Good news for those bemoaning the lack of things to do with the kids in New Tampa, as well as the number of empty “big box” stores in New Tampa — an Urban Air Adventure Park is on the way to the Market Square at Tampa Palms, the shopping center anchored by BJ’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr..
And it’s not alone.
While Urban Air Adventure Park will fill the former home of HH Gregg, Taza Market, an Indian supermarket and eatery, is expected to take over the old Staples location.
Urban Air Adventure is a Texas-based entertainment center franchise with locations all over the U.S.. The New Tampa location will be the company’s 10th in Florida, which includes centers in nearby Lakeland and Port Richey.
It has already announced on its website that it is coming to New Tampa, and according to plans filed with the City of Tampa, the facility will be 28,000 sq. ft. and include areas for a warrior course, spin/flip zone, slam dunk zone, family zone, wipe out area, adventure hub and private rooms for parties to go with a full service cafe.
The award-winning indoor activity center, which calls itself the “ultimate indoor playground for your entire family” and says it is more than just a trampoline park, typically offers high-flying activities, such as a Sky Rider Coaster, climbing walls and elevated ropes course, to name a few.
Taza Market, according to plans filed with the city, will be a 16,382-sq.-ft. Indian super market with fresh food made daily and a cafe-like area of roughly 1,700 sq. ft. with seating for 80.
Jannah & Gary Nager at aย wedding on Cape Cod Aug. 17.
Pretty much every year since I took over the Neighborhood News in 1994, we have held our annual Reader Dining Survey & Contest. At one time, it was just our most popular contest for our readers but today, it is the only one we still run year after year.
And honestly, itโs also a tremendous amount of work to put together (and tabulate the results of) the contest each year, as so many restaurants continue to come and go in our distribution areas, especially recently in New Tampa, where fewer newcomers have been replacing those that exit than in Wesley Chapel, where there are so many newbies, even though most of them are regional or national chains.
This year, after participation in this annual contest dwindled somewhat the past two years, I tried to find a way to ask you to name fewer favorites yourselves but hopefully, still find a way to give every restaurant currently operating in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel and those located directly adjacent to both markets a better chance to be among our readersโ favorites.
I also was trying to find a way to prevent โballot stuffingโ by local residents who only entered the contest to vote for one place. As always, entries that are not completely and/or incorrectly filled out will not have their votes included, but it seems that the format this year is already reducing disqualifications.
Also new this year is the fact that if you live in New Tampa, you only got to vote last issue (and this issue) for restaurants located in New Tampa (or on Bearss Ave. near BBD in Lutz). Likewise, those living in Wesley Chapel were only asked to vote for restaurants in Wesley Chapel (and on S.R. 56 and S.R. 54 in Lutz). In our October issues, New Tampa residents will get to vote for their favorites in Wesley Chapel and Wesley Chapel residents for their favorites in New Tampa, although both surveys are available online now, and you can submit one entry in each market at NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net or by U.S. Mail.
And, based on the fact that we already have more than doubled last yearโs total number of entries in just the first two (of six total) issues the contest has run so far is an indication that I may be onto something, even though the task to include every restaurant, fast food place, cafรฉ and cafeteria in both of our markets has proven even more daunting than I had anticipated.
Originally, I correctly listed all of the candidates forย โFavorite Restaurant in New Tampaโ by where they were located, rather than in alphabetical order, but I ended up excluding two of my favorite pizza places in New Tampa โ Taste of New York in Highwoods Preserve and Woodfired Pizza on Bearss Ave. โ from the โFavorite Pizza in New Tampaโ list, completely by accident. Youโll note that both of them have been added to the second run of the New Tampa survey, and youโll also find that I have reorganized the full list of New Tampa favorites alphabetically this time around.
I did even worse in Wesley Chapel, where, among a couple of others, The Brass Tap was inadvertently left off the โFavorite Bar or Tavern in Wesley Chapelโ list, and my 2018 favorite restaurant in Wesley Chapel โ Dempseyโs Steakhouse in Saddlebrook Resort โ was left off the โFavorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapelโ list, as was TDโs Sports Bar at Saddlebrook. Yeesh.
But, thatโs one reason why we run the contest multiple times, so we can get the listings right. The other is that we want as many local residents in both of our markets as possible to participate because, quite honestly, it helps both us and the restaurants themselves get a better handle on which places our readers truly like best in and near their neighborhoods. And, despite the amount of work that it takes to create and score the contests, it also is a lot of fun for me, as one of our areaโs better-known โfoodies,โ to oversee.
Congratulations, Mrs. Nager!
Loyal Neighborhood News readers know that Jannah has been working for the Pasco Education Foundation (the nonprofit organization that raises money to support the Pasco School District) for the past four+ years, but she has an exciting new job that definitely will make her even more well-known and popular right here in Wesley Chapel than she has become from all of the publicity sheโs had in these pages.
As of Sept. 1, Jannah is now the director of marketing for the (mainly) indoor Wesley Chapel Sports Complex at Wiregrass Ranch (that is the working title) being developed by RADD Sports just off S.R. 56! It truly is a huge, exciting opportunity for her and Jannah already is looking to establish partnerships for the complex with local companies and sports organizations.
Stay tuned for more announcements and congrats, babe!
(left to right) Sam Guyer, Ryan Clarke, Cody Guyer and Shashank Mishra hope to open Wesley Chapel’s first craft brewery, Double Branch Artisanal Ales, in December.
Friends and Wesley Chapel residents Ryan Clarke and Shashank Mishra, M.D., had both dabbled in making their own home brews, so it was only natural that when the two would hang out, craft beer was often not only the drink of choice, but also the topic of conversation.
One night, the conversation turned to the obvious โ why not start our own brewery?
โWe talked about it several times,โ said Clarke, โWe had the same thoughts and philosophy. Eventually the talks began getting more progressive.โ
Those talks progressed to the point where, on June 6, 2018, the two founded Double Branch Artisanal Ales (DBAA), and in December Clarke and Mishraโs first craft brewery is expected to open at The Grove at Wesley Chapel.
The craft brewery will be Wesley Chapelโs first, and will operate in the โmain streetโ area of The Grove. The 8,400-sq-ft. space will boast a 2,100-sq.-ft. production brewery, a 1,900-sq-ft. tap room, a 550-sq.-ft. outdoor patio and 1,850 sq. ft. of private event space.
It will offer a full spectrum of beers, from lagers to stouts to sours, but itโs first flagship beer will be called Chappieโs Lager.
โThis will not only be a craft brewery, but something that offers the local culture of Tampa without having to drive 30 minutes,โ says Clarke. โWe have a large amount of nationally-syndicated restaurant concepts out here in Wesley Chapel, but not too many locally owned places. Wesley Chapel needs these type of things.โ
Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., the company behind Florida Avenue Brewing Co. and Brew Bus Brewing, purchased the old Sports + Field site on S.R. 56 in May, with plans to transform the former sports training facility into a brewery and restaurant before opening in 2020.
Clarke and Mishra also think they could be part of something big, as The Grove at Wesley Chapel — hardly a bustling hotspot in recent years with all the expansion on S.R. 56 — was sold for $62.7 million to developers that they expect will reinvigorate the area by building additional homes and retail/restaurant.
Clarke and Mishra, who met at AdventHealth Wesley Chapel where Clarke is a nurse practitioner and Mishra is a Doctor of Internal Medicine, already had launched their plans. They actually announced DBAA on the breweryโs Facebook page months ago, but had to quickly take it down because The Grove wasnโt ready for the announcement.
Clarke takes pride in DBAA being Wesley Chapelโs first locally owned and operated craft brewery. He looked into the idea back in 2008, but couldnโt find the right situation. After finding the right financial backing, location and availability, he and Mishra were ready.
Because Clarke wanted a place that would become part of the communityโs fabric, he chose Double Branch because it โrelated to the heritage of the area.โ
The Wesley Chapel area was often referred to as โDouble Branchโ for the twin creeks that flowed through the property owned by the Boyettes, one of the areaโs founding families. The Double Branch Church (now the First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel) was the center of the community.
The area also became an area known for its share of moonshine stills and homebrews in the 1920s, which Clarke says the Double Branch brewery pays homage to.
DBAA, which is still waiting on a permit or two but hopes to begin construction on Monday, could be a major player in the transformation of The Grove, which is rumored to be readying for a number of significant changes.
DBAA will offer beer and wine on tap, a food truck-style kitchen (6-8 items), games and potentially, an outdoor beer garden.
Clarke and Mishra have hired head brewer Cody Guyer and his wife Sam, who will be the tap room manager. The couple just moved here from Iowa last week, and both also will be part owners of the endeavor.
Cody Guyer started his brewing career with a home kit he received from his sister for his 26th birthday, and since has worked as an assistant brewer in Iowa for Millstream Brewing Co. (located in Amana) and Barn Town Brewing in West Des Moines.
Cody says while DBAA will offer a few flagship styles, he is the experimental type and plans of brewing an assortment of revolving โfun-typeโ beers. โWhatever I feel like brewing at the time,โ he says.
Cody will also pursue collaborations with other breweries, where ideas are exchanged via emails and implemented in a team process. While in Iowa, he worked on โcollabsโ with Mikerphone Brewing in Chicago, Wren House Brewing in Phoenix, Watermark Brewing in Stevensville, MI, and Pulpit Rock Brewing in Decorah, IA.
โItโs a great way to learn what other breweries around the country are doing,โ he says.
As for what DBAA will be doing, Cody says just wait.
โItโs going to exciting,โ he says. โI canโt wait to get started.โ
The New Tampa Performing Arts Center (in red) off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. will be part of the Village at Hunterโs Lake mixed-use development. (Photo: Charmaine George)
In one of the more significant steps in the long, sometimes-tortured history of a proposed cultural arts center in New Tampa, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has approved the hiring of a firm to design the facility.
Last month, the BOCC awarded a $598,413 contract to Fleischman Garcia Architects to draw a plan for the long-awaited facility, which is now officially being called the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC), after years of being referred to as a โcultural center.โ
โItโs an extremely significant and critical step in the process,โโ said District 2 county commissioner Ken Hagan, who represents New Tampa and has been involved in the project in various forms since it first sprouted in 2001. โItโs an important move.โ
The design of the center โ which will be located directly across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the main entrance to Hunterโs Green, in the new Village at Hunterโs Lake development โ is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with bidding for the construction services tentatively scheduled for May of 2020.
It is hoped that the $6-million construction of the NTPAC will begin sometime by November 1, 2020, and is expected to open by Jan. 1, 2022.
The facility โ long-heralded to be the centerpiece of the New Tampa community โ will be 20,000 square feet on its first floor, with the capability to have a 10,000-sq.-ft. second floor added later.
The building will include a 350-400-seat theater/multi-purpose room and stage to be used for community theater performances. It will be the home of the New Tampa Players (NTP) acting troupe, which currently stages its performances at the University Area Cultural Development Center (UACDC) on N. 22nd St., just south of Bearss Ave.
The stage area at the NTPAC will be more than 2,000 square feet, and Hagan said it will include an orchestra pit that he helped add after meeting with the NTP and addressing some of their requests.
The center also will host cultural/arts education classes, as well as meetings, banquets and other events.
There will be 1,040 square feet dedicated to NTPAC operations and education programs employees, including an office for the NTP.
The education wing will feature two studios with ballet and dance floors, mirrors and movable walls.
Hagan made note that the NTPAC also will be sustainable, incorporating solar power and electric vehicle stations.
Plans for the NTPAC date back to 2001, when a Connecticut firm was paid $27,000 by the City of Tampa for a study that determined New Tampa could support a small cultural center of its own.
A nonprofit group, called the New Tampa Cultural Arts Center, was offered the six acres of land it requested for the project, but the city requested the group come up with a $10-million endowment to pay for it, which killed the effort back in 2005.
Doug Wall, who was involved with those initial efforts, revived it again in 2007. But Wall, the New Tampa Players president and founding artistic director, could not secure the funding and he passed away in 2017.
Former county commissioner and Tampa Palms resident Victor Crist helped keep the project alive as he worked on finding funding. In 2014, the larger Village at Hunterโs Lake project, of which the NTPAC is a central part, was approved.
In a 2016 meeting at Hunterโs Green, Crist told the NTP he had secured partner-ships with the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, the Patel Conservatory and the Prodigy Cultural Arts Program to bring gravitas to the project and elevate it to a high-level arts center.
