The Ballad of Wild Bill

Wild Bill Peterseim

The Trials & Tribulations of Wesley Chapel’s Karaoke Legend

When I first met the man I now know as “Wild Bill” Peterseim, he was singing a medley of Elvis tunes at what was then City Grill (it’s now O’Brien’s) in the Wesley Chapel Village Market on S.R. 54.

I was just minding my own business, waiting for my turn to sing, when this slim, 70+-year-old man dropped to the floor and banged out at least 40 pushups during a 45-second musical interlude.

From that point forward, Wild Bill and an impressed certain publisher and editor became friendly, as we are both part of a crowd of regulars who go to O’Brien’s as many Wednesday and Thursday nights as possible to get our regular karaoke fix.

Flash forward at least two years. Wild Bill sought me out to tell me that he had a similar experience as something he read about in the Neighborhood News.

“I read that story about the lifeguard who saved that girl’s life at the New Tampa YMCA,” he  said. “I saved someone’s life the same way last year.”

The girl Wild Bill was referring to was an experienced, but young synchronized swimmer who  swam so far underwater she lost consciousness. The New Tampa Y lifeguard noticed the girl’s leg twitching uncharacteristically, and just as she started to go down, jumped in and saved her life.

In Bill’s story, a large, 50-something man from India who was visiting a family member in Lexington Oaks — where Bill and his wife Linda (more on her below) have lived since 2011 — in the fall of 2016, also started having body spasms while swimming in one of the community clubhouse’s two conjoined pools.

“I don’t think either he or his wife really understood English, but I started calling out to him because I could see he was panicking and now, I could hear him choking,” Bill recalls. “He was in the deep end, but finally got close enough to the wall that I could reach him from behind and even though he outweighed me by at least 50 pounds, I was able to pull him out of the water in one motion.”

And, although one or two other people saw him accomplish this heroic feat, Bill attributes what he did to God. A man of great faith, he explained that he was planning to swim his usual at least one mile in the pool that day, but he decided instead to go for his personal record in chin-ups on the monkey bars in the children’s play area at the clubhouse.

“If I had gone swimming, I would have been done and out of there long before that man started drowning and he might have died that day,” Bill told me. “But,  because I set my personal best of 320 chin-ups (in an hour and six minutes) that day instead, it took me a lot longer and I just happened to be walking by as the man started flailing. God guided me to put me in just the right place at the right time.”

Heroic From The Start…

Wild Bill — who was nicknamed that by a friend during his early karaoke days, in the 2000s, not his years in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War (he enlisted in the Air Force in 1963) — has a 140+ IQ and was gifted in science at a young age. In fact, he was a 19-year-old civilian Federal Communications Commission (FCC)-certified radar operator who was working at a military base in rural Maryland in September 1961, shortly after Bill’s 20th birthday, a few months after the Bay of Pigs incident in Cuba (which happened April 17 of that year).

It was there that he became the radar operator who was the first to “witness” a Soviet nuclear launch that took place in Siberia — literally thousands of miles from that unnamed base. At that time, the range of military radar was known to only be about 250 miles.

The amazing thing was — as he says he once told a retired Air Force General — “We were using low-frequency radar, reflecting off multiple layers of the ionosphere, over the north pole and over the central Siberian area, ranging 10 or 11,000 miles. And, the retired general’s jaw just dropped. He had never even heard (that radar could do that).”

It was during his time at this base that he was given his Top Secret clearance by the government (very rare for a U.S. civilian) and was watching the radar, when all of a sudden, “I see all of these spikes coming up all at once on the scopes, a big anomaly I had never seen before,” Bill says. “Within a minute, my boss, the radar project manager, and I were on the phone with the President (John F. Kennedy). He said, ‘Mr. President, we have verified that the Russians have just violated the nuclear test moratorium.’ And the last big nuclear arms race was on, until the last major treaty — the new nuclear moratorium of 1963 — that Kennedy signed before he was assassinated.”

Bill then worked with one-megaton nuclear missiles during his time in the Air Force and was thankful they weren’t used during his stint.

There’s Always A Girl…

Bill and Linda Peterseim. (Photo provided by Bill Peterseim)

Bill freely admits that he was ten years older than Linda, his beloved wife of 46 years, and he was 30 and she was 20 when they got married. Bill says he was actually neighbors with Linda’s best friend Marilyn when Bill was 24 and Linda was only 14. They only met once at that age, when Bill worked in his family’s RCA TV store, but Linda told her mother and Marilyn later that day that, “I just met the man I’m going to marry someday.”

Bill and Linda shared their strong Christian faith (she read thousands of books by Christian authors), but he also admits he wasn’t sure if 20-year-old Linda was “the one”…“Until the first time I saw her in a bikini.”

But, with their shared faith, “and the fact she took the wedding vows so seriously — good times and bad — she was always there for me. I just love her to pieces…and look forward to seeing her again.”

Bill had multiple long-term careers — including owning and running one of the largest Century 21 real estate brokerage firms in the Cleveland area in the 1970s and selling insurance, mutual funds, stocks — that kept the blissful couple in their native Ohio until the early 2000s, when they moved to Orlando.

 

 

Karaoke…Meet Ponzi

Bill also became a Certified Financial Planner and a sometime Christian broadcaster when he and Linda lived in Orlando, and he started singing karaoke at the original Avalon Park development. That’s where he first met a very charismatic younger man named Chris Maguire, although the two weren’t involved in business together until years later, when Bill and Linda had moved to a rented home in Meadow Pointe.

Bill says that despite all of his experience, after the bottom dropped out of the real estate market here in Florida in 2007, he was having trouble finding work. Maguire offered him the opportunity to sell “proof of funds letters”  in 2012. “I looked it up on-line and asked friends in the corporate world who said it’s a legitimate thing,” he says. “It just wasn’t legitimate with this guy.”

He adds that Maguire, “came with all kinds of credentials, and everything worked great for about a year and a half. And, I encouraged people — many of whom sought me out when they heard I was involved — to take money out of the investment. But of course, if you’re going to be a con man…a Ponzi scheme guy, you’re not going to be somebody that people hate.”

It wasn’t long after Bill got involved with Maguire that we met at City Grill. Despite his outgoing nature, Bill never mentioned anything to me about being bilked in a Ponzi scheme, but now, years later, he is still fighting the after-effects of being taken in by the man who is now serving 10 years in federal prison.

“He’s no Bernie Madoff, but he’s the same kind of guy,” Bill says. “A few people who got out early made money, but dozens of people lost millions of dollars to this guy.”

And, after buying their home in Lexington Oaks in 2014, Bill found out just how much of a victim he had been.  After years of negotiating with the government, because Bill actually originally made money on Maguire’s scheme, he and Linda found out in mid-2017 that they would have to sell their $300,000 home in Lexington Oaks in order to pay back what the federal government told him that they owed.

And Then…Tragedy

It wasn’t long after the Peterseims found out that they could lose their home that Linda was diagnosed with a recurrence of the rare form of ocular melanoma that caused her to have her right eye removed three years ago.

Linda and Bill Peterseim less than a year before she passed away, after 46 years of marriage. (Photo provided by Bill Peterseim)

“But, it seemed like they got it, because she was fine for almost three more years,” Bill says, “when she started having pressure and soon, terrible pain in her other eye. She passed away on November 16, only three weeks later. 

I only met Linda once that I can recall — for Bill’s 75th birthday in 2016 — but even though Bill says she couldn’t handle how loud it is at most karaoke bars, including O’Brien’s, Jannah and I would see Bill, and our other O’Brien’s karaoke friends — Derrell, Jay W, Emil, PJ and John, to name a few — pretty much at least one day every week.

Bill and Derrell (the professional Elvis impersonator who also works at Costco) both sing a lot of Elvis and 1960s-era rock, while I skew more to 1970s icons like Billy Joel, Springsteen and the late, great Tom Petty. But, Bill always attracts attention from people of all ages, not only when he drops and gives everyone on hand anywhere from 30-55 pushups during any lengthy musical interlude, but also for his voice, his personality and his showmanship.

So, he’s been an American hero, a successful real estate guy, a broadcaster, a Ponzi scheme victim, a widower and a proud, faithful Christian who unsuccessfully hoped his savior could save his beloved wife. I’m hoping he’ll be able to negotiate a deal where he gets to stay in the home that he and Linda bought together, but he could be forced to sell it shortly after this issue sees print.

Either way, Wild Bill, it’s been a wild ride so far and the final chapter won’t be written until you and your beloved Linda meet again. In the meantime, keep singing and doing those pushups.

If anyone can help keep Bill in his home or wants to hire a truly great guy, please email me at GaryN44@yahoo.com.  

Readers Speak: Kinnan-Mansfield

Kinnan-Mansfield Debate Will Continue Into 2018

I have lived in Meadow Pointe II since 2000 and my subdivision straddles Mansfield Blvd. and County Line Road right behind Meadow Pointe II Clubhouse and I beg to differ with your analysis of our opposition to connecting Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd. What you find is B. S. really are the problems of connecting the two roads. Traffic studies  (and there have been numerous ones over the years that have shown and proved it would cause traffic bottlenecks at the three intersections and thru the school zones as well as safety issues at the schools. I believe what is a waste of money is another traffic study when Mansfield and County Line Roads are in such bad shape! Money should be spent repaving roads period. Meadow Pointe Blvd. has the expandability to be four-laned and there are no schools until after intersection SR 56. and not that far from Kinnan street.

I find reading your paper that you basically take Hillsborough’s side and provide no voice for the people who have to live with this harassment every two to three years. Pasco County Commissioners should put an end to this idea once and for all.

Ray Kobasko

Meadow Pointe ll

Long Leaf (at MP) Resident

+++++++++++

Mr. Nager:

Reference is made to your editorial concerning the objections to the connecting of Kinnan St. to Mansfield Blvd.

Firstly I am not a resident of Meadow Pointe II but of Meadow Pointe III and I object to the connection you so much desire. Using your same description of why MP II objects to the connection your claim that the traffic will only increase during the evenings and on weekends is, as you said before, BS. As soon as the connection is made, and trust me as soon as enough financial arrangements are made to the benefit of those in power, the connection will be made, those residing in the so called “New Tampa Area” will start using Mansfield to 56 as their home to work to home route therefore increasing, the already overloaded route, with additional traffic, to think otherwise is at least identical to the use of smoke and mirrors.

The dream that residents from Cross Creek/Live Oak would travel down Mansfield and then would turn left (eastward) on Beardsley can only be described as the unreachable dream once you have reached that point why would you desire to take a longer route, such an action is not to be expected from the American humanoid unless forced by physical barriers.

Furthermore those who reside adjacent to Beardsley lived for many years with the expectancy that once the constructions, due to the lengthening of 56, would cease peace and quiet would reign in Beardsley where many master bedrooms are less than 10 feet from the roadway and now you and those of Cross Creek want to return the noise and excessive speed, speed limit in Beardsley is posted at 35 MPH, a speed limit that will not be observed since Pasco County’s Sherriff will have many other problems to tend to.

But your routing from Kinnan to Mansfield north and an easterly turning from Mansfield thru Beardsley will take you to Meadow Pointe Blvd, which has the space and was planned to eventually become a four lane route, why them planners cannot reroute Kinnan to connect with Meadow Pointe Blvd. is beyond my understanding.

If Pasco County is offering that alternative get the engineers back to the drawing board and have them reroute the traffic from the Cross Creek/Live Oak area to connect with Meadow Pointe Blvd, it seems to me as a logical, economical and fastest solution and beneficial to all parties concerned.

Sincerely,

Rafael Rivera

MP III resident.

+++++++++++

Gary —

The idiots who oppose the connection live in the same area that don’t want to share their clubhouse with the other communities, (Meadow Pointe II). I’m tired of these folks trying to hold the rest of us hostage because they are stuck up and don’t want progress.  I have been living in Meadow Pointe I way before any of those houses were even built, but they want to slow progress. They do not own the whole area! Not to mention those schools have different start times and is no different than any other morning traffic.  As far as the two lane/ four lane non issue, they can merge the 4 lanes into 2 with those permanent barriers that you see on roads. More connections mean more access to businesses on both sides of the line. I’m pretty sure CVS and the Mall wouldn’t be opposed to that road opening. It only makes sense! It’s time! MPII can’t hold us hostage any longer!

Thanks, Warren

+++++++++++

Mr. Gary Nager,

You are wrong in getting involved with something that does not involved you.  You can’t even get the Streets involved correct.  Kennan is the four lane road that will dump excessive traffic into a development were the narrow two lane cannot be widen due the already villages along Mansfield.  You don’t seem to understand that there are three schools plus a college already established on Mansfield.  I live in the village of Lettingwell which has a very limited visibility to traffic approaching from the left as we try to exit.  We have already had a serious accident at this intersection.  When school traffic is using Mansfield in the morning, it is almost impossible to make a left turn to go to County Line Road.  I do not believe you are getting any positive feedback for residents of Meadow Point 2.

As a concerned resident of Lettingwell, I am a 100% Disable American Veteran who is very concerned about your unauthorized involvement in this situation.

Dick Arens

dickarens@verizon.net

Editor’s note-I do so love a spirited debate, but the fact is that when the idea of connecting Kinnan (not Kennan) to Mansfield was first discussed probably 15 years ago, it was Hillsborough County officials who opposed it…and I was not only there, I told those folks they were wrong back then, too.

I have seen many (but not all) of the traffic studies for this area, but I’ve never seen anything in those studies, at least not to date, to support not connecting roadways that have always been planned to do so.

I probably take the concerns of Mr. Arens, a disabled U.S. vet, to heart the most of any of these commentaries, but as someone who has given his personal health to protect all of our liberties, I’m surprised to hear him talk about my “unauthorized involvement” in this situation. As a free American and as the only member of the local media who has lived and/or worked in and reported the news of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel for 24 years (as of next month),  I stand by my words and hope that Mr. Arens and everyone else who disagrees with me still stands behind my right to voice my opinion, as I stand behind their right to be “heard” disagreeing with me…in these pages.  — Gary Nager

Wesley Chapel 2017 Year In Review: Roads

Kinnan Mansfield
The gap at Kinnan and Mansfield.

Roads Busier, But Help Is Coming

Name a road in Wesley Chapel, and you can probably also name a problem with it.

S.R. 54 isn’t wide enough.

S.R. 56 has I-75, making for one of the area’s worst junctions.

And Bruce B. Downs Blvd
.well, don’t get us started on BBD.

And those are just the big roads. All across Wesley Chapel, the quick speed of development left a lot area residents complaining about crowding roads that are already, well, crowded.

The good news in 2017, however, was that help seemed to be on the way, as most of the hotspots — and by hot we mean causing tempers to flare — are being addressed by the county, although all of these projects will require some patience.

In 2017, wheels started turning for S.R. 56, which is practically getting a complete makeover.

On the west end, it was announced that the brutal S.R. 56 and I-75 intersection, which turns simple chores — like going to the Tampa Premium Outlets or even just coming home from work and trying to get through the northbound off ramp — into seemingly endless expeditions, should begin work this year on a $24.1-million Diverging Diamond Interchange project that will, presumably, fix some of the junction’s major problems.

The news of a 2018 groundbreaking was welcomed, considering how much better it was than the original 2024 and 2020 start dates.

At the east end of S.R. 56, work kicked off on extending the road all the way to from Meadow Pointe Blvd. to U.S. Hwy. 301/S.R. 41 and into Zephyrhills, expected to be a boon for area businesses. Originally planned to be two lanes, the $65-million project will now be four lanes.

On S.R. 54, Wesley Chapel Blvd. was widened to the south and, to the east, work started in November on widening S.R. 54 from Curley Rd. to U.S. 301.

The BBD widening project has an end in sight…we hope.

As for BBD, we don’t want to give you any spoilers, but for our “Best Of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel” issue coming out next month, we asked for your opinion on the worst intersection in our distribution areas (New Tampa and Wesley Chapel), and 11 BBD intersections from Tampa Palms all the way through Wesley Chapel were cited.

Yes, 11.

And a number of smaller roads —Old Pasco Rd., Meadow Pointe Blvd., Curley Rd. — also can be thorns in the side of drivers, but the one that drew the most attention was the potential connection of Pasco County’s Mansfield Blvd. to Hillsborough County’s Kinnan St.

There were three major developments in 2017: Pasco County commissioned a study of the connection (along with two other possible connections to New Tampa) in April, a public meeting was held in May at Pasco-Hernando State College (PHSC)’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch to solicit responses, and the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners pledged $250,000 in September to help make the connection happen.

Will it?

Not without a big fight. 

Wesley Chapel 2017 Year in review: Top business

Center Ice Transforms Wesley Chapel

There are many businesses that excite, fill a need in and make an impact on a community.  Very few, however, could be called “transformational.”

In 2017, Florida Hospital Center Ice was truly transformational.

“I think that’s the right word,’’ said Hope Allen, the CEO of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce. “It has made such an important impact on our community. It has really changed the landscape.”

After officially opening on January 25, FHCI’s impact was felt immediately. The first night attracted 300 skaters, the weekend drew more than 600, and nearly 400 signed up for Learn To Skate classes.

That was just the beginning. From hockey tournaments and leagues to figure skating to corporate outings, the $28-million, 150,500-sq.-ft. FHCI made nearly every weekend in 2017 a big one.

By the end of the year, roughly a million visitors had passed through the doors of FHCI, located just northeast of the S.R. 56 and I-75 interchange.

“Definitely the demographics are good, the population is ripe for what we do,” says Gordie Zimmerman, managing partner of FHCI developer ZMitch, LLC. “The community is just totally excited about the facility. We have been blown away by the response and turnout. It’s been great.”

FHCI is the largest ice skating and hockey facility south of New York. Zimmerman estimates that more than 1,500 local kids have enrolled in various hockey and ice skating programs at FHCI, including a youth travel hockey program that was expected to start with four or five teams, but instead has nine.

There is curling on Saturday nights, and FHCI’s adult hockey league has 46 teams, and grows every 12 weeks when the next new season begins. In July, a roller hockey tournament attracted 120 teams, and is already scheduled for a return. There have been figure skating competitions and exhibitions as well, and FHCI hosted the Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida (SAHOF) high school championships, where Wiregrass Ranch High, coached by Zimmerman, finished as the runner-up.

But FHCI, which is expected to deliver an economic impact of roughly $20 million a year, is more than just an ice rink, “which is kind of our slogan,” Zimmerman says.

To that end, it hosted events like the Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel (which returns March 25), “American Idol” auditions and dozens and dozens of corporate events and things like holiday parties in 2017.

“It has become a facility for many in terms of sports and corporate, and the two blend very nicely together,’’ Zimmerman says, adding that 71 corporate outings and meetings are already on the books for 2018.

Zimmerman says that to pick his 2017 highlight is a difficult task.

“There have been a bunch of them,” he says. “Every weekend, there was something happening.”

But, while FHCI has already scored a number of coups leading to national exposure, the biggest “get” for the new facility was landing the U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey team.

Since September, the team has trained at FHCI in preparation for the 2018 Winter Games next month in Pyeongchang County, South Korea. Wesley Chapel is mentioned prominently in practically every article written about the team, and their presence has helped ignite an interest in developing women’s hockey in Florida.

The U.S. beat Canada 4-1 at FHCI in a Four Nations Cup exhibition in November, and tickets sold out.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Offers Global Service With A Local Touch

When they aren’t solving their clients real estate questions, the folks at Berkshire Hathaway are active in the community, like when they delivered food and toys to Metropolitan Ministries on Dec. 15.

A drive through New Tampa and Wesley Chapel pretty much tells the story about how popular our communities are as places to live and raise a family.

A crowded commute is one clue, but a look around reveals a lot of new housing construction adding to the existing high-quality home inventory and brand new shopping centers on prime commercial properties.

There’s a lot going on real estate-wise and at the center of much it are the professionals at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group’s New Tampa Market office, located In the Publix-anchored The Shoppes at New Tampa in Wesley Chapel, on the southeast corner of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and S.R. 56.

Berkshire Hathaway’s New Tampa office is run by president and managing Broker Otis Bass, Jr., who joined the company in 2014 after a stint at Charles Rutenberg Realty. Bass says his team is ready to handle just about any kind of transaction that serves a client’s real estate needs.

“We are full service,” Bass says. “So we’re doing residential, luxury, commercial, and we even do property management.”

Bass also includes helping landlords find tenants as a service the firm’s property management team provides. Berkshire Hathaway’s online portal for rental properties is RentAHomeWithUs.com, which is the site to browse for rental properties and for tenants and owners to conduct business for everything from making payments to reporting maintenance needs.

“We help our clients get what they need in real estate, be it insurance, or a mortgage, or anything along those lines,” Bass says. “We have so many people within our circle we can give to them, so they can shop those services and decide which one is the best fit for them.”

He adds that the vendors Berkshire Hathaway works with share his firm’s commitment to providing high-quality service.

“We want to make sure they are client-centric; they put the customer first,” he says.

Although located in Wesley Chapel, Bass says that his office has a wide footprint that extends through eastern Pasco County and northern Hillsborough County.

The Berkshire Hathaway New Tampa Market office has a staff of more than 80 sales professionals, including sales associate Kathy Britton.

When it came time to buy a new home, and in short order turn around and sell her old one, Charla Harper-Hagen turned to Berkshire Hathaway. She is one client who is happy to attest to the high level of customer service provided by Britton and Berkshire Hathaway.

Otis Bass Jr. is the president and managing broker of Berkshire Hathaway’s New Tampa Market office in Wesley Chapel.

“I honestly can’t say enough good things about Kathy,” says Harper-Hagen. “We had two transactions, inside of a 45-day period, (and both) went smoothly.”

Harper-Hagen says a big reason her real estate deals went well is that Britton kept her informed throughout the process of buying, and selling, her homes. She said the level of personal service she received was excellent.

“Kathy answered all of my questions,” Harper-Hagen says. “She anticipated all of my needs and made sure that, as a buyer, I was comfortable with what I was signing up for and that I understood all the ins and outs of the offers that were presented.”

Bass says he honed many of his own current skills working in the mortgage industry for more than a decade. That experience, he says, has provided him additional perspective when it comes to his real estate management job.

“Getting into real estate was second nature for me,” he says. “I already understood contracts, titles, appraisals, surveys, and I pretty much knew what I was getting myself into. Once I got into real estate, I was having more fun than I was with mortgages.”

While the Berkshire Hathaway team has the industry expertise to conduct business, Bass says the ultimate decisions are made by their customers.

“What sets us apart is our approach, which is more of a consultative approach,” he says. “We want to help our clients make good decisions for themselves.”

Berkshire Hathaway’s role in those good decisions involve, among many things, interpreting market data or deciphering the terms of a contract for clients.

“We’re going to help them understand what they are doing,” he says.

New Tampa and Wesley Chapel families are probably used to their year-round home in paradise becoming a vacation destination for extended family members living outside of the Sunshine State, so an extra bedroom or other living space is part of a lot of transactions. Bass, who lives in New Tampa, says there’s also a growing popularity in properties that can accommodate more kin than just parents and kids.

“It’s quite a good area for multi-generational families, and that’s a lot of what I’m seeing,” he says. “We’re seeing grandparents living with nuclear families, and some of the builders are building multigenerational houses.”

CalAtlantic of Estancia, Bass says, is one example of builders specializing in extended-family housing.

A Name You Can Trust Globally

A review of the listings carried by Berkshire Hathaway’s New Tampa Market office shows homes from Odessa to Eustis in Lake County, but by virtue of Berkshire Hathaway’s corporate relationships, suitable dwellings can be found for moves to anywhere on the globe. Through the company’s international listings, Berkshire Hathaway also can help Floridians market their properties worldwide.

In fact, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Property Group’s online presence is a huge resource for information about home listings, as well as tips for buyers and sellers. There are links to Berkshire Hathaway’s YouTube channel, Twitter feed and Facebook page on the company website at BHHSFloridaProperties.com.

If the name Berkshire Hathaway seems familiar beyond the real estate business, it’s because it is derived from the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., which is chaired by billionaire financier Warren Buffett, who also is the company’s CEO. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group is one of the companies that make up HomeServices of America, Inc., which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.

The HomeServices group of companies, of which Florida Properties Group is one, provides all the resources involved in supporting real estate transactions and investments under one roof, such as mortgage originations, title and closing services, insurance, home warranties and even relocation services that span the globe.

But, the company remains just as strong locally, as well.

The Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group name went up on The Shoppes of New Tampa signage in early 2014. The company was founded in 1959 as Tropical Realty and Dewey Mitchell and Allen Crumbley acquired the business in 1984.

In 1988, they aligned with the Prudential Real Estate Network, which Berkshire Hathaway bought in 2012. There was a two-year transition period between 2012 and 2014 for the change to become complete for the Florida Properties Group.

That nearly 60-year period has coincided with the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel areas evolving from scrub land and cow pastures into vibrant active communities to live and conduct commerce.

Bass, a Florida native, is quite familiar with the market and its transformation.

“I grew up in Wesley Chapel before it was Wesley Chapel,” he says. “I’m one of the very few people you will meet who is from the area.”

Many, including Bass, feel that growth will continue unabated because of the quality of the area’s schools, access to healthcare and the promised addition of jobs.

“The population of Wesley Chapel is really going to grow in the next few years,” he says.

As members of the community they are helping to grow through their business, Bass says his Berkshire Hathaway team is committed to taking action to improve the lives of all residents.

This past Christmas season, for example, the company’s annual Cabernet Sleigh drive collected money, non-perishable food and gifts at its offices and delivered them to Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa on Dec. 15. Crumbley and Mitchell headed up the Cabernet Sleigh drive, which gets its names from the cabernet and cream colors the company uses.

You can meet the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group New Tampa Market team at their office, located at 1830 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (between Bealls & Publix), visit online to browse listings at BHHSFloridaProperties.com or call (813) 907-8200.