car crashed, if the wall hadn’t been there, it is likely the Maserati would have ended up in the backyard, and maybe the bedroom, of its residents, said a homeowner named Kulendrian, who asked us to not use his last name.

“I heard a big noise,” he said. “I didn’t really know what happened. It was right behind my bedroom. Without the tree and landscape, my property would have been hit.”

Bricks did fly into the side of his house and also damaged his pool cage. Oftentimes, Kulendrian’s mother-in-law would be tending to plants in that area.

maseratti-1“Thank God that nobody was there,’’ he said.

Kulendrian says he and his wife often hear the sounds of cars screaming down Tampa Palms Blvd., and sometimes rush to their upstairs window to catch a glimpse of who it is.

“You just hear the zoom,’’ he says.

Police say Salti was traveling the posted speed limit of 40 mph when he struck the trailer, although it is impossible to tell his exact speed. Those who have viewed the surveillance video say it appears he was traveling faster.

The wall was destroyed. Almost two weeks after the accident, Hamaker says Salti’s car insurance company, Progressive, is refusing to pay to rebuild it.

Hamaker estimates the wall damage at $45,000. It is composed of real brick, not stucco or veneer. Some of those brick pieces hit the house behind the wall, and one large chunk of brick came to rest on the hood of the Maserati and was too heavy to move off without mechanical assistance.

He said all Tampa Palms properties have special computer-engraved monument signs and that the engraving alone costs more than $13,000.

Hamaker said there also was damage done to the lights, as the Maserati hit the external power supply, and busted the city water main that is used for the landscaping.

“There was a water spout when we moved the car,’’ Hamaker said.

He was also frustrated because Buckingham HOA just had the entire front of the entrance re-landscaped, at a cost of $8,000, two days before the Maserati crashed over it.

Speeding cars ripping through Tampa Palms Blvd., especially near Buckingham and Tuscany, is a growing concern. Tampa Palms Blvd. is a collector road, so no speed bumps, stop signs or lights are permitted. The road is a long, curved two-lane stretch of semi-clear sailing that Hamaker and other residents complain is a popular choice for some of the souped-up cars in the area.

“We definitely have a problem with speeders,’’ Hamaker said. “They all tend to be these exotic cars around Tampa Palms. Most concerning is that Tampa Palms is loaded with kids. In fact, on Saturdays and Sundays, it is not uncommon for my wife and our two kids to be out there cycling. And, the fact that this was right over a school bus stop is even scarier.”

Evans said there is a huge walking path along Tampa Palms Blvd., and on most days, kids are biking, joggers are running and families are walking their dogs on the path.

“The driver of that car was so unimaginably lucky that there was no one walking through or parked there,’’ Evans said. “It could have been a huge disaster.”

Hamaker says that the HOA at Buckingham has hired off duty police officers twice a month the past few years to monitor the speeds in his community, and tickets have been issued in the past. While that may annoy some people, Hamaker said the sight of the metallic gold Maserati Ghibli slammed into a brick wall just a few feet from a school bus stop is a stark reminder of what could have been.

“It’s got to stop,’’ he said.