The friendly, caring staff at Pasco Dental includes (l. to r.) Therese, the office manager, Dr. Daniel Hwang, office assistant Sona and dental assistant Trish.
By Gary Nager | September 14
It’s probably not every day that you hear a native New Yorker say that he’s kindred spirits with a dentist who was born in Korea, but that’s the way I feel about Dr. Daniel Hwang, DDS, of Pasco Dental, located in the Wesley Chapel Executive Center on S.R. 54, a little more than a mile east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.
(Note-New Tampa residents who live north of I-75 are only 10-15 minutes from Pasco Dental.)
Although he was born in Seoul, South Korea, Dr. Hwang was raised in Mt. Vernon, VA, and moved to Brooklyn, NY, for middle school and Queens, NY, for high school. He received both his Bachelor’s degree (in 1987) and his DDS degree (in 1991) from prestigious Columbia University in Manhattan and spent twelve years “learning the ropes of the dental business” with his brother, who had a thriving dental practice in Ft. Lee, NJ. Dr. Hwang then began opening his own chain of Price Dental offices in Flushing, Queens; Plainview, Long Island; Manhattan; Brooklyn; and Ft. Lee and Bergen Township, NJ.
Saturday, September 21, 8:30 a.m. – In appreciation of all that women do, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) is holding a multi-generational women’s health & wellness-focused event. This fun, FREE, inspiring event will feature physician presentations, health screenings, pampering and giveaways at Saddlebrook Resort & Spa Tampa (located off S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel).
Check out the newly revamped Pebble Creek Collection on BBD.
BY GARY NAGER | AUGUST 31
You may not realize it, but the Pebble Creek Collection (PCC) on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. a mile south of the Pasco County line, is the oldest shopping plaza in New Tampa. Built during the 1970s, the strip center looks as good as it ever has, thanks to an ongoing facelift provided by the center’s landlord and owner, John Martinez, which has included replacing the entire roof throughout the plaza.
That’s a good thing, because our office was in the Collection more than a dozen years ago, and roof leaks were an ongoing issue when we were there.
“We’re also going to replace the plaza’s current monument sign on Bruce B. Downs with something a lot nicer,” he says. “I’m really happy with the way the center has filled back up.”
When Martinez purchased the plaza in 2005, he says it was always close to full and bustling with activity. In fact, he was able to manage PCC from his home in California. But, when the local economic bubble burst in 2007-08, he says it became a lot harder to keep the tenants in business, much less happy, and by 2011, Martinez decided to move to Tampa to take a more hands-on approach and get the plaza back to capacity. He was as careful as possible to choose businesses that would complement the existing tenants and hopefully survive the ongoing economic downturn.
Pebble Creek Collection
And today, other than the long-empty former gas station located on the northern outparcel of the plaza, with direct frontage on BBD, which Martinez hopes to be making a formal announcement about soon (see below), and a former chiropractor office in the plaza itself, PCC is now full.
The newest new tenant to open is one that Martinez is particularly excited about — Once Upon a Child, a chain of children’s consignment stores with more than 260 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
“It’s a known retail name, in our anchor tenant space in the plaza,” says Martinez. “I hope it will attract a lot of traffic for the entire plaza, from the restaurants to our real estate offices.”
Melissa and Brian Levering, co-owners of Once Upon a Child
Once Upon a Child owners Melissa and Brian Levering say their store, which had been open less than three weeks at our press time, was definitely generating quite a bit of traffic from people hoping to cash in on the store’s commitment to purchasing (and reselling) high-quality, new and gently used apparel, toys, baby equipment and furniture for children at affordable, family-friendly prices.
“So far, so good,” says Melissa. “We’re definitely in purchasing mode right now and quite a few people are finding us and bringing in their quality baby and child clothing and accessories.”
The current tenants who have been in the plaza the longest are Bryan and Pam Hardy of Insurance Associates of Florida. “We’ve been here almost 20 years,” Pam says. “We’ve always loved this plaza and moved our office around in it quite a bit. We really like the current lineup of tenants (see diagram) here.”
Alex, Party Scene owner
Another long-time tenant in PCC is Alex, the owner of Party Scene, which is a small store packed with everything you need to throw a great party, including her great dozen latex balloon special for only $9.99. “It’s nice to see the plaza fill up, but I will definitely benefit when that gas station comes in,” she says.”
And, speaking of the gas station, Martinez assures us that a deal is imminent. “The ink isn’t dry on the deal and I have to invest some money to have gas tanks located under the station,” he says, “ but I expect that there will soon be a Circle K convenience store with Chevron gas moving into that building very soon.”
Sam, the new owner of the new King Beauty Supply in the plaza, says he moved from a successful location on Bearss Ave. because, “this is a better neighborhood and closer to my home.”
Another tenant who is waiting for a gas station is Full Circle Pizza owner Ron Chase. “Our dinner business keeps building,” he says, “but I’m betting a gas station will really pump up my lunch crowd. I’ll probably have to start selling slices (of pizza) at lunch, instead of only whole pies, like we do now.”
Ramses Garcia, Palmas Café owner
Although he already has a pretty solid lunch business, new Las Palmas Café owner Ramses Garcia says that the combination of an anchor gas station and his new-and-improved, more authentic Cuban cuisine recipes should make that crowd even bigger.
“We’re already getting great feedback from our customers,” Ramses says, as a couple who overheard him nods in agreement that the food at Las Palmas is even better than it was before. “And, we’ve been coming here long enough to have known all of the previous owners.”
Changing ownership and tenant lineups have long been a staple of the Collection. For example, the current Kobé Steakhouse has previously been Harris & Co., Durango Steak House, Wasabi and other restaurants, none of which has lasted more than a couple of years. “Hopefully, Kobé will change that,” says Martinez. “I’m hoping all of these tenants will be able to stick around.”
Although some churches in the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel area have become stagnant or even lost membership in recent years, one church, located on Morris Bridge Rd. a few miles south of the Pasco County line, has blossomed — Cypress Point Community Church!
The Reule family (l. to r., Annegrace, Mary, Emmy and pastors Hettie and Dean) invites your family to join the fun and worship at Cypress Point Community Church on Morris Bridge Rd., just north of Cross Creek Blvd.
Situated on 30 verdant acres just north of the corner of Cross Creek Blvd. on Morris Bridge Rd., this now-thriving nondenominational house of Christian worship started in 1998 with a handful of individuals who gathered for Bible study in the former Hunter’s Green Model & Visitor Center. Anxious to move from that choppy office space, which once served as the Hunter’s Green community’s new home sales hub, the group had a novel idea for a more practical meeting place: the Muvico Starlight 20 movie theater on nearby Highwoods Preserve Pkwy.
Whether you’ve just moved into the Wesley Chapel/New Tampa area or you’ve been here for years, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of either
Managing Broker Dennis Derbes (left), pictured with Lisa Townsend (center) and Kathie Khadij, manages both the Wesley Chapel and Zephyrhills offices of Prudential Tropical Realty.
trying to sell your home or house hunting before sitting down at the closing table and signing and initialing mountains of documents, you understand how daunting the process can be — especially if you don’t have the proper help to get the job done right.
Prudential Tropical Realty (PruTrop) is an independently-owned franchise, with 16 offices and nearly 500 agents in four counties (Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Hernando), of the nationwide Prudential Real Estate. And, PruTrop’s hugely successful location in the Shoppes at New Tampa plaza in Wesley Chapel (just south of the Shops at Wiregrass mall), can help you find the home of your dreams or sell the home you’ve loved for years at the best possible price, with the least possible amount of hassle and aggravation.
Dennis Derbes, the Market President and Managing Broker for both the New Tampa and Zephyrhills offices of PruTrop, manages a staff of 64 agents, 52 in the New Tampa office and 12 in Zephyrhills, although the market for our local office includes New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and Land O’Lakes.
One of the things Derbes says helped keep the local PruTrop office thriving the last few years, when many real estate offices in our area either closed or were absorbed into other agencies, is that Prudential Tropical Realty is truly a “one-stop shop” for all of your real estate needs. While all of the services available aren’t physically located at the New Tampa office, the PruTrop franchise and its divisions and affiliates can literally handle all of your real estate needs, including rentals, property management, relocation, title, mortgage and home warranty services, commercial real estate transactions and more.
The Power Of ‘The Rock!’
Plus, PruTrop also is an independent part of the Prudential Real Estate network, one of the largest in the U.S., with 1,400 offices and more than 47,000 agents nationwide.
“That’s the other thing that helps us in a down economy,” Derbes says, “the strength of the Prudential name. When people relocate to this area, they may not immediately find a small, local real estate office, but everyone can Google search ‘Prudential’ and ‘Tampa’ and find us.”
And now, for some more good news for anyone considering buying or selling a home in this market, in what some still call a lackluster economy.
“Every statistic we have for this market is showing a lot of improvement since 2011, and especially, since last year.”
For example, when comparing the first six months of 2013 to the first six months of 2012, in zip codes 33647 (New Tampa), 33543, -44, and -45 (Wesley Chapel) and 34638 and -39 (Land O’Lakes), he says that, according to the Florida Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the average home sale price rose more than 14.5 percent, to $204K from $178K. Equity home sales were up in this New Tampa/ Wesley Chapel market about 34 percent, while short sales actually went down nearly 8 percent, and bank-owned sales were up more than 12 percent. Derbes adds that 85% of the business at the New Tampa office are homeowners in the six zip codes mentioned earlier.
The stats also show that the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel/Land O’Lakes market is ahead of the average for Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas overall, where equity sales are up only 27 percent and average sales price is up only about 11 percent.
“With both the number of sales going up and the average and median proces also rising, you can see why we’re encouraged about the future in this New Tampa/Wesley Chapel market,” he says.
A Little PruTrop History
Prudential Tropical Realty is one of the oldest and most successful Prudential franchises, and the only one with the same original owners: Dewey Mitchell and Allen Crumbley. Mitchell, a resident of the Trinity area of New Port Richey, and Crumbley, an Alabama native, met when both played football in the late-1970s for legendary Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant at the University of Alabama.
Bryant taught Mitchell and Crumbley not only the lessons of football, but also life lessons. Derbes explains that the two carried those tenets into their real estate business when they bought an existing real estate brokerage in 1984. It became Prudential Tropical Realty, a Prudential franchise brokerage in 1988, where their focus was (and still is) taking care of customers in “an appropriate, ethical and professional manner.”
While all PruTrop agents are individually licensed, by Florida law they must work under a supervising entity or “Managing Broker.” The Broker offers assistance and support to the agents, while also ensuring that each abides by Florida laws.
“For example,” Dennis says, “although we handle short sales, our agents are not allowed to negotiate (short sales). We have licensed negotiators we refer short sale situations to when we receive those inquiries at our office.” The Broker also provides his or her agents with the necessary marketing materials in-house that are required to successfully complete their daily operations. Derbes explains his role, like other managing brokers, is to act as “a touchstone and a problem solver.”
While he “dabbled in residential and commercial real estate” for 25 years, Derbes actually has a long history of automotive sales. Hailing from New Orleans and graduating from Tulane University with a degree in History and Economics, Derbes managed a shopping center in New Orleans before relocating to Tampa in 1973, where he spent years as the general sales manager at Reeves Import Motor Cars in North Tampa until the mid-1980s. He eventually met his wife, Vicki — now a Licensed Real Estate Agent in Dennis’ New Tampa office — while working at Reeves. Derbes’ sales and management experience has helped him successfully lead his team of agents, which prides itself on providing individualized attention for every client.
“Yes, we have some agents who sell more houses than others,” Dennis admits, “but service is the key for every member of my team, so it doesn’t make sense for me to single out any of my agents.”
Committed To The Community & The Environment
As consumers now often prefer documents to be e-mailed to them — for not only convenience, but also as a commitment to the environment — Prudential Tropical Realty has pledged to go green. While some real estate documents still require hard copies, Dennis says PruTrop is working towards its goal of streamlining the business by becoming a paperless workplace, for the majority of the company’s business documents, by the end of the year.
The entire PruTrop franchise also has demonstrated a responsibility to the local community by offering money and manpower to multiple charitable organizations throughout the past three decades.
One targeted organization included funding for former Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back (also originally from Louisiana) Warrick Dunn’s “Homes for the Holidays,” which offers assistance to single parent families working towards first-time homeownership by providing down payment and closing costs, home furnishings and long-term support for financial stability.
The company’s current charitable focus, “The Sunshine Kids,” is a nationwide nonprofit foundation based in Houston, TX, dedicated to organizing positive activities, events and trips — as well as emotional support — for young children receiving cancer treatment across the country, including locally at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Treatment & Research Center on the USF Tampa campus.
The Prudential team provides volunteers to accompany the children and their nurses on trips to places like Universal Studios and Walt DisneyWorld in the Orlando area so they can relax and be ‘normal’ kids for awhile. Derbes is humble when describing the contributions and also clearly humbled by the impact the children have made on him. “We can learn a lot from those kids,” he asserts. “They have a verve for life and a conviction to conquer it.”
The New Tampa office also has many plaques on the walls, thanking Derbes and his crew for sponsoring local Little League, football, soccer and other teams and schools. The office also participates in events like the Taste of New Tampa and others.
For more info about the New Tampa/Wesley Chapel Prudential Tropical Realty office (located at 1830 BBD in The Shoppes at New Tampa plaza), visit NewTampa.PrudentialTropical.com or call 907-8200. The hours of operation are Monday -Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday & 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday.
