The Hub At Lexington Will Offer Another Opportunity To Stay Local 

The buzz words are “downtown,” “neo-traditional” and even Pasco County Commissioner Seth Weightman’s own term, “Eatertainment,” but more and more large developments in the Wesley Chapel area are offering residents the opportunity to live, work, play and eat in or adjacent to their home communities. 

We currently have The Grove at Wesley Chapel and its KRATE Container Park being surrounded by new apartment units, the Downtown Avalon Park Wesley Chapel area will begin opening its first building — with locally owned restaurants and businesses on the ground floor and rental apartment units on the upper floors — by the early part of 2024 and the Wiregrass Ranch development will likely begin developing its long-planned Town Center area sometime sooner than later. 

But, the concept of being able to eat and be entertained in your own backyard will soon not be limited to those new large-scale developments, as The Hub At Lexington will bring 40,000 square feet of “Experiential Dining & Entertainment,” including restaurants, retail shops and at what appears to be Shanks Indoor Golf & Bar (see pg. 18), to the northwest corner of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and Lexington Oaks Blvd. (see sign below), in front of the Sentosa apartments and is expected to begin building by a day or so after this issue reached your mailbox. 

According to leasing agent Courtney Bissett- Hayes of Bissett McGrath Properties, The Hub at Lexington will include 15-20 local and regional restaurants in six buildings and an as-yet unknown entertainment venue, all with access to covered outdoor seating with 12 large artificial trees providing shade. It’s being developed by Center Connect Development, which already has opened its The Hub at Bexley (but not yet with all of its businesses open) on S.R. 54 at Bexley Village Dr./Northpointe Pkwy., in front of the Bexley community near the Suncoast Pkwy. As shown on the sign below, the developer prides itself on providing “Live, Work & Play” opportunities. 

Jannah and I visited The Hub at Bexley (top photos) during its weekly Friday evening street fair and while it’s reminiscent of The Village at The Grove, the covered area provides great relief from our Florida heat and includes the now-open Grain & Berry and Thirsty Buffalo brewery, plus The Poke Company, The Blend Coffee & Cocktails, Taco Bus and downtown St. Pete favorite Bella Brava, as well as Duckweed Liquors, a fitness location and more coming soon. 

Bissett-Hayes says that The Hub at Lexington is larger and will have twice as many artificial shade trees (12 vs. 6) as The Hub at Bexley. 

For leasing information at The Hub at Lexington, call Courtney Bissett-Hayes at (813) 340-7936. 

Lotte Plaza Market To Open On BBD On November 3! 

A sampling of food items at SGD So Gong Dong Tofu & BBQ.

With the large population of Asian people living in both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, there’s no doubt that a lot of folks in both of our distribution areas have been excited about the long-awaited opening of the Lotte Plaza Market, the latest link in the largest (with more than a dozen units) chain of Asian supermarkets. 

Well, that wait is about to end, as Lotte (located at 17605 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.) has not only scheduled its Grand Opening to the public for Friday, November 3, at 9 a.m., yours truly got to walk around — and take pictures of all of the departments — at the nearly-finished store shortly before we went to press with this issue. And, even though I’m not Korean or of Asian descent, I am truly excited about this 49,000-sq.-ft. former (and long-vacant) Sweetbay (and Kash N Karry before that) store, which is much more than just another supermarket. 

The interior of a Tous Les Jours bakery at another location. 

Yes, there are massive bags of rice, a huge variety of Ramen noodles and many other Asian staples. But, the thing that got me most excited, as you might expect, is that our Lotte will have at least five different options in it sizable food court (called Eatery Sijang), all of which are serving different Korean cuisine, although there also is a renowned South Korea-owned French bakery chain, called Tous Les Jours. The other food court options, which are sure to be packed every day, include Luna Tea, BB.Q Chicken, SGD So Gong Dong Tofu & BBQ and JAWS Topokki. 

Check the pics on this page for not only under-construction food court pics, but of the fresh seafood, butcher shop, grocery and Lotte’s unique gifts and housewares. For more info, visit LottePlaza.com. — GN 


(Above, l.-r.) The ordering kiosk at the New Tampa Lotte’s Eatery Sijang & samples of JAWS Topokki’s food & galbi fried chicken from BB.Q. Chicken that may be on the kiosk. 

Zac Brown Band Member’s ‘Hop On A Cure’ Visits Treble Makers Nov. 4 

John Driskell Hopkins, who has earned fame as a guitarist and vocalist with the Zac Brown Band, was diagnosed with ALS in Dec. 2021. Since Mar. 2022, he has been raising money for his own “Hop On A Cure” nonprofit to help find a cure for the dreaded disease. Hopkins and his trio will play a fund raising show at Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar & Restaurant on Nov. 4. (Photo: Dave Kotinski, Getty)

Now that Halloween is ending, if you’re looking for something fun to do that also will help support a great cause, you should get your tickets now to the “Hop On A Cure” fund raiser to find a cure for ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” that will be held this Saturday, November 4, beginning at 1:30 p.m., at Treble Makers Dueling Piano Restaurant & Bar at The Grove. 

John Driskell Hopkins, affectionately know as “Hop” by his bandmates in the Zac Brown Band and his other friends (including Treble Makers owner Jamie Hess), was diagnosed with ALS in December of 2021 and started his “Hop On A Cure” 501(c)(3) nonprofit in March of 2022 to raise money to help find a cure for this dreaded nervous system disease, which currently has no cure. 

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Jamie and Hop and although he admits that his guitar playing, speech and ability to walk have definitely slowed since being diagnosed, he feels fortunate that his ALS is a slow-moving version of the illness. 

“I have a friend who was diagnosed in his 20s who lived almost 30 years with it, but other people die within just a couple of years,” says Hopkins. “It affects everyone a little differently.” 

Although his Wikipedia.com profile calls Hopkins the bass player in the Zac Brown Band, he says he only played bass on the first three albums. He was the band’s co-founder with Brown and its deep harmony voice for the last 18 years. He also has writing credits on some of the band’s top hits. 

Hopkins will be bringing his John Driskell Hopkins Trio — which includes drummer Mike Rizzi, who also is a close friend of Jamie’s from high school — to play some of the band’s original compositions, rock and country covers and some Zac Brown favorites, like (maybe) “Toes,” on which he earned a writing credit. 

“Hop On A Cure raised over $1 million our first year,” Hopkins says. “Our goal is to raise $2 million in our second full year.” 

Hopkins, who got his start in Tallahassee in the early ‘90s, still plays guitar, sings and tours with the Zac Brown Band (which is famous for hits like “Chicken Fried” and its four platinum albums), as well as with his trio, and says he plans to keep playing and touring for as long as he can. “My strength and agility aren’t what they once were,” Hop told me. “But I plan to keep working at this until we find a cure for ALS.” 

Hopkins was one of more than 20,000 people in the U.S. living with ALS, which usually afflicts people ages 40-70. 

Tickets for the fund-raising event at Treble Makers on Nov. 4 cost $40 per person and include a buffet meal, Angels & Outlaws Live (2 p.m.-3:30 p.m.), and Hop and his trio (4 p.m.-5 p.m.). 

“We’re only going to sell 300 tickets and every dollar raised will be donated to Hop On A Cure,” Hess says. “Hop is a great guy and I just want to help him find a cure.” 

For tickets, visit TrebleMakersofWC.com or call (813) 406-4371. To make a donation, scan the QR code above or visit HopOnACure.org. 

Why Are There So Many Car Washes In Wesley Chapel? 

Research by Jannah Nager

 Wesley Chapel, New Tampa and the surrounding areas are — fortunately or unfortunately — known for being overrun by regional and national chain restaurants, nail salons, multi-story self-storage facilities and, of course, huge car wash buildings. 

And, while some of these car wash facilities are locally owned and/or regional chains. the trend in this industry is in the growth of large conglomerates offering you the opportunity to have your car washed by giant machines in just a few minutes while you stay seated in your vehicle with the gear shift in “Neutral” and the windows closed. Most of these car wash facilities offer recurring monthly memberships that the companies are hoping you’ll use like many people do gym memberships — meaning they hope you use them as little as possible or not at all as you continue to pay each month for the equivalent price of two or three jacked-up individual washes. 

While they are obviously profitable, why do we already have — and seem to need — so many of them? 

Pretty much anytime I’m on Facebook, I see someone in one of the many Wesley Chapel Facebook groups making a snide comment about how many car washes we have in and around our area. 

Woodie’s Wash Shack, which opened on S.R. 54 in Feb. 2022, west of the Tampa Premium Outlets, plans to open a Wesley Chapel location on Oakley Blvd. near The Grove. (

So, why are there so many dang car washes? While some online critics believe they’re all money laundering (no pun intended) fronts, the fact is that they are hugely profitable, especially when they’re owned by a large national or regional company. 

One industry official, who asked to not be identified for this story, says it’s because, “just as McDonald’s isn’t really in the hamburger business, but in the real estate business (at least according to the 2016 movie “The Founder,” starring Michael Keaton as McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc), these big car wash conglomerates are buying up valuable land, putting a car wash on them and, many times, selling the land at a huge profit a few years later.” 

However, Glen Stygar, a partner in Woodie’s Wash Shack, which has 16 Florida locations, including one that opened in Feb. 2022 on S.R. 54 in Lutz (less than a mile west of the Tampa Premium Outlets), says there are more reasons why car washes keep popping up in affluent areas across the country. 

“For one thing,” Stygar says, “people in today’s fast-paced world no longer want to have to wash their cars themselves or pay someone a lot of money and spend many hours detailing their vehicles, and they don’t have to as much anymore because they can get a membership at a local car wash and have their car washed as many times a month or a week as they want, for one low price.” 

He adds that memberships are the biggest reason places like Woodie’s and big chains like Mister Car Wash (with more than 400 locations nationwide, including several in our area) and Tidal Wave Auto Spa (with nearly 200, including one between Zaxby’s and Aldi near Costco) continue to proliferate everywhere. 

In fact, Woodie’s has another location planned (but not yet under construction) on Oakley Blvd. in Wesley Chapel, which will one day be a neighbor to the new Super Target store in The Grove. 

Mister Car Wash has 400+ U.S locations, including this one in New Tampa and three more in & near Wesley Chapel. 

As I mentioned on page 1 of this issue, it is very much like the fitness facility model that has worked for decades. Many people who buy a membership at an initially very low price (that goes up after a 1-3-month trial period) rarely or even never use that membership, but continue to pay month after month until they finally either cancel or begin using it enough to get their money’s worth. Stygar wouldn’t say that Woodie’s hopes you’ll never use your membership — and he did say that the company’s policy is to never give you a hard time to cancel — but as someone who paid for a membership for three months and only used it twice in that time, I certainly can understand how this can be a profitable business model. 

Car washes also aren’t as labor-intensive as they once were — fewer people insist that someone dry their cars after they come out of the machine (and most offer you free cloths to dry your car yourself) — and while the vacuums also are free when you get your car washed, they no longer have people vacuuming your vehicle for you. 

Mister Car Wash is the current local market leader, having taken over two local Clean Machine locations on BBD in New Tampa, and with two local locations on S.R. 54 (one in Wesley Chapel and one in Lutz), but there are currently ten drive-through membership-based car wash places in and around Wesley Chapel — and more are on the way. 

Tidal Wave Auto Spa has 194 U.S. locations, including this one next to Costco and 12 total in Florida, with five more coming soon. 

And of course, the list in the next column doesn’t include the wash-it-yourself car washes, hand auto detailing places or drive-through car washes at local gas stations. 

As for pricing, the cheapest prices we found among the membership car washes were at The Palms Car Wash on Post Oak Blvd., where a single “Express” wash costs just $5 and an Express membership is just $14.95 a month. The most expensive prices we found were at Tidal Wave, with the cheapest single wash being $12 and the most expensive being the Graph-X4 wash for $30. Monthly memberships at Tidal Wave range from $23.97 to $49.97 per month. 

We’ll look into another local favorite — self-storage places — in a future issue. 

Local Drive-Through Car Washes 
NameLocation
Mister 29891 SR 54, WC 
Mister 24124 SR 54, Lutz 
Mister(Clean Machine) 20306 Trout Creek Dr, NT 
Mister(Clean Machine) 17501 N Palms Village Dr, NT 
Top Edge 28221 SR 54, WC 
Top Edge (coming) 27186 SR 56, WC 
Woodie’s 24749 SR 54, Lutz 
Woodie’s (coming) Oakley Blvd, WC 
Tidal Wave 2209 Sun Vista Dr, Lutz 
The Palms 5550 Post Oak Blvd, WC 
Jammin (coming) BBD Blvd., WC