Dusted off, cleaned up and renovated by developer Mark Gold after landing on the bankruptcy heap due to coronavirus in 2020, The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment has been turned over to B&B Theatres, which will take over operations of the complex.
The 16-screen theater will be renamed B&B Theatres The Grove 16 at Wesley Chapel. According to a press release, the new company plans on spending $1.5 million in upgrades, which will include replacing the seating in the downstairs theaters with reclining chairs similar to the ones used upstairs. Other renovations and amenities will be announced in the future.
Founded in 1924, B&B Theatres is a family-owned and operated theater chain based in Liberty, Mo. It is the fifth-largest theater chain in North America, with 517 screens at 56 locations in Kansas, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Georgia. The Grove will be the fifth Florida location.
SideSplitters Comedy Club will continue to offer comedy shows and Cycle Cinema, featuring spin bikes inside the theater, still plans to open.
We will have more information in our upcoming Wesley Chapel edition on Oct. 26.
Due to concrete beams being set for the new Overpass Rd. bridge on I-75 in Wesley Chapel, the Florida Department of Transportation says to expect detours this weekend.
Southbound detour
Southbound I-75 traffic will be detoured off the interstate at exit 285, or S.R. 52 between 9 p.m. Friday night, Oct. 15 and 9 a.m. Saturday morning, Oct. 16. Travelers who get off on exit 285 will turn right onto S.R. 52 and continue for approximately one-half mile. At the next traffic signal (Old Pasco Road), turn left and go south on Old Pasco Road for approximately 6.75 miles to S.R. 54/C.R. 54. Turn left at the traffic signal onto S.R. 54/C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. and continue east about 7/10s of a mile to re-enter southbound I-75.
Northbound detour
Northbound I-75 traffic will be detoured off the interstate at S.R. 54/C.R. 54 between 9 p.m. Saturday night, Oct. 16 and 9 a.m. Sunday morning, Oct. 17. At the bottom of the ramp, turn left onto S.R. 54/C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Boulevard and continue west about 8/10ths of a mile to Old Pasco Rd. At the traffic signal for Old Pasco Rd., turn right and go north for approximately 6.75 miles to S.R. 52. Turn right at the traffic signal onto S.R. 52 and go east about 3/4 mile. After passing under I-75, turn left onto the entrance ramp to re-enter northbound I-75.
FDOT asks drivers to be careful on Old Pasco Rd., which is one lane in each direction and will be congested during the hours of the tour. Motorists are urged to plan plenty of extra time to drive the detour and return to the interstate or consider alternate routes. Law enforcement officers and traffic management personnel will be active along the detour route to assist with traffic flow, as well as detour signs and message boards.
Kobé Japanese Steak House’s move to its new location at the former Vuelo’s Mexican Grill on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (above) is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Kobé Japanese Steak House, which has been located at the corner of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and Pebble Creek Dr. since 2011, is moving down the road to the old Vuelo’s/Señor T’s/Romano’s Macaroni Grill site in front of New Tampa’s Home Depot.
According to Hien Nguyen, a spokesperson for the family-owned mini-chain, as soon as remodeling is completed on the former Vuelo’s, Kobé “will transition from our current location.”
Nguyen says the new location, “will be larger to accommodate our growing team and business. We aim to transition by the end of this year.”
The new site for Kobé is 7,000 square feet — giving the restaurant roughly 1,000 more square feet to accommodate a larger kitchen for it’s growing to-go business —and offers more parking.
The successful and highly-rated Japanese steak house, one of 12 located in Florida, is now going to try to succeed where others have not when it moves into the former Vuelo’s Mexican Restaurant location, which was previously Señor T’s and before that Macaroni Grill, which closed in 2013.
Señor T’s opened in November 2015 but was poorly received and scathingly reviewed by many. It failed to make it through even a year, closing its doors for good in July 2016.
The Mexican eatery was rebranded, redesigned and opened with a new, but still Mexican-based, menu as Vuelo’s a few months later, in November. But, whether it was the food or the location, Vuelo’s died out just over a year later and the restaurant has been empty since 2018.
Can another restaurant succeed in that seemingly cursed location, which can be difficult to get in and out of from BBD?
Probably, considering that Chili’s has had staying power right next door. Plus, Kobé has an established reputation and is popular in New Tampa (at least according to our annual Reader Surveys, which always give the restaurant high marks). And, according to 2,756 Google ratings, Kobé has a 4.7 out of 5 rating. Yelp reviewers give Kobé 4 out of 5 stars.
In addition, Kobé has been the most successful/longest lasting of all of the restaurants to have come and gone from its location in front of the Pebble Creek Collection.
The saga began when Tampa Bay media personality Jack Harris leant his name to (and co-owned) Harris & Co., the original restaurant in Kobé’s location, which opened to rave reviews in 1997 but closed in 2000. But, Harris & Co. would just be the first of five restaurants in the building, which also has been home to Durango Steak House (2000-02, 2003), the Durango-owned Sammy Frogs (2004) and Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse (2006-11) prior to Wasabi selling its spot to Kobé.
“Last year wasn’t…that good. I didn’t run a very good race at Regionals. But it definitely motivated me on a new level . Not making it to State probably helped me. It got me more fired up for track.”
— Cypress Creek High junior Zack Poekert
For most cross country runners, the offseason is all about putting in the miles. However, after putting in the miles before his sophomore season, Cypress Creek’s Zack Poekert switched things up a bit for 2021.
Instead, the Coyotes junior built more “tempo” runs — longer distances at a slower pace, shorter distances at a faster pace — into his training regimen and the results are paying off this season.
After winning a preseason jamboree in Palmetto — his first-ever first-place finish in high school — Zack reeled off four straight top-5 finishes against stiff competition, including a first-place finish at the River Ridge Invitational, and has emerged as a State contender in Class 3A.
Getting in the tempo work this summer, he says, has made him stronger and more confident.
“I notice the difference,” he says. “It made me a lot more confident going into these meets knowing that my training was there, and that I could compete with these (other runners) now.”
Zack Poekert (left), with coach John Hoffman, after his fifth-place finish at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3 (Photos courtesy of the Poekerts)
Zack, who broke 17 minutes for the first time at the jamboree, broke 16 minutes for the first time when he ran a 15:58 to finish fifth at the Florida Horse Park Invitational in Ocala on Sept. 3.
Zack has been ranked as high as No. 18 in the state according to flrunners.com, and earlier this season had the third-best time in Class 3A.
Zack says his goal this year is to run a 15:30, a steep drop from the 16:30 or so he has been averaging. But, he is motivated and ran a 15:43 in his River Ridge win.
He was a freshman on the Coyotes team that made it to the State meet in 2019, and as a sophomore in 2020 helped the team win its first-ever district championship. However, the Coyotes did not qualify for a return trip to States, and Zack just missed going as an individual.
A strong track season (4:28 in the mile, 9:48 in the two-mile) has him ready for a bounce back.
Zack’s passion for running started when he was younger, running with his mother Ronda, a former track and cross country standout for Plant, who helped the Panthers to the 1991 and ‘92 State cross country championships.
When Ronda got back into running after years away from the sport, Zack asked if he could join her. Together, they trained and eventually ran in a handful of 5K races, like Miles for Moffitt and Gasparilla. Eventually, Zack got to the point where he was leaving Ronda in the dust.
“I would see him at the beginning of the race, and at the end of the race,” says Ronda, laughing.
His passion for the sport, however, grew quickly during his freshman year at Cypress Creek, buoyed by his trip to the State meet.
Ronda gives credit for Zack’s success to his coaches, John Hoffman and Elsa Rehberg, and dad Bryan will occasionally go over the course with his son.
When Ronda does have a tip to lend, it’s usually about the mental aspect of racing, and strategy. Primarily, running your own race even if the rest of the field decides to go out either too fast or too slow, and then maintaining where your tempo needs to be during the race, is paramount to success, she says.
“It’s 100 percent,” Ronda says. “If you let that slip throughout the race, it can throw off everything.”
That’s good advice in a tough District 3A-2, which features last year’s State runner-up Sunlake High and standouts like Colby Robbins and Alex Pena. Poekert already has run against both at multiple meets this season, finishing behind them by roughly 10 seconds in a few races, with more head-to-head opportunities to come. That competition will make Poekert, and the rest of the Coyotes, better by season’s end.
Poekert says he is looking forward to the challenge.
“Our team is really young but you can see that they are starting to get really good,” Poekert says. “But if we don’t go as a team, I plan on getting back to States as an individual. My goal is to run that 15:30, and be All-State at the State meet.”
Construction crews, large machinery and those all-too-familiar bright orange cones have returned to the intersection of S.R. 56 and I-75, as work on the much-anticipated Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) has finally and officially resumed.
Superior Construction Company Southeast, LLC, was chosen by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and surety bond companies to replace D.A.B. Constructors, which defaulted on the project on July 1 and went out of business shortly thereafter.
D.A.B. defaulted on six other projects in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties, including the S.R. 54 widening project from east of Curley Rd. to east of Morris Bridge Rd.
D.A.B. told FDOT on July 28 it could not afford to complete the S.R. 54 widening, due in part to penalties incurred by missing benchmarks on the DDI project.
Superior began work to complete the $36-million DDI on Sept. 13, which included mobilization of labor, equipment and materials, erosion control, survey, jobsite cleanup of debris and office setup. Full maintenance responsibility was transferred to the new contractor on Sept. 20.
The project, originally scheduled for completion before the end of 2021, is now expected to be finished within 10 months, likely in the summer of 2022, said FDOT spokesperson Kris Carson in an email.
Superior also currently is working on the realignment of S.R. 52 in eastern Pasco County. Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore represents District 2, where the DDI is located, and he said he was happy with the choice.
“I’ve heard great things about them,” Moore said. “And they are actually ahead of pace on the S.R. 52 project, so that’s a good sign.”
Stepping into a new project that already was more than halfway finished is unusual but not unprecedented in the construction business, especially considering the effect that Covid-19 and staffing issues have had on the entire construction industry.
“While this process is not how a typical FDOT project is executed, there are procedures in place for replacing a contractor,” Carson said. “It will take the new contractor some time (a few weeks) to clean up items from the previous contractor in order to complete the new work items. The new contractor evaluates the remaining work items and prices the items that are left to complete. Superior has already mobilized a staff and are in the process of mobilizing crews to complete the work.”
Meanwhile, the surety company put out an advertisement for bids for completion contractors on Sept. 9 for the $42.5 million S.R. 54 widening project, and were expecting to receive bids by the end of the month.
A subcontractor, Southern Precision, has been taking care of the S.R. 54 site in the meantime, with mowing, little control and filling potholes. Last week, work began on milling driveways and side streets, as well as some paving.
