Contractor Pulls Out Of 54 Widening Project

One month after being kicked off the Diverging Diamond Interchange project at S.R. 56 and I-75, D.A.B. Constructors has informed the Florida Department of Transportation it is voluntarily defaulting on the S.R. 54 widening project as well.

On July 28, “FDOT received letters from DAB informing us that they are financially unable to perform or complete the performance of the work as prime contractor, which constitutes a voluntary default…,” FDOT spokesperson Kris Carson wrote in an email.

But it isn’t just the S.R. 54 widening project, which was supposed to be completed by the end of the year, that D.A.B. Constructors is walking away from. There are five other projects in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties:

  • C.R. 580 Sam Allen Rd. from S.R. 39 to Park Rd.
  • US 19 Widening from Green Acres to W. Jump Ct
  • US 19 Widening from W. Jump Court to W. Fort Island Trail
  • US 19 Resurfacing from Hernando County Line to Green Acres
  • SR 52 Widening from Suncoast Parkway to US 41

“FDOT will be working with the Surety Companies to take over and complete the projects,” Carson says.

D.A.B. Contractors issued a statement, signed by president Doborah Bachschmidt and executive vice president Bill Bachschmidt, earlier this week, published in the Citrus County Chronicle, saying that “After over 33 years as a small heavy civil construction firm based in Inglis, Florida, D.A.B. is winding down all operations and putting the completion of ongoing projects in the hands of our bonding companies.”

D.A.B. essentially says the DDI project led to it pulling out of its other projects due to financial strain.

FDOT’s actions in regards to D.A.B. being behind schedule on the DDI which was made public last fall, were a “deathblow” to the company. D.A.B. says it accelerated construction without payment from FDOT to meet milestone dates.

“When D.A.B. achieved the milestones to the extent feasible under the FDOT-furnished defective plans”, the company wrote, “FDOT moved the goalposts. We suffered a classic domino-effect, as our acceleration efforts had diverted resources from other ongoing projects and drained the company of millions of dollars such that operations cannot be sustained.”

It wrote it has been in a 15-month tug-of-war with FDOT due to errors in the design.

“Despite the existence of a significant errors in the project design provided by FDOT and the recommendation of an independent Disputes Review Board that upheld D.A.B.’s contentions regarding the existence of the design errors and the resulting impact to the project schedule and costs to complete, FDOT has declared D.A.B. in default.”

Last month, in a letter dated June 25, D.A.B. Constructors told FDOT they were “demobilizing” from the DDI project, two days before it was defaulted on the project by FDOT.

D.A.B., which says it is the only remaining woman-owned prime contractor in the state, says it cannot continue to self-finance FDOT projects while it waits on the outcome of court action.

Carson says D.A.B. Constructors filed a lawsuit against FDOT on July 1.

“We very much regret the inevitable inconveniences to the traveling public as D.A.B.’s ongoing jobs are transitioned to others for completion,” the Bachschmidts wrote.” We are working cooperatively with our sureties to expedite take over and completion work. Likewise, despite what we’ve encountered with FDOT, we intend to continue to cooperate with the department.”

That is disappointing news for Wesley Chapel residents, who just a few months ago were expecting the DDI and 54 widening to be completed before 2022. That now appears unlikely.

The 54 widening is a $42.5-million project to transform S.R. 54 from two to four lanes east of Curley Rd to east of Morris Bridge Rd., a 4.5-mile stretch. A sidewalk will be built on the north side of the road and a 10-foot wide multi-use trail will be built on the south side.

County To Begin Upgrading Branchton Park In 2022

Branchton Park is currently an obscure park located south of Cross Creek Blvd. on Morris Bridge Rd., with plenty of open space, but will be transformed when it gets a $5-million makeover from Hillsborough County, including the addition of all-purpose courts, a playground and a pond.

Tucked away off Morris Bridge Rd. a little south of Cross Creek Blvd., Branchton Park is a quiet, underpopulated spot in New Tampa that few local residents have ever visited.

However, those who do know about it will probably agree — it is a park with limited amenities that is showing its age and is in desperate need of a facelift.

And now, Hillsborough County has plans to do just that. Branchton Park as you know it will cease to exist, and will be “relocated” immediately south of its current location at 15701 Morris Bridge Rd.

The new Branchton Park will be more modern, with a lot more amenities, and will serve a lot more people’s needs, at a cost of around $5.5 million.

District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan said he secured the funding for the improvements in previous county budgets.

The park currently has a small shelter and playground, a basketball court in need of a refresh and parking for a few cars.

It also has a paved trail and plenty of open space, but no bathrooms (other than Porta Potties) or water fountains. Once the new park is completed, the site of the current park will be home to future development, which could include a restaurant, sports bar or even new homes, Hagan says, adding that he can envision something like The Village at Hunter’s Lake development on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. 

The nearly 500 responses to a county survey about what to make the new park look like were exactly what you would expect. Residents would like to see a dog park, a covered pavilion and play area, pickleball and tennis courts, roller hockey, more basketball courts, soccer fields and cricket pitches, a disc golf course, a splash pad, a skate park, walking and running trails, bathrooms, an amphitheater and more activities for the area’s senior population.

Or, in other words, everything.

Many of the resident requests are included in the plans, according to the county’s website. 

The project will be funded in phases and, in the first phase, there will be additional parking, walking trails, dog parks, restrooms, shelters and multipurpose courts, though the county notes that likely means four pickleball courts and two basketball courts, which also can be used for volleyball, according to the conceptual site plan.

The separate dog parks for small and large dogs will include shelters, benches, dog agility equipment and water and even wash stations.

Subsequent phases will include other things on the resident wish list, like a more robust playground and a splash pad. There is a possibility, according to the survey, that the splash pad could make its way into Phase 1.

Hagan says count on it.

“There will be a splash pad, I can promise you,” Hagan says. “And it will be in Phase 1. I’m not going to let that (not) happen.”

Final decisions on what may be added in subsequent phases will be made after Phase 1 has been completed.

According to the conceptual site plan, the new park also will include a park office, concessions, event pavilion, open area and 70 parking spaces. There also are plans further down the road for a public-private partnership (PPP) on a zip line or “challenge” course for the park.

Hagan says he may also push for a Hillsborough Sheriff’s substation in the Branchton area as well. 

In 2017, the county acquired four parcels of land totaling 10 acres just south of the current Branchton Park. The newly acquired land will be home to the new park. 

Hagan hopes to get the process moving in the next few months, with the start of construction sometime in early 2022.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” Hagan says. “I think this is a great opportunity to build a really nice community asset.”

Pebble Creek Golf Club Nears Finale

Chuck Leisek has spent many of his mornings the past 15 years hitting golf balls at the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC), where he lives just off the 12th hole.

The 86-year-old never broke 70, but shot his age plenty of times, has just missed a hole-in-one on the No. 2 and No. 6 holes, and loved every day he was out on the course.

When he found out that the golf course was shutting down for \good on July 31, he and his wife Janice, also an avid golfer, were crestfallen.

“We never thought in our wildest dreams this golf course would ever be closed,” says Leisek. “It’s deeply disappointing. And that’s an understatement.”

The writing, however, had been on the wall for the past few years, as owner Bill Place, who bought the club in 2005, has been actively trying to sell the property the past five or so years.

The first weekend in June, letters were sent out informing residents that the 6,436-yard golf course, the oldest in New Tampa, was shutting down for good.

Place said there is no special event or farewell scheduled for the club. The last one out on the 31st will turn off the lights, lock the door and that will be it.

Bill Place

Place is currently negotiating with Pulte Homes on building 230-240 single-family homes on the golf course.

“Never once when I bought the course was I even thinking it would be a development site,” Place says. “We took what was then a failing golf course that was horribly maintained, and we put in probably $2 million over the first five years. We put in new greens, built a new banquet room, and really got the club making money initially.”

Included in the improvements was Mulligans, the popular Irish pub that opened in 2007, but also will close July 31.

Place says the 2008 recession stopped the club’s momentum, and it has been on and off ever since.

Leisek says he remembers when Place bought PCGC and restored the course to its previous glory, but says he is one of many who questions how much money Place actually has been losing.

And, although he says he had heard rumors of Place “skulking around trying to sell it,” it was still a surprise to everyone he knew when they received notice that PCGC was officially closing.

Place says club members like Leisek, however, were far and few between at Pebble Creek.

Although there are roughly 1,400 homes in the community, only 13 residents are among the club’s 70 current members. He describes the support from the community as non-existent.

“I don’t mean that negatively, like people despised the golf club,” Place says. “There’s just not that many golfers (living) in Pebble Creek.”

The view from hole 1 could soon be replaced by homes, if Bill Place has his way.

He says that when he approached the HOAs about having all homeowners pay for a social membership to keep the club alive, it was rejected.

“We do get a fair amount of public play,” Place says. “That’s essentially what kept us going as long as we did.”

Golf courses have struggled in recent years, especially as amenities in large communities, but the number of rounds played in 2020 actually were up nationally  13.9 percent from 2019, according to Golf Datatech, primarily because of people looking for relatively safe recreation activities during the pandemic.

It is the largest increase in rounds played since Golf Datatech, which specializes in golf market research, started tracking stats in 1998. Place says that surge was short-lived at Pebble Creek.

“Even though we had a little bit of a bump from Covid-19, I’ve already started to see it back off as people go back to work,” Place says. “We’re on a path to repeat 2018 and 2019, when we lost money those years.”

Place also says that merely maintaining the course had become financially untenable. He says that PCGC still has its original irrigation system and that “it failed miserably during this recent drought.”

He adds, “It was time.”

A 1968 coupon.

Pebble Creek was built by a group of nine investors and opened in 1967, at a price tag of $500,000, 20 years before Arnold Palmer visited to help dedicate the opening of Tampa Palms Golf and Country Club by playing the first round.

PCGC was once dubbed the “grandaddy of New Tampa golf courses.”

At its outset, the semi-private Pebble Creek Golf and Country Club was a hit. It quickly reached 300 members in 1967 and stopped accepting any additional members so there was room for the occasional non-member golfer. Over the years, improvements were made (the course actually opened with no bunkers) so it could host bigger tournaments, and membership ebbed and flowed.

*******

Mulligan’s Irish bar was a popular spot for golfers and Pebble Creek residents.

When it comes to selling the 149-acre course to a developer, which appears to be Pulte Homes, Place knows he will have a fight on his hands. Efforts to rezone the property and getting Pebble Creek’s two homeowners associations (HOAs) on board will be an uphill battle.

“Everyone is devastated,” says Wayne Rich, the president of the Pebble Creek Village HOA, which represents about 300 homes. “Nobody is excited about it.”

Rich says roughly 100 homes between the two HOAs are located on the golf course, and could have their backyards replaced by new neighbors. He has seen what Pulte is proposing, and says he’s “not crazy about it.”

A group on Facebook, as well as another group of residents, have already mobilized to oppose any development, emboldened by last year’s success at stopping Place from getting a brownfield designation for the course.

DR Horton, one of the original interested buyers of PCGC, had done preliminary testing two years ago and discovered that there were contaminants on the golf course before withdrawing its interest. 

A brownfield site is a property that is contaminated, which hinders efforts to expand or redevelop it. But, there are significant tax credits offered to help clean up brownfield properties. Hillsborough County commissioners voted against the request.

Without those tax credits, Place will likely foot the bill. A preliminary estimate, he says, indicated it would take 6-9 months to decontaminate the soil. That alone could cost Place $1 million.

But, he still has potential developers like Pulte lined up.

Leisek will get in a few more rounds before then, and he says his golf membership is being transferred to Plantation Palms in Land O’Lakes, roughly 20 minutes away and also owned by Place. 

He says it won’t be the same, and will miss member dinners in the clubhouse and even visits to Mulligan’s.

But, what he’ll miss most is a golf course he shared 2-3 times a week with his friends and neighbors.

“We had a lot of good times here,” Leisek says. “It’s very depressing. Very upsetting.”

For Rich, who remembers the many Mother’s Day banquets he attended at the club, July 31 will mark the end of an era.

 â€śThe golf course is part of the heritage of this community,” he says. “It’s sad to see it go.”

Teen’s Passion Is Making Old Typewriters New Again

This 1914 Willard P. Smith Co. typewriter may only be worth $2,000, but Armstrong says it would take 500 times more than that for him to give it up, as it means the most to him. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Like most kids his age, 16-year-old Jack Armstrong can sit in front of a keyboard for hours on end, expertly manipulating the keys with his fingers to get the desired result.

There is one major difference, however. Instead of doing so in front of a computer, Armstrong is sitting in front of an actual typewriter, which are sometimes 100 years older than he is.

Whether it’s an 1880s Caligraph 2, a 1907 Handler or a 1914 Annell, Armstrong takes great delight in dissecting these machines from another time and restoring them to their original working condition, which he then sells, trades or displays on a shelf in his bedroom.

“It’s a passion,” he says of his craftsmanship. “I just love it.”

Armstrong is a rarity in the world of typewriter collectors and repairs, due to his age, but he is far from alone. He estimates that there are roughly 5,000-6,000 typewriter enthusiasts across the country who gather at small conventions and actively collect, trade and sell machines that may be outdated, but still stoke a deep love and appreciation from their admirers.

Armstrong has loved typewriters since he was a young kid, when his mother Rebecca would drag him with her on her Saturday afternoon antiquing expeditions.

Always a mechanical sort with a knack for taking things apart to see how they work, Armstrong was always drawn to the old typewriters he would see, with so many gears and type bars. 

He was 12 when he asked for one for Christmas, and his parents bought him a 1949 Royal. It needed repairs, so he found some tips on YouTube and, an hour later, the Royal was back in service.

“I was able to take this old antique that didn’t work and make it like new,” Armstrong says. “I got addicted to that, and it’s been snowballing ever since.”

An online high school student who is practically on the computer 24/7, Armstrong says he finds the tactile experience and ability to disconnect while he types refreshing and necessary. He types and mails 3-4 letters a week to friends and other collectors.

And Armstrong has turned his passion into a business— the Tampa Typewriter Co. People from around the world now send him their typewriters, paying — and praying — for a miracle restoration.

He says he made $20 on his first repair job, though that same job would cost $100 now. His slogan: “I can repair any typewriter from 1880 to 1980.”

“It just clicked at that moment that I’ve tapped into a niche,” Armstrong says. “I can turn this into a genuine business.” 

Jack Armstrong works on a typewriter in his garage workshop.

While others may just paint or spruce up older typewriters for customers who want a display piece, Armstrong says he tries to keep the original finish, even if that means a good helping of elbow grease. He will source the parts and replace things like the felt soundproofing, the rubber feet and everything in between.

“What I focus on is making them work,” he says. “I make them as nice as possible, and as new as possible.”

That means zero short cuts, which might include polishing a part of the typewriter that you will never see again. “I shine it up to a mirror finish, even though you won’t see it unless you take the machine apart.”

Armstrong’s latest effort was restoring an 1890 Caligraph No. 2  with a matching table. He put in more than 25 hours on the project, and has it listed for $2,000 on tampatypewriter.com. He wouldn’t hate keeping it as his own, either.

So Many Stories…

In his Wesley Chapel home, which includes a workshop in his garage, Armstrong has roughly 100 typewriters — 80 are his, and the other 20 he is repairing.

Typewriters that still work are rare. Of the 100 or so he says he has purchased via eBay over the years, only three arrived without needing anything more than a new ribbon.

For Jack Armstrong (top) restoring typewriters like the 1890 Caligraph No. 2 (above) is a passion that he has turned into a successful business.

He’s always looking. The one typewriter he would like to own? A Commercial Visible 6, a sleek silver machine with a gold decal that uses a type wheel that can be switched with another to change the font. 

It originally sold for $50 in 1898. Armstrong says only 35 are known to still exist.

“It’s one of the most beautiful typewriters ever produced,” Armstrong says. 

His most valuable typewriter is a Willard P. Smith Co. Armstrong says everything he has can be had for a price, but the Willard P. Smith would require a hefty bounty.

He won the typewriter in an auction on eBay, bribing other bidders to bow out. It cost him $800 total.

“No typewriter has ever sold for over a million dollars. But, I would need over a million dollars (to sell the Willard P. Smith),” Armstrong says. “It’s just too special to me.”

Armstrong’s prized possession, however, is an Armstrong typewriter, which he wanted because of the shared name. There are only 14 in existence, and he owns two of them. 

“They are my obsession,” he says, and they share a shelf with the Willard P. Smith in his room, which he refers to as his own personal typewriter museum.

When it comes to actual museums, Armstrong will soon have some of his own handiwork on display in one. A few typewriters that he restored for collectors Mark and Christina Albrecht of Bradenton were bought as part of a larger collection for a soon-to-be-built museum in Dubai, “which is pretty cool,” Armstrong says.

Every typewriter in his room has a story, and Armstrong revels in telling them. There’s the Type-a-Tune, a 1949 machine used to teach typing that also plays music, and he was offered $800 just for the instructional book alone.

A Simplex typewriter has attracted offers of more than $5,000, and a Vogue Royal with a sans serif typeface will sell for roughly $3,500. A rusty Annell is one of only 11 known to exist and has a pharmaceutical keyboard, as well as a sans serif typeface, making it even rarer, while his Mignon Model 2B has a Blackletter typeface called Fraktur. The typewriter was produced during a time when the Fraktur typeface was obsolete and not used, he says.

Thanks to some recent media exposure, Tampa Typewriter Co. is growing. Armstrong has restored nearly 250 typewriters, and as word of his dedication and prowess spreads, more business keeps coming his way. He has made more than $50,000 in sales to date, and says he would one day like to open a physical location.

Typewriters themselves may be obsolete, but this Wesley Chapel teenager is working hard to keep them alive.

“I’m 16, and I think people like the idea of this young gun working on these old machines,” Armstrong says. “It’s an unmatched level of work, and I just have this insane passion for it that most people don’t.”

For typewriter repairs, refurbs and resales, or just to check out some of the many collectibles Armstrong has repaired, visit TampaTypewriter.com, send an email to Tampatypewriter@gmail.com or call (813) 992-9799.

New Grocery Store At The Grove Stirs Online Debate

The social media team at The Grove put out a Facebook teaser that a national coffee chain and national grocery store were coming to their ever-expanding property this year.

As far as a national coffee chain, well, we’d be shocked if it wasn’t…wait for it….Starbucks.

But, a new national grocer?

Now that is intriguing.

So, naturally, because this is Wesley Chapel and everyone seems to go ga-ga for anything new coming to town, the Facebook post exploded with people using ALL CAPS and multiple exclamation points to demand that their choice be the one, ordering The Grove to make it so and seemingly ready to fight anyone who disagreed.

And, that (of course) were just the Trader Joe’s fans!

Some cast their votes/begged for their favorite and made predictions, while others — transplants from other states, we’re guessing — clamored for their favorite grocers from their hometowns in the Midwest and Northeast.

More than 350 comments rolled in, and we read every one of them, and the winner — if the locals were allowed to make the choice — was Trader Joe’s.

Uhhh, we mean TRADER JOE’S OR BUST!!!!!!

That’s no surprise, of course. When we ran a similar poll on our Facebook page, asking what should replace the old Sweetbay on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in New Tampa, Trader Joe’s trounced the field — although, ahem, we don’t recall anyone threatening to move away if it wasn’t a Trader Joe’s.

The Grove post was a mishmash of grocery store debate, which led us to wonder what could be coming.

PUBLIX: The obvious, predictable choice, even though the Publix on the corner of S.R. 54 and BBD is just down the road. But, since when has having a nearby location mattered to Publix? Heck, in New Tampa, you can throw a BOGO bag of lettuce from the Cross Creek Blvd. location at Morris Bridge Rd. and hit the New Tampa Blvd. at BBD store.

Besides, the Hollybrook Plaza Publix is going to relocate to the east one of these days back (near the Walmart), creating some additional distance from the new store in The Grove. 

Here’s the thing, though — while we all love Publix, it’s still just Publix. And it’s literally everywhere. 

Does it really fit the fresh, hip new energy coming from The Grove, even though one could argue that a Publix chicken tender sub trumps fresh, hip new energy any day, and we wouldn’t necessarily disagree?

However, you know what’s hipper than Publix? A new Publix, like the prototype store that opened in December on Gandy Blvd. in South Tampa.

The 48,000-sq.-ft. store has two floors, with a large dining area on the second floor. It has a fresh, cleaner design that seeks to modernize the usual Publix.

There are self check-out lanes, lots of grab-and-go fresh foods, a free-standing deli, two grocery pickup spots and drive-through service at the pharmacy, according to progressivegrocer.com.

There’s also a Publix Aprons Cooking School kiosk located in the center of the new store.

While the Gandy location is a prototype, landing the first actual “new” Publix would give off lots of that exciting energy The Grove developer Mark Gold prides himself on generating.

WHOLE FOODS: The popular and pricey organic grocery chain, headquartered in Austin, TX, and now owned by Amazon, was mentioned by more than a dozen Facebook commentors.

Whole Foods would certainly fill a void left by Earth Fare, Wesley Chapel’s first, albeit ill-fated, organic grocer, which shut down after less than a year in existence in 2019 and is now a Total Wine & More (see pg. 34).

Today, there are no large organic grocers in the area — although Nutrition Smart on BBD is a nice, smaller option — and Whole Foods would no doubt be a perfect fit in an area that still clamors for family-friendly, fresh organic offerings. It also fits The Grove’s vibe better than just about any other option.

TRADER JOE’S: This would be a home run for Gold, although also a tough get, but as made clear by the Facebook comments of more than 50 posters, by far the most popular one.

Wesley Chapel, New Tampa and Carrollwood wanted a Trader Joe’s so badly a few years back that there was a campaign to petition the store online in the hopes of landing a location. Hillsborough County commissioners even got involved in the Tampa efforts.

But alas, nothing. New Tampa has since added a Sprouts, an Aldi and it appears a Lotte Super Market is coming as well. Trader Joe’s still has just its location on Swann Ave. in South Tampa.

Could Wesley Chapel break through and succeed where New Tampa didn’t?

IT BETTER OR WE’RE MOVING!!!

(Kidding….kind of).

WEGMANS: You think we have a lot of Northeasterners living here in Wesley Chapel? Consider this: Wegmans received more online interest than Publix, Aldi and Sprouts combined.

In fact, the Wegmans discussion spun off into its own little debate. We half expected someone on the thread to start a Wegmans podcast.

Wegmans, based in Gates, NY, has a large organic food selection, a hot food bar and really, really happy employees, making some transplants downright misty-eyed in the comments talking about the store.

Wegmans has a pretty impressive resume, being named the best or favorite grocery store in the country by Food Network, Consumer Reports subscribers and marketforce.com.

Apparently, new openings draw thousands willing to wait in lines.

Janette Vazquez Driesslein used many exclamation points in pleading for a Wegmans, and commented that when she moved to Florida in 2004 she reached out to Wegmans about moving stores here. “Here we are almost 20 years later and nope. So, sadly, I think it’s pretty unlikely.”

Janette, we agree. Wegmans stores generally only come as far south as North Carolina, and don’t appear to have any plans to expand here.

Road trip?

KROGER: Some transplanted Midwesterners have a soft spot for Kroger, and while the chain has no Florida locations, a May announcement that the chain is beginning deliveries from a new fulfillment center in Tampa at least gives reason for hope, right?

If you love Kroger that much, for a $9.95 fee, you can order your groceries right off the company’s website or app.

As for Kroger coming to The Grove? Probably not. But, stores in Florida could be in the future.

THE OTHERS: Judging by some of the passionate responses, everyone has their favorite grocery store. Thank goodness the Piggly Wiggly folks didn’t show up en masse, or there might have been an actual online brawl.

Some others that were mentioned more than once in the grocery thread include the three-location, family-owned Detwiler’s Farm Market based in Sarasota, Texas-based H-E-B, which has a cult-like following, Sprouts, Fresh Market and yes, even another Aldi, which would be ironic because the location on S.R. 56 was originally approved to be built near The Grove.