Performing Arts Center Breaks Ground!

When Pasco County deputy superintendent of schools Ray Gadd first came across the sprawling 250 acres or so of property on Old Pasco Rd., he decided he wanted it.

However, he couldn’t have it — it was under the control of home builder D.R. Horton, which had portions of it under contract with three different people.

Disappointed, Gadd told the home builder that if those contracts fell through, to let him know.

And fall through they all did, leaving Gadd and Pasco County planning director Chris Williams with an opportunity to convince three different people to sell their slices of the parcel.

Years later, on a perfectly sunny and cloudless day, Gadd stood on that property smiling, with Cypress Creek Middle/High School behind him, a separate Cypress Creek Middle School under construction to the north of him, and the future home of the Instructional Performing Arts Center (IPAC) on the nine acres beneath his feet.

The Cypress Creek Conservatory of Music performed at the groundbreaking of the new Instructional Performing Arts Center on campus. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

The IPAC, a joint $18-million venture between Pasco County Schools and Pasco-Hernando State College (PHSC), celebrated the IPAC’s official groundbreaking on April 23, with Gadd sharing the story of the land’s acquisition with a crowd of 100 or so.

“Chris Williams and I sat in a little block home… with a couple, and we negotiated their part of the land,” Gadd said. “Then, we went out to a trailer in a little ranch and stable up the hill, about where the middle school is going up and negotiated that piece of land. That was easier than the third gentleman we negotiated with…but ultimately we got all 250 acres. So, that was the beginning of this vision.”

The IPAC facility, which will be located at 8701 Old Pasco Rd. in Wesley Chapel, is expected to be the bridge for students interested in performing arts at Cypress Creek Middle/High.

The Instructional Performing Arts Center (artist rendering above) which just broke ground adjacent to Cypress Creek Middle/High School on Old Pasco Rd. (groundbreaking below) will be a joint venture between Pasco Hernando State College and Pasco County Schools.

The facility is a joint effort between PHSC and the Pasco School District, and will offer programs in dance, theater and music, both vocal and instrumental. It also will offer dual enrollment opportunities for local high school students. 

“It’s a huge bonus for us,” said Cypress Creek Middle/High principal Carin Hetzler-Nettles. “The dual enrollment opportunities that our students will have at their fingertips is exceptional.”

Dr. Stanley Giannet, the vice president of academic affairs and faculty development at PHSC, said the facility will have an “economic development flavor” to it as well, with a new Associate of Science degree in digital design and multimedia technology.

“It’s a high-wage, high-skill industry, and those who finish our (new) program will be immediately employable,” Giannet says.

Although the facility will be run by a center director who will be a PHSC employee, Giannet says there will be “significant levels of collaboration” in regard to the programming and the pipelining of students into the center.

The state-of-the-art performing arts space also is expected to attract artists from all over the country, as well as those locally, and is expected to generate additional revenue for both the county and PHSC.

According to Gadd, the theater’s overhang and lobby area can be used to host banquets and meetings, so the local chambers of commerce and Rotary clubs can hold events there, and the master agreement allows for serving alcohol at the center (but not at the adjacent schools).

“It’s going to be a full-blown professional theater,” Gadd said. “There will be student productions, (acting) troupes that can book shows and maybe even some old rock-n’-rollers that want to play music. Hopefully, the community will take advantage of it in that respect. That’s the dream.”

The dream of the district, as well as PHSC, to build a performing arts center in has existed in some form for years. Originally, it was expected to be built near PHSC’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch. Developer JD Porter, whose family donated the land the college (and Wiregrass Ranch High and Long Middle School) is built on, even talked of a performing arts facility as an attraction for Wiregrass Ranch’s future town center north of S.R. 56, near the forthcoming indoor athletic facility to be called the Wiregrass Sports Complex.

But, Porter has withdrawn interest following the decision to move the project to the Cypress Creek campus, which is more than 10 miles away from the PHSC campus.

Money to build the project — $15.5 million — was secured with the help of then-Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Will Weatherford. The school district donated 5.85 acres on the Cypress Creek campus’ southeast corner to the college, which will pay for the remaining construction costs of the $18-million project.

The IPAC, as well as the already-under-construction Cypress Creek Middle School, are both scheduled to open in the fall of 2020.

The separate middle school also will feature a state-of-the-art 150-seat black box theater, and an orchestra room that also will accommodate dance and chorus programs.

The planned performing arts center — the second major PAC at a Wesley Chapel school site (the other is at Wesley Chapel High on Wells Rd.) — also is expected to enhance PHSC’s regional appeal to students at its Dade City campus, 13 miles to the east, and maybe even, Dr. Gianett says, its Brooksville campus 30 miles to the north, especially once the Overpass Rd. interchange at I-75 is built.

“Having the Instructional Performing Arts Center here will elevate both schools,” Giannet said. 

Team Gosselin — Local Realtors Who Are Also Community Leaders

After joining Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group a year ago, Karen and Renynold (pictured here with company CEO/Chair Gino Blefari), became members of the Chairman’s Gold Circle, awarded to the top 2% of Berkshire Hathaway’s 50,000 sales executives worldwide.

Proverbially, Realtor Karen Tillman-Gosselin wears a lot of hats, including serving as the current chair of the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, the membership director of the Rotary Club of New Tampa, and on the board of several other local organizations.

And, she and her husband and real estate partner Renynold Gosselin also have been sponsors of the Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel since their Rotary Club took over hosting the event in 2017.

But Karen, who joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group in 2018, is still not too busy to help her real estate clients with the tiniest of details, even if it’s picking out paint colors and furniture for their new homes.

“She’s absolutely remarkable,” says Karen’s client Ken Merrill, who says that’s exactly what she helped him do, as the single dad set up his home in Wesley Chapel. “She set a new standard for me.”

Ken says he relocated to the area when he bought a local Allstate insurance agency about a year and a half ago, then says he was referred to Karen and Renynold Gosselin, through their mutual Rotary Club.

He describes Karen and Renynold as “tireless,” as they took him and his kids, ages 16 and 13, out to see houses. Ken changed his mind a few times about exactly what he was looking for, and each time Karen and Renynold would simply find more homes for them to visit.

“Renynold is a virtual encyclopedia of information about the Tampa Bay area,” says Ken. “He knew every corner, every drug store, every market, and knew all the school districts.” 

Ken says it was 55 homes later before he finally found the perfect one.

 â€œNow, I absolutely love my house,” he says. “When I walk in, a feeling of warmth comes over me because of how much I love it.”

But, he also says visiting those 55 houses was just the tip of the iceberg of what the Gosselins did for him. 

“They negotiated an exceptionally favorable deal for me,” says Ken, who raves about the low price-per-square-foot he paid, and then lists the ways the Gosselins have shown outstanding kindness to his family —from helping him hire a top-notch roofer at a lowest-bid cost, to giving him and his son tickets to a USF football game.

And yes, they also helped him pick paint colors and furniture.

This beautiful 5BR, 4BA home in Saddlebrook in Wesley Chapel is one of many gorgeous luxury listings by Karen Tillman-Gosselin and her husband, Renynold Gosselin. They use the same impactful photography, marketing techniques and attentive customer service for buyers and sellers at any price point, even those who are purchasing or selling their first home.

Karen says she first got into real estate when she was working as an interior designer, often staging homes for sale for real estate agents. She’s happy to help her clients make their homes look their best, whether it’s a home they just purchased, or one they want to stage to sell. 

Award-Winning Service!

As real estate agents, Karen and Renynold represent buyers and sellers who want to purchase or sell a home. While Karen sells many luxury homes all over the Tampa Bay area, the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel area is her long-time home, and she works with people whose budgets are at any price point, even first-time home buyers and sellers.

The pair joined Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in July of 2018, which Otis Bass, who is the president and managing Broker of the Florida Properties Group, says recently became the largest real estate company in the United States.

“Thanks to (chairman and CEO) Warren Buffett, there’s a lot of name recognition with Berkshire Hathaway, and it has prestige,” explains Renynold. 

However, Karen says there’s much more to why they chose to join the agency. 

“Berkshire Hathaway is a great company with a lot of tools for agents, including a network for referrals from agents around the world,” she says.

More referrals to the Gosselins means more buyers looking at the homes they currently have listed for sale, which is helpful to local sellers.

“Berkshire Hathaway has more resources than other brokers,” says Karen, “and they’re always looking out for the best for their agents. They have created a very positive culture here.”

Recently, the Gosselins were awarded membership to the distinguished Chairman’s Gold Circle, representing that they are in the top 2 percent of the nearly 50,000 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices real estate sales executives worldwide.

Prior to joining Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Properties Group, Karen worked for many years for local offices of Florida Executive Realty, Keller Williams, Casa Fina Realty and most recently, Smith & Associates.

Karen and Renynold both got their real estate licenses in 2000. Reynold worked “behind the scenes” for many years, until he recently retired from a 30-year career with Verizon and became Karen’s full-time partner in real estate.

During her decades-long career in the business, Karen has sold more than $200 million of real estate.

She says she continues to be successful because she is a trusted advisor to clients who refer their friends and family to her and Renynold.

“Having a real estate agent who will listen to your wants and needs and help you find that one house you will make your home is crucial,” Karen says. “That agent needs to put you first, then properly coordinate all aspects — from negotiations and inspections to ensuring that the transaction becomes a reality.”

Marketing Your Home

Karen and Renynold say that marketing also is a big part of their success, and that having great photographs online is key to marketing a home for sale these days.

“Most buyers start on the internet,” says Renynold, “that’s why photography is so important.”

So, Karen and Renynold provide a 3D tour of each home they list. The tour is so comprehensive, it can even be viewed in virtual reality to feel like you’re actually walking through the home.

The 3D tour often is accompanied by a separate video walk-through of the home, plus drone photography, and photos and video of the community, too.

“We’re selling a lifestyle,” Karen says. “If you live in a community with a pool with slides, we’ll have photos of that or incorporate that into the video, to show people who want to move here the kind of lifestyle they can have.”

Karen says she and Renynold are by their clients’ side throughout the entire process, paying attention to every detail.

“It can be very overwhelming to sell a house,” she says. “We try to take some of the load off, because we know you’re not only selling, you’re also moving.”

Karen and Renynold’s expertise can make the entire process much easier on buyers and sellers.

Ken Merrill seconds that. “I would refer (them) to anybody,” he says. “It goes way beyond the transaction of real estate. It’s been an incredible experience, and they’re now family, as far as I’m concerned.”

To schedule a free, no-obligation consultation in your home, visit FineHomesofTampa.com or call (813) 629-1502.

What Are You Doing For The Derby Tomorrow?

If you don’t already have plans as to where you’re going to watch the Kentucky Derby tomorrow (Saturday, May 4), I have a suggestion for you — but only if you like enjoying great food and beverage, games and entertainment, and hanging out with actual thoroughbred horses to benefit great causes.

The Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon (the club that Jannah belongs to that played such an important role in us getting together) is teaming up this year with the Rotary Club of Dade City to present the second annual “Hats & Horses: A Kentucky Derby Party!,” which will again be held at the beautiful Waller Ranch in Dade City, 4 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Tickets at the door to attend cost $100 per person, but that includes delicious gourmet heavy hors d’oeuvres, an open, premium liquor bar, big screens to watch the Derby, plus gaming, music, photos with the thoroughbreds and more. 

And, best of all, it’s all to benefit the selected nonprofit charities supported by the two Rotary Clubs.

For more info, visit HatsandHorses2019.eventbrite.com or call Rebecca Smith at (307) 851-4312.Â