Casiani Contreras spent a lot of his time in college drinking coffee.
In between earning marketing and finance degrees from Florida International University in Miami, Contreras would spend his time studying at Macondo, a local coffee shop. He would start his day with a coffee and maybe a breakfast sandwich and, by lunchtime, he was ready for a smoothie and perhaps a quinoa bowl.
“I probably went there 100 times,” he says, and can still remember the smell of the coffee beans as they were being roasted.
Now, Contreras, 29, owns his coffee shop. On Sept. 19, he opened up Macondo Coffee Roasters in the former location of Degajé, in The Village at The Grove.
The night before, Contreras and his wife Anna (photo), his dad, mom and uncle put the finishing touches on the place around 1 a.m. The entire project was a labor of love, with help from his family and business partner Rommel Medina.
In the era of massive chains like Starbucks dominating the coffee market, Macondo is a nice change of pace. The Colombian coffee is painstakingly sourced and brewed — the cold brew is a 12-hour process – and the decor is hip and urban and, like everything at The Grove, Instagrammable. Contreras hired someone from Miami to put the impressive menu on the chalkboard behind the counter. It took two days to complete.
On it you can see a variety of hand-brewed 100% Colombian coffees, breakfast and lunch sandwiches and wraps, paninis, salads, healthy bowls and smoothies.
Contreras made Macondo in Wesley Chapel happen. He said he sent the owner of the original four stores in the Miami area a long email, telling him one day he’d love to own a store of his own. He encouraged them to franchise, and they granted his wish.
But until he moved to Wesley Chapel, because he says he liked the vibe, finding a place to open his Macondo proved elusive. He visited over 10 potential locations, but none of them worked. While he looked, he would often spend his day working (he owns a logistics company) at Degajé.
Then one day, after putting his dream on hold for six months, he found the perfect place. “I was on Google, I don’t remember the actual website, but I saw this place listed for sale and was like, Oh my God,” Contreras says. “I knew it was the one near my house (in Epperson). And, I liked the place!”
So, three months ago, Contreras purchased Degajé and, with a lot of hard work and long hours, turned it into Macondo.
“It was just super meant to be” Contreras says. For more information about Macondo Wesley Chapel (6027 Wesley Grove Blvd., Suite 101), visit MacondoCoffee.com or call (813) 991-5010.
Ken Hagan (right photo, center) talks to K-Bar Ranch residents at a recent town hall held in the community.
In 2002, when Ken Hagan first entered politics, north Hillsborough County, including New Tampa, was a Republican stronghold.
But the times, they have-a-changed.
Nowadays, not only is Hillsborough County blue, with 50,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, but New Tampa also has followed suit.
But, that’s not all. In addition to New Tampa’s already blue-ish tint, Hagan was dealt a blow when District 2 was redrawn earlier this year, moving out some of the more reliable Republican voters. As a result, Hagan is feeling the pinch as the General Election on Tuesday, November 8, draws nearer (with early voting running from October 24-November 6, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.).
His campaign to hold onto his District 2 seat, which represents most of the New Tampa area he used to live in, has been the most difficult of his career.
“The district has shifted,” Hagan says. “But, we’re still confident we will win.”
Hagan, who grew up in Carrollwood but lived in New Tampa for more than a decade, won his first election for the District 2 seat in 2002 by more than 17,000 votes. In 2004, he defended that seat with a victory margin of nearly 30,000.
In 2010, he ran for the countywide District 5 seat, and defeated Linda Saul-Sena by 32,000 votes.
A prolific fund raiser who quickly became one of Tampa Bay’s most powerful politicians, Hagan ran for the District 2 seat again in 2018 and was expected to win easily.
However, he was nearly washed out in a blue wave. Political neophyte Angela Birdsong was outspent $500,000-$30,000 but only lost by 6,000 votes, or 52%-48%.
It was shocking, and so was this: Hagan only won two New Tampa precincts, and Birdsong received 3,000 more votes overall from New Tampa residents.
Hagan, however, continued to push for some big ticket items in New Tampa. The New Tampa Performing Arts Center held its ribbon cutting last week, and Hagan has been working on that project for two decades.
Branchton Park off Morris Bridge Rd. is getting a massive upgrade, and the county broke ground on that project last month. And, Hagan is pushing forward with plans to build New Tampa’s first indoor recreation facility in the Cross Creek area, hoping to break ground early next year.
Hagan has a beefed-up resume to show New Tampa voters.
Angela Birdsong (center), with Hillsborough County commissioners Mariella Smith (left) and Pat Kemp.
And, he has raised $397,560 – far more than any other county commissioner running this election cycle — while Birdsong has raised only $65,590. Hagan also had outspent Birdsong through Oct. 7 by a $56,000-37,000 margin.
But will it be enough?
New district maps may provide Birdsong with the last little push she needs to knock Hagan off the County Commission, which is controlled by Democrats.
The map proposed by Commissioner Pat Kemp — which despite objections by commissioners Hagan, Republican Stacy White and Democrat Gwen Myers — passed by a 4-3 vote earlier this year and removed GOP-voting areas in Seffner, Valrico and Thonotosassa from District 2, while adding a large swath of the more Democratic-leaning University of South Florida area.
Hagan says the whole process was “offensive” and called it “the most partisan political exercise I’ve gone through.”
Birdsong, 61, acknowledges that the new maps helped her make the decision to run again, with the district shifting from +2 percentage points for Republican voters to +7 percentage points for registered Democrats.
“It’s going to be a footrace,” she says. “But, we like our chances. It looks very good for us.”
An insurance agent and mother of one, Birdsong said she has campaigned on many of the same issues she did in 2018, namely transportation, workforce training and affordable housing.
She has also made a concerted effort to reach out to minority groups that she feels are growing in northern Hillsborough County but are unrepresented in the county.
She has met with Caribbean-Hispanic, Muslim and LGBTQ groups, and continues to try and draw as many different underrepresented voters into her campaign as possible.
“I really would like to do more to help minority businesses do business with Hillsborough County,” Birdsong says. “I really want to work with minority young people entering high-paying union jobs. You know who can pay the rent? People with high-paying jobs.”
Birdsong has lobbed familiar charges at Hagan — that he is beholden to developers, for one — and says it’s time for a change. Hagan has served as a county commissioner for 20 years, and Birdsong says she will bring a fresh perspective to the area’s changing landscape and needs.
“He’s a career politician,” Birdsong says. “It’s time for him to retire.”
Hagan, however, says his experience has yielded a number of improvements in his district, especially for New Tampa. A longtime advocate and key player in the widening of Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Hagan always has been active in our area.
While larger issues involving inflation, immigration and abortion dominate the national landscape and make separating Democrats and Republicans easy, the effect county commissioners can have on those issues is minimal. That’s why Hagan says blue wave or red wave, local voters should focus on results.
“The reality is, with local government, people shouldn’t look as hard at partisanship,” Hagan says. “The governor, President, Congress, I get it. But locally, it should be, man, who is going to deliver the goods? And I’ve done that.”
When the plans were unveiled for AdventHealth (then Florida Hospital) Wesley Chapel a decade ago, there was no question that Wesley Chapel’s first hospital was much needed in the growing community.
But, Dr. Robert Rosequist, the Chief Medical Officer at AHWC, said he didn’t expect the response the hospital received when it opened its doors for tours a week ahead of its Oct. 1, 2012, official opening.
“We thought maybe 1,000 people might come, but 8,000 showed up,” says Dr. Rosequist. To accommodate everyone, partly due to an elevator that could only take up 20 people at a time, the tours lasted from 7:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. Some people waited in line for more than an hour.
Dr. Rosequist thought he’d be home in time for the Tampa Bay Bucs Monday Night Football game against the St. Louis Rams that night. But, when his wife called asking where he was, he told her he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to make it.
Ten years later, Dr. Rosequist, who is still the hospital’s chief medical officer, says that day was just the beginning of something special. “It has been a wonderful experience,” Dr. Rosequist says. “The 10 years have just flown by.”
Thousands lined up for hours for the chance to tour the newly opened Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, now AdventHealth Wesley Chapel. (Neighborhood News files)
AHWC may not have been the first large business in Wesley Chapel, but you could argue that, to date, it has made the most impact.
Although the Porter family also has seen the development of a college, a major indoor athletic complex and a mall in its Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact, developer JD Porter always points to the hospital when asked what his family’s greatest contribution to the area has been. Built on the very land Porter grew up on, with contributions from Tom Dempsey at Saddlebrook Resort and many others, AHWC gave the local community a place to go for medical (including emergency medical) services and has proven to be an anchor for the community.
“I think we were really the catalyst for the growth here in Wesley Chapel,” says Connie Bladon, the director of community outreach for AHWC. “When you think back to when we built the hospital, there wasn’t much around us. When the hospital went in, everyone felt more comfortable moving into the area. You always want a good hospital, (as well as) good schools, safety and security, things like that. Having the hospital here catapulted the growth of Wesley Chapel. Everything (else has) sprung up around us.”
Dr. Robert B Rosequist
Dr. Rosequist feels that the hospital has achieved many of its goals, especially those established when it changed over from Florida Hospital to AdventHealth Wesley Chapel on Jan. 2, 2019. He says that when the change was made, AHWC’s management came up with four main things that people wanted in their medical care: to feel safe, to feel loved, that doctors were accountable for their care and for it to be as easy as possible to get that care.
“If you can do those four things,” Rosequist says, “everybody is going to love you.”
In 10 years, the hospital definitely has made its mark, not just by marketing its name on facilities like the Center Ice skating rink complex and the indoor basketball arena at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County (both off of S.R. 56), but with medical services that have been lauded nationwide.
Since opening, the hospital has invested more than a total of $400 million in expansion and additional services to provide its award-winning care to more than 800,000 patients. To name a few, AHWC doctors have performed more than 56,000 surgeries and delivered more than 5,000 babies.
A few months after opening, the doors swung open in early 2013 to the hospital’s popular 100,000-sq.-ft. health & wellness center, which is now called the AdventHealth Wellness Plaza Wesley Chapel.
There’s more to come, too. AHWC was designed for growth to accompany the incoming (and still ongoing) Wesley Chapel housing boom. Rosequist, who was on the planning board, said its familiar U-shape was designed to look like the open arms of Jesus, with the intention of having six stories on each of the three wings — north, central and south.
Originally, it opened with just three stories and 83 total beds, because AdventHealth management wasn’t sure how fast the hospital would grow. It turned out to be very fast, indeed.
Including a major expansion in 2016, AHWC has grown from 83 beds to 169, from four operating rooms to 12, and from 20 emergency room beds to 35. There is still room for the hospital to expand to 300 total beds.
AdventHealth also has added the Central Pasco Free Standing Emergency Department into the Lutz community and two medical office buildings adjacent to the hospital, the Wellness Plaza and, in 2021, when AHWC teamed up with the Moffitt Cancer Center on a new three-story, 100,000-sq.-ft. outpatient cancer and research center.
AHWC was named as one of Newsweek’s Best Maternity Hospitals and the team delivered more than 100 babies in August 2022 alone, a new record for the facility.
The hospital has also achieved 14 consecutive Leapfrog ‘A’ grades, the only rating system focused exclusively on hospital safety.
And, when it comes to community partnerships, AHWC is all in, having provided more than $307 million in community benefit services.
The hospital helped usher the community through the Covid-19 pandemic, and the community responded by providing meals for overworked doctors and nurses during the most desperate months of the pandemic.
“Being the first hospital out here was just gratifying, being a part of that,” Dr. Rosequist says. “I’m just so glad the community dug in with us and helped and watched us grow.”
For more information about AdventHealth Wesley Chapel (2600 BBD Blvd.), call (813) 929-5000 or visit AdventHealth.com.
A new updated entrance is one of the upgrades GL Homes is touting in its efforts to court Pebble Creek residents.
Save or develop?
Over the next year, those are the questions to be answered when it comes to what to do with the shuttered Pebble Creek Golf Club golf course.
The debate is ongoing.
On Oct. 4, a Save Pebble Creek Rally was held at the Glory Days Grill on Bruce B. Downs, and co-organizer and Pebble Creek resident Leslie Green said she was pleased to draw a bigger crowd than expected — roughly 130 people.
The most important guest, however, may have been Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, whose District 2 includes Pebble Creek and the rest of unincorporated New Tampa.
Hagan could play a key role in the decision whether or not to grant developers — currently GL Homes — the zoning they will need to build new homes on the 149 acres of what are now overgrown greens and fairways.
If Hagan is reelected in November, he will vote “yes” or “no,” along with the other six county commissioners, likely sometime next year if GL Homes proceeds with its plans.
County commissioner Ken Hagan attended the Save Pebble Creek rally and spoke with constituents, including group leader s Jen Solano (left) and Leslie Green (right).
Hagan said he hasn’t made any decision yet, but Green said he talked with almost everyone who showed up to the rally and feels he is on the Save Pebble Creek side.
“I feel that he is 100 percent on our side,” said Green, who has lived on the golf course for 30 years and has run the Save Pebble Creek Facebook page since 2019. “I have a feeling that he’s sincere in what he’s saying to us, and he understands the situation. He will do what the community wants, so the community needs to be showing him what they want.”
What the entire community wants remains to be seen. Green is part of the smaller Pebble Creek Village Home Owners Association (PCV HOA), which represents 303 homes. PCV HOA president Jen Solano was the Save Pebble Creek rally co-organizer.
Another 1,050 homes are in the larger Pebble Creek HOA.
A week after the Save Pebble Creek rally, GL Homes held two meetings — one by zoom on Oct. 13, and an open house at the Hilton Garden Inn in Wesley Chapel on Oct. 15 — to make its case as it considers whether to enter into a deal with Bill Place, who owns the golf course, which he closed on July 31, 2021.
While GL Homes has issued surveys and held a number of smaller focus-group meetings with residents, both of its events last week were open to everyone. Most of the information also is available online at PebbleCreekFacts.com.
According to GL Homes, Pebble Creek’s land use is Res-4, meaning four homes per acre (nearly 600) can be built on the 149 acres. However, GL Homes says it only plans to build roughly 250 single-family one- and two-story homes, leaving 69 acres of open space.
Place says that is a compromise for those residents opposed to development because of the loss of green space.
Pebble Creek Golf Club owner Bill Place says that GL Homes would help ensure residents still had a view (above rendering) that compares favorably to the old golf course.
Some of that open space will consist of four passive parks, tennis courts and other amenities. according to Place. “I love what I’m seeing so far,” he says.
Place said GL Homes intends to convert 17 acres into lakes, including a fishing area. “They want the residents who had the golf course view to have nice water views,” he says.
Although it is unclear if a formal vote of residents will ever be taken, Place says he is feeling more support now that some of GL Homes’ plans have been laid out.
Green, however, says GL Homes is just attempting a “brainwashing” and the residents she has spoken to are unimpressed.
“They tell me there’s nothing there that would change their minds,” Green said. GL Homes, if it proceeds, would likely file plans with the county in early 2023, setting off a process that would take 6-9 months. Eventually, it will come before the County Commission, which would vote on the development.
Until then, the debate will go on.
Hagan said ultimately he will support whatever is determined to be best for Pebble Creek residents. He said, however, that he did tell rally-goers to buckle up.
“I told them if they oppose this, they need to be prepared for a long-term fight,” Hagan says. “This is going to take quite some time.”
At the Sept. 22 VIP pre-opening event of the new El Dorado furniture store on S.R. 54 at Wesley Chapel Blvd., (above) the ribbon-cutting was celebrated with a shower of streamers.
El Dorado Furniture store, which opened the weekend of Sept. 24, has taken the furniture store concept and glamorized it.
At a VIP event on Sept. 22, flutes of champagne and strawberries were handed to guests entering the massive 70,000-sq.-ft. store, which was alive with bright lights, a live band and a number of spreads of food. Even so, it was impossible to miss the sprawling rooms of elegant furniture throughout Wesley Chapel’s newest business, located at 25171 S.R. 54 (technically in Land O’Lakes), across from Miller’s Ale House.
The weekend of its opening, the first 200 families that arrived received $200 gift cards; the first 100 on Sunday received a free comforter set.
Weekend visitors to the two-story showroom were treated to an experience, something that is not offered by other furniture stores. Instead of walking aimlessly between living and dining room set-ups, you are taken down El Dorado Blvd., a strip resembling an old-fashioned city street, right down to the benches and street lamps. Stained glass and Egyptian hieroglyphics dot the facades. The “boulevard” winds around the showroom, opening up to what feels like individually themed furniture shops, more than 20 in all, offering a stunning array of high-end offerings.
El Dorado, which offers same-day delivery service to a fairly wide area, carries its signature Carlo Perazzi collection, its top seller, as well as others. It is truly a showroom that you need to see to believe.
And, every business needs a good story, and here’s El Dorado’s:
In 1966, Manuel Capó, the son of Simon Capó, who started Casa Capó in Cuba in the 1920s, fled Cuba after the Castro regime rose to power. He and two of his sons, Luis and Carlos, escaped on a small sailboat named “El Dorado.”
Just seven months after arriving in the U.S., Manuel and his sons opened their first furniture in the heart of the Little Havana neighborhood in Miami and named it after the boat on which they sailed to freedom — El Dorado.
El Dorado Furniture has grown into the largest Hispanic-owned furniture retail enterprise in the U.S. The Wesley Chapel location is the second in the Tampa Bay area, and El Dorado has 18 showrooms across Florida.
The store’s hours are Mon.-Sun., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. For more information, visit ElDoradoFurniture.com or call (813) 440-6999. —John C. Cotey; photos by Charmaine George
