Month: January 2021

Helping Pasco Sports Tourism Rebound in 2021

If tourism is going to bounce back from the Covid-19-ravaged 2020, a series of spikes, dunks, cheers and racquet sports will have a lot to do with it.

At least that’s how it looks to Pasco County tourism director Adam Thomas, who says that after a tough year for tourism around the world, events are returning to Pasco’s “sports tourism” sites, including the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, Advent Health Center Ice and the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center — all part of the county’s “Florida’s Sports Coast” branding.

Thomas says the three facilities have 14 events scheduled for the first two months of the year, with many more to come, as national governing bodies like USA Volleyball, USA Wrestling, USA Powerlifting and others look to take advantage of Florida’s open-for-business status and have eyed the Wesley Chapel-area to hold events.

“We are just now getting back to normalcy,” Thomas says, despite rising Covid numbers in Pasco, in Florida and around the nation. “We are looking at sports tourism in 2021 to really get us back to where we need to be.”

One event that won’t provide as much help as originally expected is Super Bowl LV, which is being played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on February 7. Generally, a huge event like the Super Bowl would have a major economic impact on nearby Wesley Chapel, with visitors staying in local hotels and eating and shopping at local restaurants and stores.

But, Covid-19 protocols will limit the crowd at Raymond James Stadium, which can hold 65,890 fans, to roughly 20,000 for the Big Game.

Thomas thinks Wesley Chapel will still enjoy some benefit from the Super Bowl, but in October, Pasco backed out of plans to spend $250,000 on a Super Bowl sponsorship and instead use that money for something more likely to bring a bigger return to the county.

So, while the Big Game won’t make as much of an impact, hundreds of little ones will — and that’s fine with Richard Blalock, the CEO of RADDSports, which runs the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, thanks to a public-private partnership between Pasco and RADD Sports.

The 98,000-sq.ft. AdventHealth Sports Arena will host a variety of club sporting events in 2021, bringing hundreds of teams and players and their parents’ wallets to Wesley Chapel.

The January calendar was filled with volleyball tournaments and gymnastics meets. Volleyball and gymnastics club seasons will roll into a basketball club season in the spring, and then the camp season over the summer. The Sports Campus is already proving to be responsible for a lot of hotel room nights and money spent at Wesley Chapel restaurants, malls and shopping centers, as nearly every weekend is booked through August and even Covid-plagued 2020 proved to be a success.

“We are not one-sport-specific, and that helps us,” Blalock says. “We made that decision by design. We can run a multitude of events here. As one season ends, another is starting.”

Blalock says in August and September of 2020, the first six weeks the Sports Campus was open, its events were responsible for 1,800 hotel room nights and just over $150,000 in sales, resulting in a $1.2-million indirect impact on the local economy.

He doesn’t have numbers yet for the rest of 2020, but Blalock says he expects to exceed those numbers in 2021. He says this while staring out his office window at construction workers laying masonry blocks on the fourth floor of the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel, which is being built adjacent to the arena on the Spots Campus site and is expected to open around the first week in August.

But, 2021 also is planned to include an NFL-style combine for pro football hopefuls, organized by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Yo Murphy, as well as the possibility of European soccer teams camping here prior to their fall 2021 seasons.

Hockey Tourism, Too

Thomas says the Sports Campus isn’t the only local venue to have a slew of events booked to meet pent up demand. AHCI currently is hosting a six-week United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) camp — a college and pro showcase with hundreds of players staying at Saddlebrook Resort and playing games at AHCI — as well as in Ellenton and Brandon.

The USPHL’s Hub City concept is designed in part to make up for the loss of games and exposure events for players last year, especially from hockey areas hit particularly hard by Covid-19, like the northeastern U.S.

Because so many events were cancelled last year and so many seasons went unfinished, Thomas anticipates eager event organizers to be heading our way.

“Our event calendar looks pretty promising,” he says.

*The SVB Tennis Center in Zephyrhills is attracting sports tourism with growing sports like padel (photo) and pickleball.*

The county won’t recover in one year, Thomas adds. He believes the Covid-19 vaccine will help make people more comfortable when it comes to travel and attending larger events, but that change will take a while. While 2021 is expected to put the Florida Sports Coast back on track, Thomas says the tourism industry is looking at 2023 before a full recovery can probably be expected.

“It’s going to take some time,” he says. “We’re still licking our wounds.”

When the pandemic hit last year, the county was coming off a record-setting February. March began the nosedive, and when the state was shut down for much of April, the county saw its tourist tax revenue drop to below $100,000 for the month, down from $430,000 in tourist tax collected in April 2019.

There is some good news, even if it is anecdotal — Thomas says the last weekend of 2020 saw 6.2 -percent growth, with almost 40 percent hotel occupancy. “We had a really good week,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll continue to see that.”

In fact, Lisa Moore, the market director of sales for the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel on S.R. 56 says, “We’ve been at or near 100% occupancy every weekend since the Sports Campus opened. It (2020) was a tough year, but things are looking better now.”

I-75 At Overpass Rd. The Latest To Get Under Way

Pasco County District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore says one of the most common complaints he receives from his constituents is about the traffic, especially here in Wesley Chapel. Before too long, however, he says many of those complaints will go away.

“There’s a lot going on, and a lot of (transportation) projects are kind of coming together at once and are going to make an enormous and immediate impact,” Moore says.

Three major local road projects, totalling nearly $150 million combined, are under way right now. The projects — the diverging diamond interchange (DDI) at S.R. 56 and I-75, the widening of S.R. 54 to past Morris Bridge Rd., and a new I-75 interchange at Overpass Rd. — will provide a large measure of relief to our area.

The widening of S.R. 54 (pictured here is the intersection of SR 54 and Meadow Pointe Blvd., as of December 13, 2020) is one of three major road projects, along with Overpass Rd. and the DDI, currently under construction in Wesley Chapel. ***(Photo: FDOT)***

The $33-million DDI (which we’ve updated for you quite a bit recently) and the $42.5-million widening project — which will widen S.R. 54 from a two-lane road to a four-lane road with medians, and include a sidewalk on the north side and a 10-foot wide multi-use trail on the south side — are both well under way.

Meanwhile, the $70-million Overpass Rd. interchange will be located approximately halfway between the S.R. 54 and S.R. 52 exits (which are six miles apart), and work began on the project in October, with local road and drainage work in the southwest corner of the planned interchange.

Instead of a traditional interchange, or even another DDI (which was considered), the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and Pasco County have settled on a flyover ramp onto southbound I-75 from westbound Overpass Rd., similar to the one in New Tampa at the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. Exit 270 off I-75. The Overpass Rd. interchange will be Pasco County’s first flyover.

The existing Overpass Rd. bridge over I-75 is being torn down and will be replaced by two bridges, one each for eastbound and westbound traffic on Overpass Rd.

“You could say incorporating that particular design is the wave of the future,” Moore says. “We’re not going have to have to go back and fix something like what’s going on with S.R. 56 and I-75. With that interchange, it’s just going to be general maintenance.”

FDOT’s John McShaffrey says the flyover configuration was selected “primarily because this alternative provides the most capacity to handle anticipated future traffic demands for the westbound Overpass Rd. to southbound I-75 traffic movement.”

The project also will include the widening of Overpass Rd. from two lanes to four lanes between the interstate and Old Pasco Rd., and from two lanes to six lanes between the interstate and Boyette Rd.

The interchange is being constructed by the Middlesex Corporation, and is expected to have a major effect on the adjacent interchanges. It was the best choice to accommodate the traffic from future development coming to the east side of the county, primarily from the Epperson Ranch and Pasadena Hills communities.

Other benefits of the I-75/Overpass Rd.) interchange, according to FDOT:

* It will substantially reduce traffic at the adjacent interchanges (SR 54 & SR 52), thus improving the traffic flow at both of these interchanges (reducing delays and improving safety).

* It will provide a detour route for traffic on I-75, quicker access for first responders servicing this area of I-75, and another access point to I-75 for evacuees during emergency evacuations.

* It is an integral part of the transportation network being developed in this growing area of the county, and is identified as a needed improvement to accommodate the Villages of Pasadena Hills development and the Connected Cities development.

* Will improve access to I-75 for businesses that will be located at the approved Overpass Business Center, and will provide a direct route for businesses that are/will be located along the entire length of Overpass Rd., as it develops eastbound towards U.S. 301.

* FDOT and the county both acknowledge that the existing system, even with reasonable improvements, is incapable of satisfactorily accommodating future traffic demands. The location of this new Exit 282 Overpass Rd. interchange is ideal in terms of placement (approximately 3 miles from both Exit 285, or SR 52, and Exit 279, or SR 54).

The estimated completion time of the Overpass Rd./I-75 interchange is summer 2023. The DDI and widening of S.R. 54 could be completed by the end of this year.

“I’m excited as a resident and as someone who has a wife and daughter that drive,” Moore says. “We see the effects the traffic has. But, also as an economic impact, too. When companies are looking to grow or relocate, they are looking for areas that have a great transportation infrastructure.”

i-75 overpass rd. roads S.R. 54 widening

Ready For A Theater Like No Other?

The All-New Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment Is Opening Soon & You Definitely Need To Check It Out!

When you’ve been in the local news business as long as I have, you hear a lot of people do a lot of talking, but very few back up their words with solid action.

Considering that developer Mark Gold of Mishorim Gold Properties has only owned The Grove shopping center development for about a year, you’d think there’d be no way he could back up everything he promised to do when he spent more than $64 million to buy The Grove in late 2019.

And you’d be wrong.

Since then, during the worst pandemic of our lifetimes, Gold has turned The Grove area he calls “The Village” from a mostly vacant mess into a vibrant new destination anchored by Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar & Restaurant and Double Branch Artisanal Ales, with much more to come.

Closer to the Outback Steak House, Gold already has begun delivering on another promise — to create a container park that will dwarf Sparkman Wharf in downtown Tampa by sometime this year.

But now, Gold has done something that certainly seemed impossible when he took over the former Cobb 16 Theater at The Grove towards the end of last summer — he’s not only ready to reopen it, he’s completely transformed it into The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment — and he promises the formerly failed movie theater he and his team have totally overhauled in less than six months will be a safe, family-friendly experience that will attract visitors from far beyond the borders of Wesley Chapel.

“South Tampa will come here to see this,” Gold promises. “There’s nothing else like this in the U.S.”

I’ll admit I was excited when Mark Gold and his team took us on an exclusive tour of all of the unique entertainment options that will be available right here in Wesley Chapel when The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment opens to the public sometime after this issue reaches your mailbox.

The Grove Theater will have 12 new-release movie theaters, including six VIP sections upstairs, with literally the most comfortable reclining theater seats you’ll find anywhere. But, that’s just the beginning.

In addition to a huge arcade stocked with 43 giant-sized video games near the entrance, The Grove also has one theater that will be solely for children in a safe, supervised environment.

“It’s going to be like a nanny room,” Mark says. “Parents can feel comfortable leaving their kids while they have dinner or watch their own movie.”

Another will be home to a “Spin Theater,” equipped with competition-style stationary bikes, both for top athletes to use for training and for those who want to exercise while watching a movie. There will be instructor-led classes, as well as open spin classes.

Still another theater will be available for rent for private parties and events. “For a birthday party, you can rent the theater for $300-$400, pick whatever movie you want and we’ll screen it just for you,” Mark says.

Plus, yet another theater will be offering Broadway and other professionally produced shows that Mark says will be brought in by a professional theatre company.

And finally, as we announced in our Sept. 29, 2020, issue, one theater will be the concert-style-seating home of SideSplitters Comedy Club. There’s even a SideSplitters reception area near the completely reconfigured movie concession stand. SideSplitters, of course, has a popular location on N. Dale Mabry Highway in Carrollwood, where top-level comics, as well as yours truly and members of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel have performed.

A True Dining Experience

But, best of all, Gold also has transformed the theater’s second-floor dining and bar area into a legitimate high-end bistro, complete with a sushi bar and Italian-trained Head Chef Wissam (“Sam”) Itani.

“It’s a chef-driven concept,” says Grove Theater manager Tom Peck. “We’ll have everything from Mediterranean items like chicken shawarma, steaks, salmon, you name it.”

Peck adds that the whole concept is to keep guests at the Grove Theater for longer than the average 2-1/2 hours spent at most theaters by the average moviegoer. “We’re not just a movie theater,,” Peck says. “We’re both a great restaurant and the greatest entertainment experience ever.”

Concerned about safety these days? Who isn’t? But, Gold and his team have that covered, too!

“I think we’re #1 in safety out of all the movie theaters in the country,” says VP of operations Matheus Gold. “We have fog machines sanitizing each theater after every movie, disinfecting UV lights, temperature and mask checks when you enter and hand sanitizing stations everywhere.”

In other words, if you live anywhere near Wesley Chapel, you should definitely check out the all-new Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment. There’s literally nothing else like it.

“This is a totally new concept that is the future of movie theaters in the U.S.,” Mark says. “Everyone really needs to come see this place.”

For more info about The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment, visit GroveShopping.com.

games mark gold movie theater side splitters sushi The Grove

It’s All About Giving Back For The Olympus Pools Family!

When I last owned a home, which was a dozen years ago, most of my neighbors in Hunter’s Green had pools behind their homes. The lot I raised my boys on was plenty big enough for a pool, but we had two big dogs and our yard was used more for throwing around footballs and baseballs than anything else — and I did my lap swimming at the New Tampa Family YMCA in Tampa Palms.

But, one thing I know for sure. If Olympus Pools was around and had the kind of technology they do now that would allow me to build the lap pool of my dreams (with an outdoor grill kitchen for me and a hot tub and maybe a waterfall for the family) closer to when we first moved into that house in 1995, I might have forgotten all about using our yard as a football field.

But, even though Olympus Pools owner James Staten and his family hadn’t yet opened what today is the #1 pool builder in the entire Tampa Bay area (more on that below) that long ago and didn’t start advertising in the Neighborhood News until 2015, there also is no doubt that no company has built more pools in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel since that time than Olympus. I’m also certain that no other swimming pool contractor has ever given back — and/or continues to give back — more to the communities they serve than the Statens.

So, Why Am I Telling You This?

In the 5-6 years I’ve known the Staten family, all I had ever heard from people in both of our distribution areas was that they 1) had found out about Olympus from the ads and stories about the company in the Neighborhood News and 2) that they loved the pool Olympus built for their family.

That is, until this year, when a few people in a local online community expressed their displeasure with the amount of time it was taking to get their pools built by Olympus, with a couple of them saying to, “use anyone else but Olympus Pools.”

I was stunned and dismayed to see people turn on this wonderful family and their company, especially since it was so soon after my friend Jennifer Murtha had just posted such glowing reviews on the same Facebook community of not only the final result (photos) of her family’s Olympus-built pool, but also the entire process from start to finish.

Beautiful swimming pool with early morning sun in the tropics.

Of course, I called the Statens first to find out what was going on but I also looked into how the pandemic had affected the swimming pool business not only locally but in warmer-weather markets across the U.S.

In a year when almost every industry has taken a major hit from Covid-19, the pool contracting business is up by 38%, which has caused the wait times to get pools built to increase by 50% or more, with few exceptions.

“There are many problems people in our industry have all been dealing with,” James says, “from entire teams of contractors having to quarantine because of Covid, to the shutdown of most government agencies, including those responsible for construction permits, to a shortage of concrete and other building materials. The bottom line is that while this has been a great year for our business, it’s also been the hardest year ever for staying on schedule, which is why we’ve had to extend the lead times from start to finish for new pools.”

In fact, when you visit the Olympus Pools website (OlympusPoolsFL.com), the home page has the following note:

“The swimming pool construction industry has been greatly impacted by the effects of Covid-19. Unprecedented demand, shortages of lumber and other building materials and lack of skilled labor have increased the time it takes to build a backyard resort. Please plan ahead. Currently, expect 6-7 months from sign to swim.”

And, considering that this award-winning company with 78 employees at three locations (Lakeland, Lakewood Ranch and the new Lutz showroom and headquarters on S.R. 54) built more pools (500+) in 2019 than the #2, #3 and #4 Tampa Bay-area pool builders combined — and that number is up to nearly 1,000 pools in 2020 — you can imagine that Olympus also has been more affected by these disturbing industry trends than anyone else locally.

“If we build 1,000 pools and have only 5% of the people unhappy, that’s still 50 families who didn’t get their pool when they expected or weren’t happy in some way. But, no matter what the percentages are, that still hurts.”

Even so, James adds, “Everything we’ve been through this year has made us much more ready for anything that might happen in the years to come. So, that’s one bright spot.”

But, it probably hurts even more for a company that, based on its performance through 2019, was named No. 2,411 on the 2020 “Inc. (magazine) 5000” with three-year revenue growth of 172%. The Inc. 5000 is the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies across all industries.

Olympus also was listed in the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 2020 Fast 50 — the fastest-growing companies in the Tampa Bay area — and also was one of fewer than 150 Florida companies to be certified as a Great Place to Work® in 2020.

Year-Round Giving

In addition to building more pools than anyone else in the Bay area, the Statens and their company also give back more to the communities they serve than pretty much any other company. And, this year-round spirit of giving has extended to the entire family, including 11-year-old Jacob Staten.

Before we get into what Jacob has been doing, here are some of the charitable organizations Olympus Pools has supported in 2020 alone:

• $10k to Pasco Firefighters Charities, which helped collect food for the Feeding Tampa Bay drive (see below);

• $5k to New Tampa Family YMCA, which served as a food drive collection site ;

• $10k to American Nurses ($100 for each pool Olympus sold this year);

• Purchased the Amazon wish list of the residents of a local women’s shelter;

• Reimbursed lunches for employees of locally-owned restaurants during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

Meanwhile, rather than gifts, Jacob has been collecting food for his birthday for the past six years, all to benefit Feeding Tampa Bay. Jacob and his entire Olympus family had 13 Tampa Metro-area YMCAs participating as collection sites for the food, which was then dropped off at the Feeding Tampa Bay warehouse near Ybor City (picture below)\

And, Jacob’s collection of more than 2,500 lbs. of food (and $3,100 in cash donations) for his birthday this year didn’t go unnoticed, as he has been featured on (or in) several different local news media, including two TV stations, a radio station, as well as in this and other local publications.

Olympus even gave out free raffle tickets to everyone who donated food this year, with a chance to win a Sony PS5, AirPods or a flat-screen TV.

The local Olympus Pools showroom (21859 S.R. 54, Lutz) is open Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-7 p.m., and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sat. & Sun.

For more information, call (813) 983-7854 or visit OlympusPoolsFL.com.

Olympus Pools

RADDSports Community Open House A Socially Distanced Success!

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is doing more than just helping drive sports tourism in Pasco. It is providing a unique venue for locals, both children and adults, to enjoy a variety of indoor and outdoor sports. On Jan. 3, the Sports Campus hosted a Community Open House inside the AdventHealth Sports Arena, which introduced mask-wearing, socially distant locals to these programs. And yes, it was a great success.

“We signed up more than 40 new people, mostly kids, from the event,” says RADDSports director of marketing Jannah Nager. “The event also introduced people who attended to our Sports Campus sponsors.”

At the Jan. 3 Community Open House for the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, every attendee was temperature checked. The USF Bulls cheer squad held a practice inside the AdventHealth Sports Arena at the Sports Campus. Attendees got to meet the Sports Campus sponsors, including Abdoney Orthodontics, which provided a putting green, and Island Fin Poké Co., which had people hula-hooping.

RADD Sports is the private company providing the programs and managing the Sports Campus through a public-private partnership between RADD and the county. RADD Sports founder and CEO Richard Blalock says that although the Sports Campus is already proving to be popular for both locals and competitive tournaments in the “core” sports being offered — basketball, volleyball, cheerleading and soccer (both in and outside of the AdventHealth Sports Arena) — “Events like the Open House allow more local residents the opportunity to check us out and see everything we have to offer.”

Among the sponsors with booths at the Open House were Island Fin Poké Co. (see story on pgs. 34-35), Abdoney Orthodontics, Glory Days Grill, Culver’s, Urban Air Adventure Park, the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel, the Hampton Inn and the Neighborhood News.

For more info about programs at the Sports Campus, call (833) TEAM-RADD. For sponsorships, email Jannah@RADDSports.com.

RADDSPORTS Sports Campus Wiregrass Ranch Sports