Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar is coming to S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel, part of an aggressive expansion by the sports bar franchise owned in part by New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees.
Permitting has been filed with Pasco County planning for a 15,664-sq.-ft. shell building that is expected to be a commercial strip center right off S.R. 56, in front of the soon-to-open Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center.
The strip center is expected to be home to a number of coming projects that have been previously reported, like Golf Galaxy, Total Wine & More and others.
But two highly-anticipated eateries, Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar and Blaze Pizza, have already begun the permitting process, and won’t be headed to the new center as once-rumored.
Instead, both are beginning construction soon a little bit to the west, near the corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54). They will be located in the same center with Chipotle Mexican Grill, and a 3,000-sq.ft. Sleep Number store will also be on that parcel.
Pizza is the cover story in our upcoming Wesley Chapel issue hitting mailboxes on Friday, so you can read more about the emergence of the popular fast-casual chain.
Walk-On’s, a franchise with more than a dozen locations across Louisiana and Texas with an aggressive plan to expand into 11 other states this year, will be one of the few “pure” sports bars in the area.
Its founders, Brandon Landry and Jack Warner, met in 1997 at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where both were walk-ons (hence the name) for the Tiger basketball team.
While they didn’t play much, they did get to travel the country with the Tigers and, along the way, visited enough sports bars that they formulated an idea for starting their own back in Baton Rouge.
According to the Walk-On’s website, in 2000, Landry and Warner sketched out their vision for a floor plan on a napkin from 35,000 feet above the earth, as they flew home from a road game at the University of Tennessee.
They opened their first location in 2003 and, in 2012, Walk On’s was named the No. 1 Sports Bar in America. Two years later, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees joined the business as a co-owner.
Walk-On’s menu is a little different than many sports bars, highlighted by some unique Cajun dishes, like po’boy sandwiches, gumbo, crawfish, fried Lousiana Alligator and Cajundillas (a tortilla stuffed with chicken, andouille, boudin sausage, caramelized onions and cheese).
All of it served by waitresses dressed as cheerleaders and televisions blaring the calls from your favorite sporting events.
While there are other sports-related options in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, Walk-On is likely to be a welcome addition for area sports fans.
More homes have been approved for K-Bar Ranch, which is now completely rezoned and headed towards nearly 2,000 total homes and condos/townhomes in the next few years. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
After two readings and one continuance, the Tampa City Council has approved a rezoning that will pave the way for developer M/I homes to build 698 new homes in K-Bar Ranch.
The growth of the soon-to-be burgeoning community, located north of Cross Creek Blvd. in the northeasternmost part of New Tampa, has been a point of some public debate, due to the lack of infrastructure, namely roads, in the area.
But, only councilman Luis Viera, who represents District 7, which includes all of the neighborhoods within Tampa’s city limits in New Tampa — including K-Bar Ranch — was the only vote against the rezoning approved by the council (by a 6-1 vote on June 28) to allow the new homes to be built in K-Bar.
As it is with any zoning matters, Viera is not allowed to comment on the case for 30 days following the vote.
More homes means more cars, and currently, the only way in and out of K-Bar Ranch is Kinnan St., which runs north and south, or Basset Creek Dr., a two-lane road that runs past Pride Elementary before connecting to Kinnan.
Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa are still pursuing connections north into Pasco County at three different points to help relieve congestion, and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., an east-west road which is connected to Kinnan St., is still under construction and will provide a path out via Morris Bridge Rd., but not until late 2019 at the earliest.
There was very little discussion amongst the City Council members before the vote, and no one from the public spoke.
Craig Margelowsky, the president of the Heron Preserve neighborhood in K-Bar Ranch and an opponent of adding more homes in his community without more roads, attended the May meeting but was unable to attend on June 28. He says he was disappointed with the decision, but not surprised.
Margelowsky says that he is concerned that by passing the rezoning request, the City of Tampa gave away any leverage it might have had in securing connections with Pasco County. If the rezoning was conditional upon new roads, government officials, as well M/I Homes, would be more pressed to find quicker solutions.
“This took away all the expediency,” Margelowsky says.
However, the City Council had little choice but to okay the rezoning, says Melanie Calloway, the senior transportation planning engineer for Tampa, in order to guarantee the connection of K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
Calloway cited House Bill 7207, or the Community Planning Act, passed in 2011 and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, which handcuffed local governments from imposing what was once state-required concurrency for transportation, parks and schools. The bill allows developers to build without making improvements on over-capacity or failing roadways, which aren’t considered when performing traffic analyses.
Calloway says the City of Tampa can’t legally require M/I Homes to make the connections, but are encouraging them to work with Pasco County, which M/I Homes says it is continuing to do so.
“I think there is more interest in making those connections than there has been,” said K-Bar Ranch attorney Donna Feldman. “I think, in time, they will occur.”
Feldman also said that at the Wesley Chapel Roadways presentation on May 29, it was shown that the majority of those on the Pasco side wanted connections.
However, that “majority” was only true for two of three potential connections — at Meadow Pointe Blvd. & K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., and Wyndfields Blvd. at K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
No indication has been given that there is enough support for the most convenient, controversial and contentious connection — between Kinnan St. and Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe. Pasco County District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who represents the area, is on record as being adamantly opposed to it. He has suggested the Pasco Board of Commissioners (BOC) may not even vote on the connections until next year.
While Moore favors only two of the three connections, the City of Tampa feels that all three connections need to be made.
But, Margelowsky isn’t convinced the Tampa City Council will hold firm on that stance. “Without requiring roads (before passing the rezoning), now Pasco County can sit on this for five years,” he said. “I know that the Wyndfields and Meadow Pointe Blvd. connections will get done, but I don’t see anybody going and actually fighting for Kinnan-Mansfield.”
Connections or no connections, Feldman said the rezoning needed to be approved. The 2,280 acres of K-Bar Ranch was annexed into Tampa in 2002 to “grow the wealth, size and import of the City of Tampa, and the City of Tampa has done that,” she said.
She said the land-use entitlements allow for far more density than what was allowed for in a 2015 rezoning of the area.
The current rezoning is for a northwest portion of land adjacent to Kinnan St., and a northeast portion of K-Bar Ranch adjacent to Morris Bridge Rd. The rest, Feldman says, already has been rezoned.
Feldman told council members that M/I Homes has done its part. The financial impact of building K-Bar Ranch Pkwy is $18.8-million, and she said that M/I Homes also donated 60 acres of K-Bar Ranch land to the city for a park, which also was more than required.
“This project, as a whole, has been mitigated over and above what is necessary to accommodate this rezoning, which really started with the annexation of this project in the early 2000s,” Feldman said as she asked the council for approval.
K-Bar already has roughly 500 homes and townhomes already built, with another 700 or so approved in 2015 — despite similar protests from residents then about a lack infrastructure and roads — that currently are under construction. The new rezoning will add nearly 700 more homes to the community, bringing the total to nearly 1,900.
Hunter’s Green resident Peter Mirones (left) listens as residents voice their concerns about bike and pedestrian safety in New Tampa, as well as about the reckless driving that Mirones and others say has contributed to some of our area’s traffic problems. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
After sitting in on a quickly organized town hall meeting called by a local resident, District 7 City of Tampa councilman Luis Viera says the next New Tampa Council (NTC) meeting could be one of its most informative, as well as most important.
On Wednesday, July 25, 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Compton Park in Tampa Palms, the NTC will host a town hall with the City of Tampa’s Transportation Department, as well as with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
Viera says that the city will discuss the new timing for the traffic signals on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., including the troublesome intersection at Cross Creek Blvd., as well as upcoming transportation projects that will affect our area.
“It’s very important for New Tampa residents to come to this meeting,” Viera says. “There are a lot of exciting and pivotal things happening in our city with regards to mass transit and transportation and we need to be updated on all these developments. And, most importantly, New Tampa residents have to be engaged, because without engagement, we will not see the results we need for our area…and our area needs results now.”
April Ingram would agree.
The K-Bar Ranch (see separate story on pg. 6) resident isn’t exactly sure when her outrage over local traffic in New Tampa boiled over.
Was it during the 30 minutes or so she says it has sometimes taken her to turn right onto Cross Creek Blvd. from BBD on her way home from the University of South Florida?
Was it the first time a car did not yield to her as she tried to walk across Kinnan St. at a designated crosswalk, or was it the second?
Was it one of the many times she’s seen cars speeding by? Or the times she has been awakened at night by the sound of car tires squealing and screeching, the result of racing down Kinnan St.? Or, just how unsafe she feels in general when she’s biking with her son or walking her dog?
Whenever it was, Ingram hosted a meeting at the New Tampa Regional Library on July 2 to find out if she was alone…and she wasn’t.
Roughly a dozen local residents from Meadow Pointe, Cory Lake Isles and Hunter’s Green showed up — including Viera and Eric Denney, an aide to District 5 Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan, as well as two Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) corporals — to sound off on traffic issues they encounter on a daily basis.
“I am pleased and happy that anyone showed up,” said Ingram. “I think this was a good start.”
Those in attendance focused primarily on many of the same issues Ingram has, as well as bicycle and pedestrian safety.
A lot of the frustration was aimed at what they feel was a lack of response to their complaints from the Tampa Police Department (TPD). Most in attendance also argued that more of a police presence in New Tampa would help deter reckless drivers.
Peter Mirones, who lives in Hunter’s Green, said he has seen a parked TPD car dramatically alter the way people drive. But, when that police car leaves, “it’s Hell’s Bells.”
Mirones, an avid bicyclist, says New Tampa is not friendly to bikers, and others agreed. The bike trail on New Tampa Blvd. is in such disrepair it is practically unusable, he said.
Mirones organized a biking event over the weekend to memorialize West Meadows resident Pedro Aguerreberry, who was killed by a driver on June 24. The ride began at the entrance to Flatwoods Park and eventually made its way down New Tampa Blvd. near where Aguerreberry was struck. Mirones said some of the police officers even suggested that the bicyclists should ride in the road because the bike path was so bad.
Others at the July 2 meeting who enjoy but also fear biking in New Tampa suggested some kind of pedestrian bridge that crosses over BBD at Richmond Place Dr. would allow safer access into Flatwoods Park for those who live on the west side of BBD. While there is a light at Richmond Place Dr., the general consensus was that it is not safe for anyone crossing BBD.
Another suggestion: New Tampa should consider installing rectangular rapid flashing beacons, or RRFBs, similar to the ones at crosswalks on E. Fletcher Ave., at some of the New Tampa area’s trouble spots.
Viera encouraged everyone to attend next week’s NTC meeting to present some of the concerns and suggestions that were raised at the meeting.
“There were some good ideas presented tonight,” Viera said. “I think the momentum has really been growing in the City of Tampa the last 6-9 months toward pedestrian safety. Meetings like this can help.”
Local restaurant favorite OTB Delights Café, which currently is located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. across the street from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, is moving a few miles up the road.
According to the county’s permitting records, OTB— which stands for Only The Best — is looking to move into the new Nye Commons Plaza on the west side of BBD, just south of S.R. 54, which is owned by Nye Commercial Developers.
Currently under a zoning review, OTB, which specializes in serving hand-crafted fresh and healthy sandwiches, wraps and salads, would take over a 1,345-sq.-ft. space in the 14,000-sq.-ft. plaza., which now has seven tenants, including Nye Commercial Developers.
“We are all filled up,” says Brent Nye, who says he still fields calls from prospective tenants.
Also potentially moving into the plaza is Board & Brush Creative Studios, which is looking to take over a 1,302-sq.-ft. space.
Board & Brush is a do-it-yourself studio, allowing customers to build “on-trend, farmhouse-classic, inspirational pieces of décor for your home, office or cottage.” Although primarily for wood projects, the studio does have other project materials, like glass, slate, canvas and others. Board & Brush is a franchise that has more than 150 locations across the U.S., including eight currently in Florida, the closest of which is in Clearwater.
Also in permitting to set up shop at the Nye Commons is Keystone Title Agency, Inc., which currently has a location in Port Richey. Avalon Spa & Nails also is opening a second Wesley Chapel location in the plaza, and Nye says a veterinarian and an insurance company have leased space as well.
BUT, ‘CHIPOTLE IS MY LIFE!’: Permitting has been filed with the county for a 15,664-sq.-ft. shell building that is likely to be a commercial strip center right off S.R. 56, in front of the soon-to-open Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center.
The strip center could be home to a number of coming projects that have been previously reported, like Golf Galaxy, Total Wine & More and Blaze Pizza. One of the rumored new restaurants coming to that side of S.R. 56, Chipotle Mexican Grill, won’t be located in the new strip center, however. According to permitting records, it will be located closer to the Earth Fare health and wellness supermarket coming to the corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd.
The Twisted Sisters, North Tampa Athletic Association 10-under softball All-Stars are headed to the Babe Ruth World Series after winning the State title July 2 in Lake City, FL.
The Twisted Sisters overcame a disappointing loss in Districts to make it all the way to the top.
After playing the District tournament at Madeira Beach and finishing second behind Bloomingdale, the New Tampa-based team came face-to-face with the Bloomingdale again in the State semifinals.
The rematch, however, went the Twisted Sisters’ way, as they knocked off Bloomingdale 4-1. In the championship game, the New/North Tampa team endured a rain and lightning delay — during which an impromptu dance-off between the teams took place — before beating West Volusia 6-1, to advance to the World Series.
In five games at the State tourney, the Sisters outscored their opposition 32-7 (all five were victories) in advancing to the World Series July 28-Aug. 4 in Jensen Beach, FL.
The team is coached by Otis Bass, with Jamie Ankers, Michael Connell, Devon Connell and Justin Horne as assistant coaches.
The Twisted Sisters are Chelsea Anderson, Jordan Ankers, Isabellarose Bass, Eliza Connell, Lola Coole, Hailey Horne, Allison McDuffie, Grace Mercado, Eliana Rivera, Willa Soorus and Skylah Stephens.
The team has set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for their World Series trip. If you would like to help, go to GoFundMe.com and search for “North Tampa Twisted Sisters.” — JCC
