Hillsborough County Dist. 2 Commissioner Ken Hagan called it a “great day in New Tampa” as he joined New Tampa Players president Nora Paine, Dist. 3 Commissioner Gwen Myers and deputy county administrator Greg Horwedel at the groundbreaking of the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on July 8. (Photos: Charmaine George)
Rendering of the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (above).
Nearly 20 years to the day that the idea of a New Tampa cultural center was hatched by a nine-member volunteer committee comprised mostly of Hunter’s Green residents, the project’s very long and very winding road finally has come to an end, ironically, right across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the entrance to Hunter’s Green.
Ground was officially broken July 8 on what is now called the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (PAC) behind the new Village at Hunter’s Lake retail center.
Hillsborough County Commmissioners Ken Hagan (District 2) and Gwen Myers (District 3), New Tampa Players president Nora Paine and deputy county administrator Greg Horwedel used gold shovels to sling a few piles of mud (thanks, Elsa!) to officially kick off the construction of the PAC.
“What a great day it is here in New Tampa,” Hagan told a crowd of about 60. “Elsa passed, last night the Tampa Bay Lightning secured their place in history with back-to-back championships and today, we’re breaking ground on this long-awaited and much-needed facility.”
The 20,000-sq.-ft. PAC was designed by Fleischman Garcia Architects. It is expandable to 30,000-sq. ft. with the addition of a second floor, which would require additional funding down the road.
The PAC features a 350-seat theater and four other rooms that can be used by the community for a variety of purposes, as well as a state-of-the-art lobby.
After years of complications and reboots, the County Commission, with opposition from District 5 commissioner Mariella Smith and District 6 commissioner Pat Kemp, voted 5-2 to approve a $7.3-million construction contract to Dunedin-based Bandes Construction.
While Hagan was the driving force to get the project to the end of the road, he thanked previous commissioner and Hunter’s Green resident Victor Crist for his years diligently shepherding the project, and current District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who rallied the city to contribute to the operating costs when the project appeared to be hitting another snag in April of this year.
The original idea behind the New Tampa cultural center was to find a home for local acting troupes like the New Tampa Players (NTP), which has had a gypsy-like existence. The group staged their first production, “They’re Playing Our Song,” at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club in September and at Hunter’s Green Club in October of 2022.
It was former NTP leader Doug Wall’s dream to see the PAC become the troupe’s primary home.
Wall passed away in 2017 after a bout with cancer.
“This means a ton to us,” said Paine, holding back tears. “It’s been a long time coming. He’s not here but he really should be. I know he’s here with us in spirit, though.”
Branchton Park is currently an obscure park located south of Cross Creek Blvd. on Morris Bridge Rd., with plenty of open space, but will be transformed when it gets a $5-million makeover from Hillsborough County, including the addition of all-purpose courts, a playground and a pond.
Tucked away off Morris Bridge Rd. a little south of Cross Creek Blvd., Branchton Park is a quiet, underpopulated spot in New Tampa that few local residents have ever visited.
However, those who do know about it will probably agree — it is a park with limited amenities that is showing its age and is in desperate need of a facelift.
And now, Hillsborough County has plans to do just that. Branchton Park as you know it will cease to exist, and will be “relocated” immediately south of its current location at 15701 Morris Bridge Rd.
The new Branchton Park will be more modern, with a lot more amenities, and will serve a lot more people’s needs, at a cost of around $5.5 million.
District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan said he secured the funding for the improvements in previous county budgets.
The park currently has a small shelter and playground, a basketball court in need of a refresh and parking for a few cars.
It also has a paved trail and plenty of open space, but no bathrooms (other than Porta Potties) or water fountains. Once the new park is completed, the site of the current park will be home to future development, which could include a restaurant, sports bar or even new homes, Hagan says, adding that he can envision something like The Village at Hunter’s Lake development on Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
The nearly 500 responses to a county survey about what to make the new park look like were exactly what you would expect. Residents would like to see a dog park, a covered pavilion and play area, pickleball and tennis courts, roller hockey, more basketball courts, soccer fields and cricket pitches, a disc golf course, a splash pad, a skate park, walking and running trails, bathrooms, an amphitheater and more activities for the area’s senior population.
Or, in other words, everything.
Many of the resident requests are included in the plans, according to the county’s website.
The project will be funded in phases and, in the first phase, there will be additional parking, walking trails, dog parks, restrooms, shelters and multipurpose courts, though the county notes that likely means four pickleball courts and two basketball courts, which also can be used for volleyball, according to the conceptual site plan.
The separate dog parks for small and large dogs will include shelters, benches, dog agility equipment and water and even wash stations.
Subsequent phases will include other things on the resident wish list, like a more robust playground and a splash pad. There is a possibility, according to the survey, that the splash pad could make its way into Phase 1.
Hagan says count on it.
“There will be a splash pad, I can promise you,” Hagan says. “And it will be in Phase 1. I’m not going to let that (not) happen.”
Final decisions on what may be added in subsequent phases will be made after Phase 1 has been completed.
According to the conceptual site plan, the new park also will include a park office, concessions, event pavilion, open area and 70 parking spaces. There also are plans further down the road for a public-private partnership (PPP) on a zip line or “challenge” course for the park.
Hagan says he may also push for a Hillsborough Sheriff’s substation in the Branchton area as well.
In 2017, the county acquired four parcels of land totaling 10 acres just south of the current Branchton Park. The newly acquired land will be home to the new park.
Hagan hopes to get the process moving in the next few months, with the start of construction sometime in early 2022.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Hagan says. “I think this is a great opportunity to build a really nice community asset.”
The staff at Pasco Dental on S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel includes (l.-r.) Dr. Ben, Dr. Dan, office manager Trisha and assistant Jan. (Photos: John C. Cotey)
In almost every medical-related field these days, one visit to the doctor could mean multiple trips to see multiple specialists. Sore throat? Bad back? Throbbing knee?
Specialist, specialist, specialist.
And, dentistry usually is no different, which is why Daniel Hwang, D.D.S., of Pasco Dental takes great pride in his advanced knowledge of all aspects of dentistry and can pass that on to patients instead of passing those patients on to dental specialists.
At Pasco Dental, located in the Wesley Chapel Executive Center on S.R. 54, a little more than a mile east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., “Dr. Dan” takes care of everything from a simple teeth cleaning to more complex matters.
“It makes things convenient for our patients,” Dr. Dan says, “because we offer all phases of dentistry, including cosmetic dentistry, Invisalign aligners, sedation dentistry, dental implants, oral surgery and periodontal surgery.”
Dr. Dan also owns Lutz Dental, located at 19105 U.S. 41. Both practices receive high marks from customers — Pasco Dental has 197 Google reviews with an average 4.9-star rating, and the office in Lutz has 133 ratings and a perfect 5-star rating.
And, at Pasco Dental, you get two Dr. Hwangs for the price of one. Two years ago, Dr. Dan’s son, Dr. Ben Hwang, D.M.D., joined the practice.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Dr. Dan was raised in Mt. Vernon, VA, and moved to Brooklyn, NY, for middle school and Queens, NY, for high school.
He received both his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree (in 1987) and his Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) degree (in 1991) from prestigious Columbia University in Manhattan, NY, and spent twelve years learning the ropes of the dental business with his brother, who had a thriving dental practice in Ft. Lee, NJ.
When he was ready, Dr. Dan opened his own chain of Price Dental offices in the Metropolitan New York area.
But, having so many offices took a toll on a father with three young children at home. And in the meantime, Ben had grown into a budding tennis prodigy.
Dr. Dan (right) and Dr. Ben go over an X-ray at the Pasco Dental office on S.R. 54.
So, the family moved to Florida, and settled in New Tampa before moving to Wesley Chapel. Dr. Dan, who played tennis at Columbia, trained Ben, who went on to be a key member of three straight State championship teams at Wharton.
His senior year in 2011, Ben — ranked as the No. 10 player in Florida — led the Wildcats to the team title at No. 1 singles, and the next day, also captured the Class 4A individual singles title.
Ben went to prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, where he earned a B.S. degree in Behavioral Biology. But, he also made the most important decision of his life.
“John Hopkins is pretty well known for medicine and its students becoming doctors, so that is what I was going to do,” Dr. Ben says. “I ended up deciding that wasn’t the best for me. So, I started looking for dental schools and one thing led to another.”
Ben remembered all the time his father had been able to spend with him, training him in tennis and traveling to tournaments. A dentist’s schedule is far different than what a doctor’s might be.
“He was always able to make time,” Ben says. “I thought that might be something I would want to do as well when I have a kid.”
That decision led Ben to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) degree, and after earning his degree, joined his father at Pasco Dental and Lutz Dental.
“In school, they always talked about how important it was to find yourself a great mentor,” Ben says. “To have my dad, who’s been practicing for 30 years, I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.”
That gives Pasco Dental two Ivy League-educated dentists, an impressive feat. Next year, Dr. Dan’s younger son Thomas is expected to join the practice after he graduates from the University of Florida College of Dentistry, also regarded as one of the best in the country.
There’s probably a good chance the Hwangs already buy their scrubs in bulk, as Jan Hwang, Dr. Dan’s wife, helps in the office when she’s not working as an emergency room nurse at Moffitt Cancer Center, while daughter Nina is an oncology nurse at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, NY.
Doing It All
Dr. Dan has said that in New York, most general and family dentists provide all dental services, whereas in Florida, many dentists refer their patients elsewhere for braces, dental implants and even gum or root canal procedures.
However, at Pasco Dental, they do all of that, and more. There is an emphasis on patients looking for cosmetic work and implants. Dr. Dan has taken hundreds of hours every year of continuing education, and says he rarely refers patients elsewhere.
Dr. Dan is a Fellow of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists and in Orthodontics, where he focuses on Invisalign, rather than traditional braces.
Dr. Dan says his office also is the only one locally that is both a Lumineers and Snap-On Smile provider. Lumineers is a popular brand of porcelain veneers, which are used to correct things like gaps, chips and discolored teeth. While veneers do the same thing, Lumineers are considered to be an easier and more durable solution.
And, they’re quicker, too. A patient can be fitted with a set of Lumineers in just two visits.
“We can show before-and-after smile makeovers with a Lumismile digital smile makeover,” Dr. Dan says. “We can make your smile look amazing in just two visits — just in time to show off your new teeth after many months of hiding behind a mask.”
Pasco Dental also includes some high-tech solutions for determining which dental procedures are needed, like a 3D CT Scan Sirona Orthophos machine that offers more accurate 3D depictions of a patient’s full head, jaw and sinus cavity, which helps when it comes to being as accurate as possible when creating dental implants.
All in all, Dr. Dan says that everyone at Pasco Dental is eager to give you the perfect smile in as little time as possible.
“We are focused on saving time for our patients by minimizing wait times, and getting the job done with fewer appointments,” he says.
And, when the job is done, you’re not rushed out the door. Pasco Dental has a post-op room for patients recuperating from oral surgery. The room features two large massage chairs, a large flatscreen TV and a fireplace.
Recent patient Kara Psolla recently made the switch to Pasco Dental, and walked away smiling.
“The staff is extremely friendly, the office is clean, and the exam rooms are comfortable,” she wrote in her review. “Love the standing X-ray machine! Very happy with my new dentists.”
Assurances About Insurance
Pasco Dental accepts most major dental insurance plans, and Dr. Dan always works closely with his patients to make sure they understand the costs associated with any work they have done.
“I have years of experience in maximizing patients’ dental insurance, and minimizing out-of-pocket costs,” he says.
Dr. Ben says Pasco Dental isn’t like most of the larger dental chains popping up all over. The practice’s business model is not to suggest unnecessary work, or inflate things like the number of cavities. Instead, the Hwangs say they like to keep it simple and honest, by providing easy-to-understand treatment plans, sterling delivery of their services and making sure your bill offers no surprises.
It’s like the logo says – Bad Teeth? Hate To Smile? Call Pasco Dental.
“We love to see our patients smile,” Dr. Dan says.
Pasco Dental is located at 29450 S.R. 54. Its office hours are 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and noon-7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday. For more information, call (813) 502-0531, visit PascoDentalTampa.com or see the ad on page 38 of this issue.
The Covid pandemic made competing more difficult, but did not throw Matt Sanchez off his goal of competing at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
New Tampa’s Matt Sanchez, a 2020 Wharton High graduate and Heritage Isles resident, found out last month that even though he finished third at the U.S. Olympic Trials to qualify as an alternate, he would join the U.S. Air Rifle Olympic team at this year’s games and has been in Japan since July 16.
Sanchez, 18, was at a shooting competition in Georgia eating dinner with his father, Freddy, when his dad left the room to take a phone call. When he returned, he told his son the good news.
“He was very proud,” says Sanchez. “I was really surprised. I didn’t think I would be going.”
Sanchez finished third at the Olympic Air Rifle Trials in February 2020 at Colorado Springs, CO, out of 16 of the sharpest shooters in the country. Only the top two finishers — 2016 Olympian Lucas Kozeniesky and University of Kentucky junior Will Shaner — were selected to compete for the U.S. team, and at the time, alternates typically wouldn’t get to make the trip to the Olympics, which ended up being delayed for a year by Covid-19, with the team.
At that time, Sanchez turned his attention to the 2024 Games in Paris. But then, the call came.
“It was well over a year of thinking I was not going,” says Sanchez, who thinks that with Covid still prevalent and the chances of someone getting sick always a possibility, it made having the alternate available essential this year.
Sanchez spent the last month poring over online modules and general policy training for the Olympics, getting his Covid vaccination info and gun serial numbers together and preparing for two weeks in Japan.
Because shooting is traditionally among the first events held at the Olympics — this year, the competitions are from July 24-August 2 — Sanchez won’t be staying for the entire Games.
Because he is still unlikely to compete, Sanchez, who started shooting when he was 9 years old, is somewhat muted in his excitement. His reaction will be different in 2024 if he finishes in the top two at the trials.
“When I made the team as an alternate in 2020, it didn’t really set me off too much,” Sanchez says. “I was happy with my placement. But, it gave me the drive to make the team for the next Olympics. I missed out this time by four points; that’s not too big a margin.”
Sanchez is emboldened by the advanced training he will receive between now and then as a member of the U.S. National team, as well as being a team member at 19-time NCAA champion West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, where he just finished his freshman year.
Former Wharton Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps rifle teammate Ben Salas, who signed with North Carolina State, and Sanchez are believed to be the first Hillsborough County athletes to sign full shooting scholarships at Division I universities.
After the year Sanchez has had, the Japan trip is a welcome consolation prize.
Because of Covid, his performance at the Olympic Trials turned out to be his last serious competition for roughly 15 months.
The last half of Sanchez’s senior year at Wharton was wiped out by the pandemic, and he had nowhere to train or compete during the summer, except in his makeshift home set up.
Because the Air Rifle target — the size of a 12-point font period — is 10 meters (or nearly 33 feet) away, Matt sets targets on one wall in the garage and, because the garage isn’t quite long enough, he shoots at it from inside his home’s foyer.
In college, Sanchez’s training hasn’t been different than any other scholarship sport — it takes a good portion of his time.
Prior to college, Sanchez would practice shooting a few times a week, ramping up for competitions. In college it’s been more like 5-6 days a week, 5-6 hours a day.
Preventing burnout, as well as balancing schoolwork, and not having an outlet to compete because everything was locked down, was definitely a challenge, although Sanchez was one of three rifle team members recently named to the 2020-21 Academic All-Big 12 Rookie Team.
In his second semester at WVU, the Mountaineers were able to compete in some modified matches, and advanced to the NCAA Championships, where they finished fourth, but Sanchez was unable to participate because he was contact-traced for Covid a few weeks before the event.
Finally, in May, he was able to return to top-flight competition, competing at the National Rifle Junior Olympic Shooting Championships at Hillsdale College in Michigan, where he finished third in men’s smallbore competition, which is shooting a .22 caliber rifle in three positions — standing, kneeling and prone.
Air Rifle is basically firing 60 shots in a 75-minute time limit from a standing position only.
“Everyone was pretty rusty,” Sanchez says.
When he returns from Japan, the Wharton grad will be back at college training with one of the country’s best programs, planning for more international competitions with the U.S. National Team and with Paris always in his sights.
“That’s what I’m shooting for,” Sanchez says. “That’s the ultimate goal.”
Chuck Leisek has spent many of his mornings the past 15 years hitting golf balls at the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC), where he lives just off the 12th hole.
The 86-year-old never broke 70, but shot his age plenty of times, has just missed a hole-in-one on the No. 2 and No. 6 holes, and loved every day he was out on the course.
When he found out that the golf course was shutting down for \good on July 31, he and his wife Janice, also an avid golfer, were crestfallen.
“We never thought in our wildest dreams this golf course would ever be closed,” says Leisek. “It’s deeply disappointing. And that’s an understatement.”
The writing, however, had been on the wall for the past few years, as owner Bill Place, who bought the club in 2005, has been actively trying to sell the property the past five or so years.
The first weekend in June, letters were sent out informing residents that the 6,436-yard golf course, the oldest in New Tampa, was shutting down for good.
Place said there is no special event or farewell scheduled for the club. The last one out on the 31st will turn off the lights, lock the door and that will be it.
Bill Place
Place is currently negotiating with Pulte Homes on building 230-240 single-family homes on the golf course.
“Never once when I bought the course was I even thinking it would be a development site,” Place says. “We took what was then a failing golf course that was horribly maintained, and we put in probably $2 million over the first five years. We put in new greens, built a new banquet room, and really got the club making money initially.”
Included in the improvements was Mulligans, the popular Irish pub that opened in 2007, but also will close July 31.
Place says the 2008 recession stopped the club’s momentum, and it has been on and off ever since.
Leisek says he remembers when Place bought PCGC and restored the course to its previous glory, but says he is one of many who questions how much money Place actually has been losing.
And, although he says he had heard rumors of Place “skulking around trying to sell it,” it was still a surprise to everyone he knew when they received notice that PCGC was officially closing.
Place says club members like Leisek, however, were far and few between at Pebble Creek.
Although there are roughly 1,400 homes in the community, only 13 residents are among the club’s 70 current members. He describes the support from the community as non-existent.
“I don’t mean that negatively, like people despised the golf club,” Place says. “There’s just not that many golfers (living) in Pebble Creek.”
The view from hole 1 could soon be replaced by homes, if Bill Place has his way.
He says that when he approached the HOAs about having all homeowners pay for a social membership to keep the club alive, it was rejected.
“We do get a fair amount of public play,” Place says. “That’s essentially what kept us going as long as we did.”
Golf courses have struggled in recent years, especially as amenities in large communities, but the number of rounds played in 2020 actually were up nationally 13.9 percent from 2019, according to Golf Datatech, primarily because of people looking for relatively safe recreation activities during the pandemic.
It is the largest increase in rounds played since Golf Datatech, which specializes in golf market research, started tracking stats in 1998. Place says that surge was short-lived at Pebble Creek.
“Even though we had a little bit of a bump from Covid-19, I’ve already started to see it back off as people go back to work,” Place says. “We’re on a path to repeat 2018 and 2019, when we lost money those years.”
Place also says that merely maintaining the course had become financially untenable. He says that PCGC still has its original irrigation system and that “it failed miserably during this recent drought.”
He adds, “It was time.”
A 1968 coupon.
Pebble Creek was built by a group of nine investors and opened in 1967, at a price tag of $500,000, 20 years before Arnold Palmer visited to help dedicate the opening of Tampa Palms Golf and Country Club by playing the first round.
PCGC was once dubbed the “grandaddy of New Tampa golf courses.”
At its outset, the semi-private Pebble Creek Golf and Country Club was a hit. It quickly reached 300 members in 1967 and stopped accepting any additional members so there was room for the occasional non-member golfer. Over the years, improvements were made (the course actually opened with no bunkers) so it could host bigger tournaments, and membership ebbed and flowed.
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Mulligan’s Irish bar was a popular spot for golfers and Pebble Creek residents.
When it comes to selling the 149-acre course to a developer, which appears to be Pulte Homes, Place knows he will have a fight on his hands. Efforts to rezone the property and getting Pebble Creek’s two homeowners associations (HOAs) on board will be an uphill battle.
“Everyone is devastated,” says Wayne Rich, the president of the Pebble Creek Village HOA, which represents about 300 homes. “Nobody is excited about it.”
Rich says roughly 100 homes between the two HOAs are located on the golf course, and could have their backyards replaced by new neighbors. He has seen what Pulte is proposing, and says he’s “not crazy about it.”
A group on Facebook, as well as another group of residents, have already mobilized to oppose any development, emboldened by last year’s success at stopping Place from getting a brownfield designation for the course.
DR Horton, one of the original interested buyers of PCGC, had done preliminary testing two years ago and discovered that there were contaminants on the golf course before withdrawing its interest.
A brownfield site is a property that is contaminated, which hinders efforts to expand or redevelop it. But, there are significant tax credits offered to help clean up brownfield properties. Hillsborough County commissioners voted against the request.
Without those tax credits, Place will likely foot the bill. A preliminary estimate, he says, indicated it would take 6-9 months to decontaminate the soil. That alone could cost Place $1 million.
But, he still has potential developers like Pulte lined up.
Leisek will get in a few more rounds before then, and he says his golf membership is being transferred to Plantation Palms in Land O’Lakes, roughly 20 minutes away and also owned by Place.
He says it won’t be the same, and will miss member dinners in the clubhouse and even visits to Mulligan’s.
But, what he’ll miss most is a golf course he shared 2-3 times a week with his friends and neighbors.
“We had a lot of good times here,” Leisek says. “It’s very depressing. Very upsetting.”
For Rich, who remembers the many Mother’s Day banquets he attended at the club, July 31 will mark the end of an era.
“The golf course is part of the heritage of this community,” he says. “It’s sad to see it go.”
