The Palms Pharmacy : Three years of success!

Dr. Shahida Choudhry and her Palms Pharmacy have moved…but don’t worry, it’s only next door in the same Shoppes at The Pointe plaza in Tampa Palms, in a bigger store to accommodate the independent pharmacy’s ongoing growth. (Photos: Gavin Olsen)

At the Palms Pharmacy, located at The Shoppes at The Pointe in Tampa Palms, Shahida Choudhry, Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), promises personalized service you won’t find in a typical chain drug store.

Dr. Choudhry wants customers to see and feel the difference from the moment they walk in the door, with a warm, welcoming space where coffee is offered and natural soaps lightly scent the air.

“It even smells nice,” Dr. Choudhry laughs. “People who come in expect concierge service, which they get and we enjoy.”

That means Dr. Choudhry and her staff get to know their customers. Not only do they learn their names to be able to greet them personally and start getting their prescriptions ready as they’re walking in the door, they also learn about their patients’ medications to be able to provide the best possible care for them.

“We ask questions and we get to know them,” she says. “It’s a cool process.”

The pharmacy celebrated the third anniversary of its “first” Grand Opening on April 15. Late in 2018, Palms Pharmacy moved, but just next door to its former space in the same plaza. The new location is larger, allowing more room for pharmacists and technicians to work, a separate room for prescription compounding, and another separate room where durable medical equipment (such as walkers, crutches and nebulizers) is sold and fittings for compression garments are done.

The new Palms Pharmacy is larger, more attractive and has more inventory. 

Dr. Choudhry received her Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy, then went on to receive her Pharm.D. degree, both from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY, in 2001. Before opening Palms Pharmacy, Dr. Choudhry was the pharmacist at the Publix in Tampa Palms for 10 years. She loved her job and her customers, and enjoyed working with pharmacy technician Naivis Valdez.

“It was comfortable and I learned so much,” she says. However, Dr. Choudhry also says she was looking for a better balance to her work life and home, where she had two small children, and thought she could help patients more if she had her own pharmacy.

So, she says, she took classes and read books and asked questions of many people who served as mentors to her, eventually opening Palms Pharmacy and hiring Naivis to work alongside her.

Success Spurs Growth

As the business has grown, so has the staff at Palms Pharmacy. Today, there are six employees, including a second full-time pharmacist, two pharmacy students and a pharmacy clerk.

“Now that we’ve been here more than two and a half years, hopefully people realize we’re here to stay,” Dr. Choudhry says.

 â€œWe do exactly the same as every other pharmacy,” she continues, “but we do it better.”

She says this includes a wait time that is usually “next to nothing,” along with compounding medications and selling durable medical equipment not sold at typical big chain pharmacies. She and her staff also provide immunizations such as flu shots, vaccines for pneumonia and shingles, and travel vaccines.

They also thrive on helping patients with especially complicated health or insurance issues.

Dr. Choudhry says that when insurance companies decline to cover a patient’s medications, that’s when she picks up the phone.

“I know the doctors and the medical assistants,” she says. “I work with them to get their patients what they need, usually within the day.”

This is in huge contrast to other pharmacies, which may take 7-10 days to come up with a solution when an insurance company won’t cover a medication.

In fact, Dr. Choudhry says many of her patients find Palms Pharmacy through their doctors. “Doctors are supportive of us because we take care of their patients,” she says.

Clarence Williams is one patient who found Palms Pharmacy when his doctor recommended it. He drives to Tampa Palms from his home off County Line Rd., passing several big chain pharmacies along the way.

He says the personalized attention he receives is worth it. 

“They know all the medications you’re taking,” he says, and will suggest alternatives “if there’s one that’s better for you or cheaper.”

Clarence says Palms Pharmacy has great communication with his doctor, checking with the doctor before making any changes, and he appreciates the phone calls he gets when his medications come in or when he’s due for a refill.

“The people working there are friendly and reliable and they just do a good job,” he says. “They go one step further than everyone else.”

Dr. Choudhry says that’s the commitment Palms Pharmacy has to all of its patients. 

“We recently had a patient come in who is in his early 30s. We saw that he had been prescribed diabetic medication,” says Dr. Choudhry, explaining it was a red flag for someone so young. Dr. Choudhry found that the patient hadn’t really paid a lot of attention or given it much thought when his doctor suggested the medication because he is pre-diabetic. She says she challenged him to make some lifestyle changes, such as exercise and diet, to avoid having full-blown diabetes. 

“I scared him,” she says, “but sometimes people need that, especially if they’re pre-diabetic in their early 30s.”

Dr. Choudhry says that at another pharmacy, they would just hand you your medication and you would leave. “We don’t want to do that,” she says.

Dr. Choudhry has also taken classes to specialize in hormone balancing for women and men. She reviews lab work provided by a patient’s doctor, prescribes the appropriate hormones and gets approval from the doctor for them.

She says it’s gratifying to have the doctors’ trust and help patients in this way.

Unique Gifts, Too!

Palms Pharmacy also sells natural vitamins and supplements, from companies such as Pure, Nordic, Metagenics and Mason. The store also sells LovePop pop-up greeting cards and all-natural products in the Zum line, such as Zum Bar all-natural soaps, Zum Kiss lip products, Zum Body lotions, Zum Rub moisturizers with shea butter and Zum Mist aromatherapy & body mists.

Palms Pharmacy patients also can use a free app, called “RxLocal” to refill their prescriptions, receive reminders and interact with the pharmacy staff. 

Dr. Choudhry says opening her own pharmacy has been extremely rewarding.

“I love it,” she says. “From the clinical side, I have a say in patients’ health care. Physicians listen to me and they ask me what I recommend. This is why I went to school, to affect my patients’ health care.”

In addition to helping patients, Palms Pharmacy works in the community, from supporting the Parent Teacher Associations at Chiles and Tampa Palms elementary schools to providing over-the-counter and prescription medications for medical students from nearby University of South Florida who travel around the world on medical mission trips.

“We’re growing every day and it’s a blessing,” Dr. Choudhry says. “I wake up every morning and I’m excited to get to work every day.”

Palms Pharmacy is located at 17008 Palm Pointe Dr. and is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, call (813) 252-9063, or visit ThePalmsPharmacy.com.

USF School Of Public Affairs To Study New Tampa Business

In campaign meetings with New Tampa community leaders and residents, former City of Tampa Police (TPD) Chief and mayoral candidate Jane Castor said the usual concerns were raised by those groups. But, along with traffic congestion, the conditions of roads and the affordability of homes, the topic of New Tampa businesses came up often.

“One of the main issues was concern over a lack of sustained retail along Bruce B. Downs,” Castor says.

Castor’s thought was that while no single reason was given for what might be causing what some see as an exodus of restaurants and retailers — although congested local roads, access and the growth of Wesley Chapel were mentioned — she also says New Tampa’s business climate was worth looking at. “I’m excited about the study,” Castor says.

In a chance meeting shortly thereafter with Karen Kress, the director of Transportation and Planning for the Tampa Downtown Partnership, wheels were put in motion for a study that is now being organized by the University of South Florida’s School of Public Affairs and director Ron Sanders, says Sam Becker, an intern for Kress, who attended one of Castor’s meetings with local groups. Afterwards, Becker had a discussion with Castor and Kress, and brought up the idea of a study to Sanders, who conducted a poll of graduate students working towards their Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning.

Four students volunteered to conduct the study, which also will include input from local business leaders, District 7 Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera and the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce.

According to Sanders, the study, which is still being defined, will take place this summer and in two phases — one will be a “listening tour” that will be conducted through meetings held with focus groups of citizens and business owners, and two, there also will be a field study.

“We’re still trying to find the parameters of the study, but the basic premise is to try to look at what is happening in New Tampa, the outmigration of some of the stores, and see if there’s anything that can be done about it,” Sanders says.

District 7 Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera has been pushing for some kind of study, and he says he was pleased to learn USF would be involved.

Too Much Ado About It?

While there are some who feel the issue is overblown and that the current outmigration is simply part of a national trend that’s the result of the cyclical nature of business combined with the ever-changing effect of e-commerce, Viera hopes the study will root out any potential underlying issues.

As we’ve reported in previous issues, the Market Square at Tampa Palms plaza has seen HH Gregg, Staples and Bed Bath & Beyond close; restaurants like Casa Ramos in Tampa Palms and Ruby Tuesday on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd just north of I-75, also have been shuttered.

The old Romano’s Macaroni Grill site has twice been reborn as a Mexican restaurant that failed both times, and even non-chain restaurants like the once-super-popular Spanish restaurant CafĂ© OlĂ© have shut down.

There are signs of life, however. The old Dairy Queen on BBD is now a Jamaican restaurant (see ad on page 43), the Beef O’Brady’s on Cross Creek Blvd. is expected to reopen soon as an Italian eatery, and Las Palmas has re-opened in a different New Tampa location after the original location closed in 2018.

Also, The Village at Hunter’s Lake project will bring more than a dozen new businesses to New Tampa when it is completed.

“I think it is not clear how much (of the business closings) are consistent with national trends, or if it’s cyclical, or part of it is technology,” Sanders says. “If it’s part of a macro trend, or national, it’s not clear how much can be done about it. But, we’ll also look for local circumstances and conditions that may be driving it. Those are more addressable.”

Sanders also says the study will be ideal for his students, and that USF wants to be a good neighbor and lend a hand. If the study does produce something concrete, it could lead to the city conducting something “more extensive and sophisticated.”

The study is still being developed, so how long it will take and when results will be published are unclear.

Done Deal: Ground Broken On New Tampa Rec Center Expansion

Tampa City Council member Luis Viera (left) and Tampa Palms resident Tracy Falkowitz, who led the effort to get funding for the New Tampa Rec Center expansion approved, are assisted by some of the facility’s preschool kids at the expansion’s Apr. 12 groundbreaking. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

When the official groundbreaking for the expansion of the New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC) was held on April 12, and a gaggle of local dignitaries and preschoolers dressed as construction workers wearing pink hard hats sent shovelfuls of dirt flying through the air, there was probably no one happier than Heather Erickson.

For the City of Tampa’s manager of aquatics, athletics and special facilities, the 7,285-sq.-ft. expansion of the NTRC is a long-awaited dream come true.

As the gatekeeper of the city’s immensely popular and successful gymnastics and dance programs, which currently includes more than 1,200 students at NTRC, Erickson has had to delay the enrollment of more children than she’d care to remember.

The expansion, however, should allow Erickson to admit roughly 300 additional kids into NTRC programs.

“We’re pretty happy,” Erickson said. “This is going to let us do even more than we already do.”

Those attending the groundbreaking included outgoing Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn (in perhaps his final official act as mayor), City Council members Luis Viera, Mike Suarez, Harry Cohen and Guido Maniscalco and Tampa Palms resident and activist Tracy Falkowitz.

All offered praise for the results the gymnastics and dance programs have produced, and noted the long road to getting the NTRC expanded.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. gets a helping hand at the NTRC groundbreaking. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Buckhorn, who leaves office in a few weeks, acknowledged the struggle finding the full amount needed — $2.6 million in all — for the project in the years following the 2008 recession.

Viera and Falkowitz, along with others in the New Tampa community, however, worked doggedly together to finally convince the city to put — and keep — the rec center expansion in the fiscal year 2018 budget.

“Thanks, particularly to the advocacy of Luis Viera, who was relentless,” Buckhorn said. “He was like a pitbull on my leg to make sure New Tampa was going to be taken care of. And, Tracy was absolutely right, that this journey had gone on too long, and the demands were too great and the quality of the programming was too superb that (why) shouldn’t and couldn’t we expand this to give more kids the opportunity to enjoy the amazing mentorship of our Parks & Recreation, and give New Tampa the amenity that it so rightly deserved. We got it through.”

The NTRC expansion is expected to be completed by February of 2020,  which is good news for many on the waiting list of 1,400 — 960 waiting to get into gymnastics, the rest waiting to get into the center’s dance programs.

There are three basic components of the expansion, the first of which is adding a room specifically for children ages 5 and under, who currently share space with older kids in the 12,500-sq.-ft. gymnastics area.

By giving them their own 50’ x 40’ room, it allows for more older students to be added to the program, and also provides more of a focus on the younger pre-schoolers.

Another 50’ x 40’ all-purpose room for dance also will be added.

And lastly, the expansion will include a 1,760-sq.-ft. “training box,” which will offer a wealth of possible training exercises for a variety of sports, like retractable batting cages, and offer small group fitness classes. The new addition to the NTRC also will have more windows so parents and family can watch the gymnastics and dance programs, as well as six new bathrooms.

One of the bathrooms will even have an electromagnetic lock, so it can be open on the weekends for those using the outdoor areas when the NTRC is closed.

Sprouts, 12 others signed up for Hunter’s Lake project

New Tampa’s first green grocer, Sprouts Farmers Market, is prepping construction on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. across from the main entrance Hunter’s Green, and according to the developer’s listing on its website, it already has some neighboring businesses waiting to move in as well.

Regency Centers, which is developing The Village at Hunter’s Lake project along with Harrison Bennett Properties, shows the 29,257-sq.-ft. Sprouts as the anchor of the much-anticipated mixed-use project, although there also are 12 other tenants ready to fill the retail shopping strip.

And, six of the retail spaces are still available. A map on the Regency Centers website lists a row of businesses that have apparently already signed leases, ranging from health and beauty businesses to a few places to grab a bite to eat or have a coffee.

The Village at Hunter’s Lake across from the Hunter’s Green entrance is starting to take shape.

The Village at Hunter’s Lake, which in total will have 71,397 sq. ft. of commercial space, will have — not surprisingly — a Starbucks, according to the website. 

Three other places in the development will offer food and drink. Poke Island Plus, featuring traditional Hawaiian dishes of cubed raw fish and other fresh ingredients, is among them.

Poke is one of the hot, trendy food items in the country at the moment, and another similar restaurant, Poke Point, recently opened on the west side of BBD, a couple of miles north of AdventHealth Wesley Chapel.

It won’t be the only eatery offering healthy bowls of food in The Village at Hunter’s Lake. Grain & Berry, a quickly growing local chain that hopes to have 100 stores statewide by the end of the year, is also scheduled to lease a location in the commercial project.

Founded in 2017, Grain & Berry has seven locations in the Tampa Bay area (the nearest being on E. Fowler Ave.) and specializes in acai bowls. 

Dubbing itself a superfoods cafe, Grain & Berry offers fresh pressed juices, hearty avocado toasts and international coffees, in addition to bowls filled with acai — a purple berry rich in antioxidants — and varieties of different fruits and grains.

But Wait, There’s More!

And, if you’re going to be looking for something maybe a little more hearty, Via Italia Woodfired Pizza & Bar is also listed on the Regency Centers website (as Double Zero Pizza) as headed to New Tampa.

Other spaces are leased by chains like Pure Beauty Salon, T-Mobile, Heartland Dental, Hair Cuttery, Pink & White Nails and Nationwide Vision Center.

The Coder School, a franchise founded in 2014 and headquartered in Silicon Valley that teaches computer coding to children year-round, also is slated to be located in the The Villages at Hunter’s Lake.

Permit requests also have been submitted to Hillsborough County to build two monument signs and a screen wall, as well as a 3,200-sq.-ft. Banfield Pet Hospital.

The Haven at Hunter’s Lake

Voicemail messages left at Regency Centers we’re not returned.

The Village at Hunter’s Lake project, originally approved by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners by a 7-0 vote in 2014, will be built on an 80-acre parcel that also will include a 30,000-sq.-ft. New Tampa Cultural Center, a dog park and a four-story, 241-unit multi-family project to be called The Haven at Hunter’s Lake.

The project, located in the heart of New Tampa, has long been referred to as a potential “downtown” for our area, as well as the area’s version of the popular and trendy Hyde Park development in South Tampa.

Local Female Veterans Hoping To Grow Their Facebook Group

When someone says the word “veteran,” the image that immediately jumps to mind is usually that of a man, hair turned to gray, with wrinkled skin and slower to move, but carrying themselves with the same pride and dignity they learned — and earned — while serving their country. 

The image that hardly ever comes to mind?

That of a woman.

Retired U.S. Air Force veteran and senior master sergeant Phyllis Whetsel believes it’s high time for that to change.

Whetsel, who is originally from New York, served 21 years of active duty and retired last June. Her husband, Brook, retired last January after 26 years of his own in the Air Force. The couple met while stationed together at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii and were married in 2012. 

Air Force veteran Phyllis Whetsel fills her time working as a
Mary Kay consultant and running a new Facebook group for female veterans in the Wesley Chapel/New Tampa area. 

After a joint retirement ceremony on the USS Missouri, the couple relocated to Wesley Chapel last August, with Whetsel’s mother and three of their four children, ranging in age from five to twenty.

Most of the men in Whetsel’s family were service members, including her father, who passed away in 2016. Her eldest son lives in Idaho with his husband; both men are currently serving in the Air Force.

“Whenever I’m talking to someone and they ask what brought me here, they assume that when I say I’m retired from the military, I’m actually speaking of my husband,” says Whetsel, 42. “It’s still a mindset that the military (mainly) consists of men.”

Wanting to change that mindset while connecting local fellow female veterans, Whetsel created a new Facebook group last month (search “American Women Veterans of Wesley Chapel, New Tampa and Surrounding Areas” on Facebook)that she hopes will bring together members of this unique group, which is bigger than many believe.

According to the Washington Post, 20 percent of new recruits in all four branches of the military are women. Nearly 280,000 of those who served in Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn were women, and about 9 percent of the overall U.S. military veteran population, or more than 2 million, are women.

Baby Steps First

Whetsel’s group currently has just nine members, but the page is already very active, with posts about other female veterans, resources for those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), military news and of course, lighthearted memes.

“So far, the feedback has been very positive,” says Whetsel proudly. “While we serve alongside men, our military experiences are very different, and that’s what bonds us.”

Whetsel expects her group, which currently has 58 members, to grow substantially once word gets around, and is hoping to exceed 1,500 members by the end of the year.

The only requirements for membership: be a veteran of any United States military branch and of course, be a woman. Whetsel trusts the integrity of her members and does not require proof of service.

Whetsel says that although she knows of several groups for female veterans based in the heart of Tampa, hers is the first specifically for the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area. She naturally gravitated toward Facebook because of her familiarity with it. She now works as a Mary Kay consultant. 

“This is definitely going to be a positive, uplifting group,” says Whetsel. “Not everything about being a female vet is positive, so I just wanted a place where women can chat, joke around and share their stories.”

The first group activity Whetsel planned was a gathering at her home on March 1 (the day we went to press with this issue) for coffee. After she gauges the response to that and a few of the group’s other ideas, she’ll move on to larger events in the community, and hopes to grow the group enough to be affiliated with American Women Veterans, a national organization based in Washington, D.C.

“I’m looking forward to connecting with my new tribe,” said member Stephanie Jamison, who retired as a master sergeant in August after more than 20 years in the Air Force and moved with her family to the area last June. “It’s tough leaving the military family behind, but I’m thankful for groups like this!”

Fellow Air Force veteran Beatriz Cruz, who now lives in Wesley Chapel, echoed Jamison’s sentiments.

“This group means meeting other women veterans, and hopefully having the same camaraderie we had in the military,” says Cruz.

Whetsel says she is looking forward to adding more members to the group.

“I really believe that even though we are no longer in the military,” she says, “we still have so much to contribute — not only to each other, but to the community.”

For more information about the group or to join, visit the “American Women Veterans of Wesley Chapel, New Tampa and Surrounding Areas” page on Facebook.