The 3rd Annual Wesley Chapel Fall Jazz Festival is coming back to our area, but not to its usual locale.
After two years at the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd., the 2016 Festival will be hosted on Saturday, October 15, noon-8 p.m., by the Avalon Park West (APW) community off S.R. 54.
Located at 32659 Coldwater Creek Lp. in Wesley Chapel, Avalon Park West has held a number of successful open-to-the-pubic events, including its Fourth of July celebration, which drew a big crowd estimated at more than 2,000 people.
The Wesley Chapel Fall Jazz Festival, which is free to attend, should be another large gathering at the new development.
“The last one, we had like 5,000 people, so we’re back by popular demand,’’ says Tim Hancock, the president of Jazz Tyme Productions, which is organizing the event.
A lacrosse tournament may have bumped the festival from the District Park, but it’s all good, Hancock says, noting that the jazz festival will be combined with APW’s own Fall Festival.
“They have been trying to get me to bring it over there (to Avalon Park West) for the longest,’’ he says.
Hancock also says that this year’s festival will have bounce houses, face painting, a pumpkin patch and dozens of food vendors. But, the main draw will be the music, which will be highlighted by nationally-known smooth jazz artist Nathan Mitchell — who released his debut album “For All Eternity” in 2013 — and Tampa-based saxophonist Marlon Boone, who also plays with his R&B band City Groove.
“It’s going to be awesome,’’ Hancock says. “It will be live and smooth. This ain’t no backyard BBQ.”
Hancock is estimating a crowd of 3,000-4,000 this time around. Both the Neighborhood News & WCNT-tv will be on-site, too!
The assisted living landscape in the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa area promises to be more crowded by the end of next year, as two new facilities are scheduled to open, including the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch in Wesley Chapel.
The Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch will break ground Wednesday, Nov. 2 at 30070 State Road 56 (one-half mile east of Mansfield Blvd.) on its new, approximately 93,000 sq-ft freestanding community. The facility is dedicated to seniors who need assistance with the activities of daily living and specialized memory care services for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia. It will accommodate 100 area seniors, with private residences including 67 alcove one-bedroom or two-bedroom plans for assisted living and 33 suites for memory care.
Allan R. Brown of the Dallas, TX-based Prevarian Companies, unveiled his company’s third Beach House Assisted Living & Memory Care community — there also are locations in Jacksonville and Naples — at the Sept. 22 Economic Development Briefing put on by the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) at Pebble Creek Golf Club.
Located on S.R. 56 less than a mile east of the Shops at Wiregrass mall, the Beach House will be the largest assisted living facility in Wesley Chapel when it opens, and will have approximately 50 employees.
Amenities at Beach House Wiregrass Ranch will include a restaurant style dining room and private dining room, activities room, salon and spa, theater and outdoor living areas.
Lifecare Services, which serves more than 33,000 older adults nationwide, will serve as the operator of the Beach House.
“(We) will be applying for an extended congregate care license, which allows us to do more in an assisted living setting,’’ Brown said. There will be a nurse on staff and people to help with medications, but no medical facility.
Features Galore
Brown says the community also will have a secure, enclosed courtyard, multiple dining venues, a wellness center and even a bar. The name Beach House is meant to evoke old memories of renting a beach house for the summer. “Many of the elderly we serve have that in their family histories,” he says. “It’s a really positive memory.”
Allan R. Brown (left) of Prevarian Companies talks to local business leaders at the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Briefing last month about The Beach House at Wiregrass, which will become the fourth living assisted facility in our area when it opens in December 2017.
The newest entry in the assisted living space hopes to soon sign up its first residents for a December 2017 opening.
“It’s going to be a beautiful community and a great complement to the other things going on in Wiregrass Ranch,’’ Brown said.
The average resident in assisted living facilities, according to Brown, is an 86-year-old woman, and the average stay in a facility is 28.3 months.
The Beach House will join the three assisted living communities already located or under construction in New Tampa, including The Legacy at Highwoods Preserve , which was the first such community in the area when it opened in May of 2015.
A few months later, Memory Lane Cottage in Tampa Palms, a facility for persons with Alzheimer’s and dementia-related disease, opened with 20 private suites.
Discovery Village, which is located right across the street from Freedom High in Tampa Palms (and less than two miles from both The Legacy and Memory Lane), recently announced the opening of its on-site Preview Gallery.
If you’re wondering why so many assisted living facilities are popping up in our area, Brown cited statistics that say more than 900,000 people nationwide currently live in such settings, and the number of cases of Alzheimer’s is increasing. Brown said 5.1-million were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2010, and by 2050 that number is expected to be 13.5 million.
This $80,000+ Maserati Ghibli caused about $50,000 in property damage when it crashed into the brick monument sign at the entrance to Buckingham at Tampa Palms.
Ryan Hamaker was returning to his home in Buckingham at Tampa Palms when he caught site of a number of cars outside the entrance into his development.
The car that really caught his attention, however, was the 2015 metallic gold Maserati Ghibli planted front-first into the brick wall that once welcomed visitors to Buckingham.
“I was in complete shock,’’ said Hamaker, who is also the Home Owner’s Association president at Buckingham.
According to the Tampa Police Department, Kensington at Tampa Palms resident Mohammed Ahmed Salti was traveling west on Tampa Palms Blvd. when he failed to notice a red pick-up truck with a trailer carting three large drums that was pulling out of Buckingham and turning east on Sept. 17.
Surveillance video, viewed by the Neighborhood News, doesn’t appear to show Salti making any attempt to veer out of the way, but the Maserati clipped the back passenger’s side of the trailer and was redirected into a brick wall on the west side of the entrance.
“We had a contractor coming out of the gate,” Hamaker said. “In his own version (of the story), he saw the car and he had plenty of time to pull out, he just didn’t realize the guy was just flying.”
No one was injured in the crash.
But, some Buckingham residents have been left wondering what might have happened. They shudder to consider that the Maserati, which is valued at roughly $80,000-$90,000, flew through a corner that serves as a school bus stop for Liberty Middle School and is heavily populated on weekday mornings.
“That’s the first thing I thought,’’ said Jennifer Evans, whose 11- and 13-year-old sons wait on that corner in the mornings for the bus. “Someone could have gotten killed. It’s crazy.”
Evans was returning home from errands when she saw police cars.
“I was a little curious why there was a gold car decorating our signage,’’ she said.
Since the brakes were never applied before the car crashed, if the wall hadn’t been there, it is likely the Maserati would have ended up in the backyard, and maybe the bedroom, of its residents, said a homeowner named Kulendrian, who asked us to not use his last name.
“I heard a big noise,” he said. “I didn’t really know what happened. It was right behind my bedroom. Without the tree and landscape, my property would have been hit.”
Bricks did fly into the side of his house and also damaged his pool cage. Oftentimes, Kulendrian’s mother-in-law would be tending to plants in that area.
“Thank God that nobody was there,’’ he said.
Kulendrian says he and his wife often hear the sounds of cars screaming down Tampa Palms Blvd., and sometimes rush to their upstairs window to catch a glimpse of who it is.
“You just hear the zoom,’’ he says.
Police say Salti was traveling the posted speed limit of 40 mph when he struck the trailer, although it is impossible to tell his exact speed. Those who have viewed the surveillance video say it appears he was traveling faster.
The wall was destroyed. Almost two weeks after the accident, Hamaker says Salti’s car insurance company, Progressive, is refusing to pay to rebuild it.
Hamaker estimates the wall damage at $45,000. It is composed of real brick, not stucco or veneer. Some of those brick pieces hit the house behind the wall, and one large chunk of brick came to rest on the hood of the Maserati and was too heavy to move off without mechanical assistance.
He said all Tampa Palms properties have special computer-engraved monument signs and that the engraving alone costs more than $13,000.
Hamaker said there also was damage done to the lights, as the Maserati hit the external power supply, and busted the city water main that is used for the landscaping.
“There was a water spout when we moved the car,’’ Hamaker said.
He was also frustrated because Buckingham HOA just had the entire front of the entrance re-landscaped, at a cost of $8,000, two days before the Maserati crashed over it.
Speeding cars ripping through Tampa Palms Blvd., especially near Buckingham and Tuscany, is a growing concern. Tampa Palms Blvd. is a collector road, so no speed bumps, stop signs or lights are permitted. The road is a long, curved two-lane stretch of semi-clear sailing that Hamaker and other residents complain is a popular choice for some of the souped-up cars in the area.
“We definitely have a problem with speeders,’’ Hamaker said. “They all tend to be these exotic cars around Tampa Palms. Most concerning is that Tampa Palms is loaded with kids. In fact, on Saturdays and Sundays, it is not uncommon for my wife and our two kids to be out there cycling. And, the fact that this was right over a school bus stop is even scarier.”
Evans said there is a huge walking path along Tampa Palms Blvd., and on most days, kids are biking, joggers are running and families are walking their dogs on the path.
“The driver of that car was so unimaginably lucky that there was no one walking through or parked there,’’ Evans said. “It could have been a huge disaster.”
Hamaker says that the HOA at Buckingham has hired off duty police officers twice a month the past few years to monitor the speeds in his community, and tickets have been issued in the past. While that may annoy some people, Hamaker said the sight of the metallic gold Maserati Ghibli slammed into a brick wall just a few feet from a school bus stop is a stark reminder of what could have been.
As more homes and businesses go up in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) in Wesley Chapel, the more attractive the area becomes.
Those prospects excite the new home builders in the master-planned community, like Lennar, which is currently building 118 townhomes and 29 single-family homes in The Arbors at Wiregrass, located on Cozy Creek Dr. near Estancia at Wiregrass, just off Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
“What’s unique about the Wiregrass Ranch experience is the beauty,” says Steve Seeger, the director of sales and marketing in Lennar’s Tampa division. “There are certain parcels of land that are inherently beautiful…I think this is one of them.”
The Porter family, stewards of the 5,000+ acres of land in the Wiregrass Ranch DRI, has carefully and methodically developed the land. There’s a lot to like about the Wiregrass Ranch community, from the Shops at Wiregrass mall to Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel to coming attractions like a new indoor athletic complex (see pg. 6) and a new movie theater.
New schools are another piece of the DRI pie at Wiregrass Ranch, and with that, come new communities.
“It really was an intersection, no pun intended, of a great location and a great parcel of land that has beautiful characteristics, and is located in the path of growth,’’ Seeger says. Lennar’s latest offering — it currently is building in eight other developments in Pasco County, including Meadow Pointe and Union Park (both in Wesley Chapel) — will feature three products, ranging in sizes small, medium and large, from 1,800-sq.ft. to nearly 2,500-sq.-ft.
There will be attached three-bedroom, 2.5-bath townhomes — one built with two-car garage access from an alley behind the townhome, and the other featuring front access. The townhomes range in size from 1,801-2,466 square feet.
The single-family homes range from 1,982 square feet (with three bedrooms and two bathrooms) to 2,462 square feet (with four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms) and have detached two-car garages behind the house with open-air breezeways connecting to the home and serving as an outdoor living space.
All told, there are 10 different floor plans in The Arbors.
Pricing starts at just under $200,000, which is a point that makes The Arbors an attractive entryway into a bustling area.
“(Buyers) don’t have to wait to purchase a luxury home that might be too aspirational for them,’’ Seeger says. “Instead of something that might be years down the road for them, we give them an opportunity to live in Wiregrass now.”
There are already 15 homes completed in the community, with roughly another 100 planned to begin construction this year. A handful of residents have already moved in — Traci Moore and her family were among the first, moving down from Michigan after looking at more than 70 homes in several cities.
“The layout of the home was different than any other home we saw while looking to move to Florida,’’ Traci said in a Lennar press release. “We loved the spacious, open floor plan, and the detached garage connected by a breezeway adds a level of privacy that you don’t always find in residential communities. This home was exactly what we were looking for.”
Each home in The Arbors also is part of Lennar’s “Everything’s Included” program, another feature that Seeger thinks distinguishes the Lennar brand.
“It’s very significant that we include the washer, dryer, refrigerator, window blinds, front and rear landscape and irrigation system,’’ he says.
People like Moore will be able to grow with their new community. As the area continues to expand, so will the desire of even more home shoppers to live here.
“There’s a point where the builders, in the infancy of a community, it’s a bit about the product and what can I get at this location, what’s the price of it?,’’ Seeger says. “And,there’s the exceptional communities, where the community becomes the attraction and becomes the magnet. There will be a point in time when people come in and tell us, ‘I am only considering Wiregrass.’”
For more information, visit Lennar.com. The Welcome Center at The Arbors at Wiregrass is located at 28493 Cozy Creek Dr., and can be reached by phone at (844) 483-1935.
Is the Macy’s at the Shops at Wiregrass mall off S.R. 56 on the chopping block?
The department store chain announced in August that it will be closing 100 stores by next year, and the news doesn’t seem to be good for the Macy’s location in Wiregrass.
Morningstar Credit Ratings has identified 28 Macy’s locations with sales below the company’s national average (for 2014, the most recent year information was available), putting the stores at a higher risk of being one of the 100 to be shuttered.
The Wiregrass Macy’s is No. 8 on that list. According to the report, Macy’s reported $118 in sales per square feet. The average for Macy’s overall in 2014 was $169 per sq. ft.
The Macy’s at Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque, NM, is at the highest risk of closure, with only $76 in sales per square foot. The 28th, or last store on Morningstar’s list, is Marrimack Premium Outlets in New Hampshire, with $166 in sales per sq. ft.
The only other Macy’s on the list of 28 underperforming stores that is located in Florida is at the Lakeland Square Mall on U.S. Hwy. 98 in Lakeland.
Macy’s, which currently has 728 total stores nationwide, is one of the anchors — the “big name” stores that are generally considered paramount to a mall’s success — at the Shops at Wiregrass. Losing an anchor can have a big impact on a mall’s numbers, although it’s not usually a fatal effect.
The Morningstar report states, “However, if a mall is hit by two or more anchor closures, that’s typically the beginning of a downward spiral.”
In Other News…
North Tampa Behavioral Health (NTBH), located on S.R. 56, less than two miles east of the Shops at Wiregrass, broke ground on August 15, as the 53,000-sq.-ft. facility begins a 27,500-sq.-ft. expansion.
Representatives from the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC) and the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) were on hand to mark the new construction.
According to the EDC, the project is expected to bring $10 million in investment and 50 jobs to Pasco County. The Pasco EDC assisted the company in obtaining expedited permitting.
“We are extremely excited to be able to meet the needs of our community through our expansion,’’ said Abbey Brown, director of business development for NTBH, in a press release. “From our veteran and active duty population, to our local area, this project will assist in offering additional services to our growing community.”
NTBH is a private, inpatient mental health and substance abuse treatment center.The facility currently has 75 beds and addresses a range of behavioral issues, including depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and others.
The expansion will add 24 beds, with “shell” space for 24 additional beds in the future. The first phase is set to grow NTBH’s C.O.R.E. (“Challenge. Overcome. Restore. Empower”) program, which addresses the needs of the area’s veteran population.
Construction on the site actually began on August 22 and is expected to be complete in approximately nine months, or sometime around May 2017.
For additional information, visit NorthTampaBehavioralHealth.com.
The 3rd Annual Wesley Chapel Fall Jazz Festival is coming back to our area, but not to its usual locale.
No one was injured in the crash.
“Thank God that nobody was there,’’ he said.
As more homes and businesses go up in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) in Wesley Chapel, the more attractive the area becomes.
Is the Macy’s at the Shops at Wiregrass mall off S.R. 56 on the chopping block?
According to the EDC, the project is expected to bring $10 million in investment and 50 jobs to Pasco County. The Pasco EDC assisted the company in obtaining expedited permitting.