Movie Theater, KRATE making progress!

Developer Mark Gold’s vision of a one-of-a-kind hip, trendy and photogenic new outdoor shopping experience off Wesley Chapel Blvd. at I-75 has begun taking shape.

There will there be a sneak preview of the newly-revamped but not yet open movie theater on Dec. 31 at The Grove’s New Year’s Eve Countdown Extravaganza. The event will feature a 4-course meal with complimentary wine pairings for each course, as well as a private open bar cocktail reception with musical entertainment by Cal Morris Music.

Tickets are limited, and for more information click here.

The movie theater party comes on the heels of the first soon-to-be converted shipping container being officially placed on November 20 at KRATE, the outdoor “container park.”

More than a dozen more containers also are now in place, as Gold hopes to open many of the new businesses in the first quarter of 2021.

Seventeen modified containers, which will be home to nine businesses, make up the initial phase of what will one day be one of the largest container parks in the world. 

Though Gold’s vision began with a sun-beaten, unsightly faded yellow steel container being lowered onto a sandy patch of land, the shipping containers will be unrecognizable from their original forms after being transformed with air-conditioning, glass windows and doors, countertops, cabinets and wood and tile flooring and a few coats of brightly colored paint designed to create a festive look.

The first set of containers will be occupied by restaurants offering diverse dishes and items like Asian noodles, Puerto Rican cuisine, desserts and charcuterie boards.

Empty shipping containers like these, amongst the first to be put in place at KRATE, are being transformed into a trendy new food and retail “container park” experience at The Grove, which is expected to begin opening in early 2021. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

KRATE is expected to be the biggest of all the container parks. Once complete, it will feature 94 containers and 55 units comprised of 70% restaurants and 30% retail stores. Other restaurants will feature cuisine from around the world like Colombia, Peru and Germany. 

Some of the most recently announced tenants include The Cake Girl, Yummy Tablas and ATO, a burrito bowl concept by the owners of Zukku-San Sushi (which we featured last issue). The planned retail shops include a music store and a Lego® brand product superstore.

KRATE also will feature a stage with daily live entertainment, a dog park, a playground and plenty of outdoor seating.

“There is nothing like this in the world,” says Gold, a partner in Mishorim Gold Properties, which purchased the Grove for $62.7 million in September 2019. “KRATE is receiving attention across the globe for its unique concept and offerings. We will become the ultimate shopping and entertainment destination, not just for Wesley Chapel, but for the region and around the world.”

When it is complete, KRATE (rendering above) will feature 94 shipping containers making up 55 units, including more than 30 new restaurants.

While the container park concept is still relatively new, it has proven to be popular. Downtown Tampa’s Sparkman Wharf has re-purposed shipping containers housing roughly a dozen takeout restaurants, and places like Kansas City and Philadelphia have opened container parks of varying sizes the past two years.

 Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a popular container park — actually named Container Park — has 34 outlets with an emphasis on hip and quirky local businesses, as well as a stage and a playground.

Since purchasing The Grove, Gold has signed on 75 new tenants, including some businesses that are already open in what Gold calls The Village area — like F45 Fitness, the dueling piano bar restaurant Treble Makers (see pg. 21)and the Double Branch Artisanal Ales brewery (see pages 32-33). 

Gold says he has invested more than $110 million into the renovation of The Grove property which, in addition to KRATE, will include a reimagined movie theater and restaurant, a miniature golf course expected to break ground in January and, potentially, a water park. 

With pandemic safety at the forefront, Gold says all of the businesses in The Village and in the KRATE complex will include “medical grade” sanitation technology, like fogging machines, automated thermal temperature scan swing gates at the entrance and UV lights.

Those safety steps are expected to encourage people to feel comfortable both inside and outside while shopping and dining, including inside The Grove Movie Theater, which is expected to fully open sometime in January, not too long after the planned VIP sneak preview event on New Year’s Eve. 

Wesley Chapel To Add A YMCA!

YMCA vice president of operations & executive director of Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA Robyn Ostrem and membership and wellness experience director Ryan Pratt revealed that a Wesley Chapel Family YMCA will be breaking ground in 2021. (Photo: Charmaine George)

The Bonefish Grill officially completed its move from Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Wesley Chapel to the Cypress Creek Town Center along S.R. 56 at a grand opening Dec. 14, but it turns out there were even bigger fish fried during the event.

Wesley Chapel is getting a YMCA!

That announcement was all the buzz as folks nibbled on some of the best appetizers the beautiful, new Bonefish Grill has to offer.

“We’re about to be your new neighbor,” Robyn Ostrem, the VP of operations and executive director of the New Tampa Family YMCA, told the gathering right before Bonefish Grill officially opened. “We’re going to build a Wesley Chapel Family YMCA that will break ground in early 2021, and will built by June of 2023.”

Ostrem, who has been with the New Tampa YMCA since 2019, did not announce an exact location for the Wesley Chapel location, only that it would be located on Bruce B. Downs Blvd, although that really only leaves two possibilities — the land in front of the new BayCare Hospital being built in the northesatern portion of Seven Oaks, and the land in front of Meadow Pointe across the street from the Super Target on County Line Rd.

Ostrem said the new facility will cost $15 million to build and will be 30,000 square feet. The New Tampa Family YMCA, which is the closest current option for many Wesley Chapel residents, is 35,000 sq. ft.

“We’re in New Tampa now, but we’re going to be closer to you now in Wesley Chapel,” Ostrem said.

Generally, YMCAs have indoor courts for basketball and volleyball, workout areas and rooms for exercise classes and daycare, as well as meeting rooms. Many, like the New Tampa Y, also have pools and can host events like high school and youth swim meets.

The Wesley Chapel Y will be only the third YMCA in Pasco County, joining the East Pasco Family YMCA in Zephyrhills and the James P. Gillis Family YMCA in New Port Richey.

After years of rapid growth in the housing and restaurant markets, the “sports & activity” market in Wesley Chapel has picked up the pace this year.

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County opened in August, with the ability to host sports leagues and tournaments for basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports, while the indoor Recreation Center at the Wesley Chapel District Park is currently under construction and will be completed sometime next year. An outdoor hockey rink right next to the rec center was completed last week as well. 

Emergency Response Times In New Tampa A Concern

Joe Greco of the Tampa Firefighters Local 754 said that improving TFR Station No. 13 near Busch Gardens should take precedence over improving poor emergency response times in New Tampa.

Everyone seems to agree that the City of Tampa doesn’t have enough fire rescue stations, and it is now time for city officials to figure out a solution for the entire city, but especially in New Tampa.

That was the message at the Tampa City Council meeting last month, from council member Luis Viera — who represents New Tampa in District 7, a district which may be the area most at need — proposing that the city come up with a citywide master plan for all public safety needs, including police, fire rescue and EMS.

“We have a master plan for Parks & Recreation, which I’m in favor of, but we should also do it for public safety, given the many deficits we face,” Viera said at the Council meeting.

Much of the debate centered around a report by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) that showed a number of weaknesses in Tampa’s fire rescue network.

Although it was only touched on briefly, Viera expressed concern about one troubling statistic revealed in the report — four of the six City of Tampa Fire Rescue (TFR) stations with the slowest response times are located in New Tampa.

New Tampa is home to four of TFR’s 23 stations: TFR Station No. 20 (located on Bruce D. Downs Blvd. in Tampa Palms), Nos. 21 and 22 (located off Cross Creek Blvd.), and No. 23, which opened in 2019 on Trout Creek Ln., just south of County Line Rd.

Another TFR station is planned for the K-Bar Ranch area, which will have nearly 2,000 homes when it is built out.

According to the IAFF report, the first arriving fire rescue apparatus should be on the scene within four minutes of travel for 90% of incidents that require an emergency response.

From June 1, 2017, to May 31, 2019, New Tampa’s TFR stations 20 and 21 were the two slowest, at 10 minutes of response time each, and Nos. 22 and 23 tied for the third slowest response times at 8 minutes each.

The New Tampa response times may have more to do with physical distance from the stations and our area’s congested roads, however, as all four stations rank near the bottom of all TFR stations when it comes to the number of emergencies responded to by each of their rescue, engine units and truck companies.

Viera visited all four stations on Thanksgiving Day to discuss possible solutions. “The New Tampa fire rescue people told me that K-Bar Ranch is the biggest challenge,” he says.

Even so, Fire Station 13, which also is in Viera’s district and is located at 2713 E. Annie St. near Busch Gardens, was a far greater concern at the Nov. 18 City Council meeting. It is the busiest station in Tampa by far, according to Firehouse Magazine, and the 20th busiest in the country.

Viera called it a “very very challenging station” and called for immediate relief for the station in the form of a new engine or a new facility.

Joe Greco, Tampa Firefighters Local 754 president, said that the money that was included in the latest budget to build another station in New Tampa should instead be directed to address Station 13’s needs.

“Twenty five percent of all calls for service in the city of Tampa are in Station 13’s first alarm territory,” Greco said. Greco added that nearby TFR Station Nos. 7, 11 and 18 answer as many calls in Station 13’s area as Station 13 does, due to the high volume.

The City Council will come back in January with a plan of action to bring Station No. 13 immediate relief, and passed Viera’s motion for a workshop to tackle the city’s public safety master plan in March.

Tampa Palms Family Praying For Kidney Donor

Raj Guntuku is suffering from kidney failure, and his family is desperately seeking a donor so he can return to his normal life of chasing his dog Benji around. (Photos provide by the Guntuku family)

Raj Guntuku is like many 13-year-old boys — always smiling, always moving, whether he’s dancing, shooting hoops, playing video games or chasing Benji, his 70-pound Golden Doodle, around the house.

He is a second-degree blackbelt in karate, which he has been practicing since he was only 5. He loves watching videos to learn tricks like juggling and dice stacking to show his family. And, he can solve a Rubik’s Cube in mere seconds (16, to be exact).

However, unlike many 13-year-old boys, Raj’s kidneys are failing him. In October, he was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is characterized by the gradual loss of kidney function. Doctors say Raj is in Stage 5, and his kidneys are now operating at less than 10-percent of normal function and will not recover.

His family has turned to social media, as well as their Buckingham neighborhood in Tampa Palms, to help find a transplant donor — going door-to-door and handing out flyers asking for help. If there is an available live kidney donor out there for Raj, his dad Nehru, mom Radha and sister Bhavika are intent on finding them.

“It’s four people, but one of us has to be with him, so we spread out as much as we can, house to house, ringing door bells,” Radha says. 

More than 90,000 people nationwide are on a waiting list for a kidney donor. Raj is on the waiting list at Tampa General Hospital, where he receives dialysis on Mondays and Fridays, and sometimes on Wednesdays if his body requires it.

In a short span, Raj — or Bunny to his family and close friends — went from a kid with boundless energy to one visibly struggling with an undetected illness.

In early September, he vomited upon waking up, which his parents attributed to returning to a school schedule after a summer of sleeping in.

But then, it happened again a few weeks later, and then another time after that. For a moment, Radha says she feared Raj had contracted Covid.

It was discovered that Raj had lost 8 pounds since his last visit in March to the pediatrician, but everyone in the family had lost weight during Covid because they hadn’t been eating out. His doctor thought it might be a stomach flu, and Raj was put on a stricter diet heavy on liquids.

It didn’t help. His doctor ran some blood tests, and did not like the results, Radha says. 

“They were way off,” she says.

However, another test confirmed the numbers and, after a visit to Tampa General Hospital for more testing, it was determined on Oct. 7 that his kidneys were not working and that he needed dialysis immediately.

Two days after his first dialysis treatment, Raj had a seizure. While watching television, he had suddenly frozen, biting his lip so hard it began bleeding. The doctor said the seizure was caused by his low sodium levels, so an additional dialysis on Wednesdays was added to his Monday and Friday routine.

He also developed a serious rash around the catheter in his chest, another cause for concern for his family, due to fear of infection. Raj wears socks on his hands and sleeps in between his parents, who each hold one of his hands so he doesn’t scratch the area. 

“I can’t imagine all this has happened in less than (a few) months,” Radha said. “It’s crazy. Even if he coughs, or if he yawns, everyone looks around like, is he okay? It’s like living in fear. Nothing is normal.”

Raj’s parents, who are both software engineers, cannot donate their kidneys due to other health issues. Bhavika, who is 17 and a senior at King High, isn’t old enough to donate one of hers (you need to be 21).

So, Raj and his family pray that a living match can be found. While a kidney from a deceased donor is still an option, those tend to be less reliable compared to those from living donors, which are healthier and usually function immediately, as opposed to taking days or even weeks to begin functioning on their own.

The longer the lifespan and healthier the kidney, the better for Raj, who will almost certainly need another transplant in 15-20 years.

“He will have to undergo the process again, so if a transplant can last for at least 20 years, he can get back to his normal life,” Radha says.

A normal life that includes sports, dancing and chasing Benji around the house, like a regular 13-year-old. While not a day goes by that she doesn’t worry, Radha says her boy has another trait shared by many 13-year-old boys.

He is fearless.

“I did not expect it out of him, to be honest,” she says. “I am really really surprised how he is able to take all this. When I go to the hospital I am more scared and more tense, and he is doing much better than me or my husband. But, everyone is praying for him. And I think the prayers are what are making him be strong.”

The kidney donor for Raj must have O+ or O- blood, be between the age of 21-49 and not be diabetic or have any known kidney issues. Visit tgh.org/services/transplant/kidney-transplant/living-kidney-donor-program for more information. 

If you know someone or would like to help, call (813) 748-7235 or (813) 995-4815.

New Tampa Aldi Is Under Way

The likelihood of a transformation at the old Sweetbay isn’t the only new thing coming to New Tampa.

In fact, The Walk at Highwoods Preserve area located right across the street Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the former Sweetbay may be a busy corner in the coming new year.

The busy area already has added three new restaurants — Oronzo Honest Italian (see story on pages 26-27), Michi Ramen and Gu Wei — and an F45 Fitness center this year. It also has seen big box electronics giant Best Buy and home furnishings chain Pier 1 Imports close up shop, potentially giving way to future new tenants.

And, additional Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. businesses — the former Starbucks and Jimmy John’s sub shop — are being prepped for new tenants.

And yes, construction has finally begun on the new Aldi grocery store on the southwest corner of Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and BBD.

On Nov. 23, crews began tearing down the old Ruby Tuesday restaurant. By Thanksgiving, the 2.36-acre lot, purchased by Leon Capital Group in 2018 for $2.82 million, was mainly home to a mangled mess of metal and concrete.

The Aldi was approved back in January. It will be 19,160 square feet — almost four times the size of Ruby Tuesday — with 106 parking spaces.

Developers of the popular German discount chain also are adding a sidewalk for pedestrians and those who use the bus stop at the same corner. 

There is still no word about when, or if, the once-planned $5-million renovation of the AMC Theater at Highwoods Preserve is happening. 

Unfortunately, the movie industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. In October, AMC warned investors that it could run out of cash by the end of the year. Around the same time, Regal Cinemas shut down all its theaters.

FOR WHOM THE (TACO)BELL TOLLS: Well, it’s official — according to City of Tampa permitting records, the Circle K at the corner of  Doña Michelle Dr. and BBD is expanding, and that expansion will eliminate the Taco Bell and Shell-branded gas station currently attached to it.

Circle K Stores, Inc., which had a pre-application consultation in August looking to redevelop the existing Shell gas station to become a larger Circle K gas station, is going ahead with those plans.

A site plan submitted Nov. 24 shows the current convenience store expanding to a 5,187-sq.-ft. store.

The Taco Bell is being replaced in by five parking spots and a sitting area, as well as a second proposed entrance/ exit behind the convenience store. The canopy over the gas pumps also will bear the Circle K logo.

The AMC Theater, which had to postpone a major renovation project after being been hit hard by Covid-19, and the former Ruby Tuesday restaurant, which will be replaced by Aldi, also are on the east side on BBD.