Wesley Chapel continues to attract new and popular concepts. (Photo: PopStroke Facebook)
PopStroke Entertainment, a mini-golf and restaurant concept owned by golfing legend Tiger Woods and entrepreneur Greg Bartoli, is coming to Wesley Chapel’s Cypress Creek Town Center on S.R. 56.
According to the PopStroke Entertainment website, and first reported by the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Wesley Chapel is just part of a major PopStroke Entertainment expansion that will also include seven new locations in across three states. In Florida, new locations also include Sarasota, Orlando and Delray Beach.
Its two current locations are located in Port St. Lucie and Fort Myers.
(Photo: PopStroke Facebook)
And these aren’t your daddy’s putt-putt golf courses. There are no windmills to hit around, just specially designed holes meant to mimic real putting on a real course. Woods and TGR Design, his award-winning design team, will be building two 18-hole putting courses — at the Fort Myers PopStroke, for example, one course is called the Cub and is more for beginners, while and the other more challenging course is called Tiger.
The courses have synthetic turfs, incorporate fairways into the design, and the primary obstacles — replacing windmills and ramps — will be the same bunkers and rough you face on a real golf course. The undulation changes will bring the course to life.
“I am very excited about our expansion plans,” Woods said in the statement on PopStroke.com. “Putting is a universal part of golf that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels. It has been rewarding to see the broad and diverse group of guests enjoying their experience at PopStroke, and I look forward to seeing players make those long putts in locations throughout the South and Southwest. Each new location will have a different course design and layout giving players unique putting challenges as they travel across the country.”
PopStroke was founded in 2018, and uses technology to enhance the putt putt experience. A customized app will track scores on a digital scoreboard, as well as allowing customers to order food and drinks to be delivered directly to you on the course. There will be an outdoor dining area with a full menu, a variety of craft beer and wine, ice cream, outdoor games and a playground.
The Port St. Lucie location also has three golf simulators, allowing you to play more than 200 courses worldwide.
A mini-golf course is also under construction at The Grove Entertainment Complex, next to the movie theater. It is expected to be completed this year.
The New Tampa Performing Arts Center is planned to go on the currently unbuilt tract of land behind The Village at Hunter’s Lake plaza and in front of The Trails at Hunter’s Lake apartments.(Drone photo: Charmaine George)
Despite the fact a majority of Hillsborough County commissioners declined to vote to award a $7.3-million construction contract for the long-awaited New Tampa Performing Arts Center (PAC), District 2 Commissioner Ken Hagan says the show must go on, following another intermission.
Hagan believes that once all of the county commissioners’ concerns are addressed by staff, construction will proceed.
“I’m not really concerned,” Comm. Hagan told the Neighborhood News. “I think once staff fully describes and explains not only the history of the project but the operational plan, I think the individual Board members will be comfortable with it.”
Hagan’s motion to execute the construction contract with Bandes Construction Company was seconded by Dist. 4’s Stacy White but received no other support. It was withdrawn after some debate, and deferred to the next BOCC meeting on May 5.
The opposition, mostly due to concerns over money and the company that will be managing the facility, raised a few eyebrows in New Tampa, but Hagan says the project, which is located directly across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the Hunter’s Green community in The Village at Hunter’s Lake, is not in any danger. The pad for the PAC is already in place (see photo), built by the developer, Harrison Bennett Properties, LLC.
Roughly $8 million in funding to complete the project was set aside in 2019 via a bond issue.
The New Tampa PAC — which for almost all of its history had been referred to as the New Tampa Cultural Center — will be a 350-seat venue with four dance studios. The seats in the auditorium will be retractable, allowing the space to be converted into a multi-purpose room for event receptions. The 20,000-sq.-ft. building is adaptable to accommodate various needs when it comes to space. There also are plans to add a second story in the future to accommodate additional dance studios and community spaces.Â
Commissioners Mariella Smith, Kimberly Overman, Gwen Myers and Harry Cohen shared many of the same concerns, mostly centering around questions regarding the company that will manage the facility — the Florida Cultural Group (FCG). Formerly known as The Manatee Players, Inc., the FCG is an umbrella organization that operates the Manatee Performing Arts Center, and the Manatee Players community theater.
Smith questioned why the operations would be handled by a Manatee-based company, as opposed to the local New Tampa Players (NTP). But NTP, which would make its home at the new PAC, is a much smaller organization that has never handled the management of a theater. It currently operates out of its recently completed Uptown Stage location in the University Mall on E. Fowler Ave.
“I just have a concern about the county putting $8 million into a 20,000-sq.-ft. edifice somewhere where there’s not more local community control,” Smith said, while also voicing concern that the City of Tampa was not contributing to the construction when the facility is located in Tampa. However, as Hagan pointed out, the PAC is just as close to residents in the unincorporated area of New Tampa as it is to those in the area living within city limits.
Overman said with so many of the county’s capital improvement projects having to be deferred in these cash-strapped times, she was not necessarily opposed but, “the timing just feels wrong…..I just can’t support moving this forward right now.”
Cohen also had concerns about the arrangement with FCG.
“I don’t think money was the issue, but the main misunderstanding was with the Florida Cultural Group and their role,” says Hagan of the group that will receive nearly $1.5 million to run the PAC through 2025. “A couple of commissioners didn’t understand their history. Our staff has worked on this for a couple of years. They feel extremely confident this will be a very successful partnership and they (FCG) will be able to bring in major national acts and fundraise.”
As for the City of Tampa contributing, District 7 City Council member Luis Viera motioned at the Council’s April 15 meeting to request Mayor Jane Castor’s administration meet with the county to make an arrangement on helping to finance maintenance, to the tune of maybe $50,000-$75,000 a year.
Rendering of the front of the NT PAC, which the county commission has yet to award a contract for construction for. (Fleischman Garcia Architecture)
The previous administration under Bob Buckhorn declined to help, Viera says he was told.
Viera told his fellow Council members that the project was a long-time coming and of much importance to the New Tampa area, and that he was ready to fight for it. Viera’s motion passed unanimously.
How much that helps get the project over the final hurdle remains to be seen.
The PAC has been in the works for 20 years, beginning in 2001 when a Connecticut firm was paid $27,000 by the City for a study that determined New Tampa could support a cultural center.
Rendering of the lobby of the NT PAC. (Fleischman Garcia Architecture)
The project fizzled out in 2005, but was revived in 2007, when Hagan and former fellow Commissioner Victor Crist pushed to keep it alive. In 2014, the Village at Hunter’s Lake project, of which the New Tampa PAC is a central part, was initially approved.
Hagan said he has sat through at least 15 different votes on the PAC throughout the years and, at different times over they years, we reported that it was expected to be completed by 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Even that latest projection isn’t going to happen, however.
“I’m extremely frustrated that it’s taken this long to execute the (PAC’s) construction contract,” Hagan says. “We should be cutting the ribbon now, not awarding the construction contract. I mean, we designated the funding in 2019. We really should have been up and running by now. That part is very, very frustrating.”
Wharton shortstop and Oklahoma State signee Zach Ehrhard is a four-year starter with a .417 career batting average, including .440 this season. (Photos: John C. Cotey)
When it comes to all of the 18 baseball teams coach Scott Hoffman has had at Wharton High, last year’s version had the potential to be one of the best.
The Wildcats started out 8-1, with every win but one by four runs or more, outscoring their opponents 73-19. It was a great start.
But then, Covid took hold, and the season, as well as the Wildcats’ hopes for a State championship, faded away.
“When you look back, we thought last year might have been our year,” Hoffman says.
However, thanks to this year’s team, the coach hasn’t had to do much lamenting. The Wildcats picked up right where they left off in 2020 and are 20-4 this season following a 6-2 win over Alonso to send them to the Class 7A, District 7 district championship game this Friday at 7 p.m. against Sickles.
The Wildcats, who win or lose in the 7A-7 final have already clinched a spot in the regional baseball playoffs, will see if they have a deep playoff run in them. They returned most of the starters from last year’s team, the pitching has been better than expected and three of their four losses — including a 6-5 loss to nationally-ranked Jesuit — have only been by a single run.
Hoffman says his squad still hasn’t put together the perfect game — although it does have two no-hitters — and thinks the 2021 Wildcats may be due. He has high hopes for this postseason.
“When we’re trying to think of the teams (we’ve had) that have gone on and done something in the postseason, I’d say we’re right about there (with them),” he says.
Pitching has been a major key. Junior starters Ryan Fry and Evan Chrest are a combined 13-2 with an ERA under 2.00, while senior Jackson Perkins is 5-0 with a 0.89 ERA.
Last month, Fry, a University of Miami commitment, threw what is believed to be the first seven-inning no-hitter in Wharton history, which also happened to be the second of back-to-back 15-strikeout games for the hard-throwing righty. Fry threw a complete game 3-hitter with nine strikeouts against Alonso in the district semifinal.
“Pitching has been the key,” says Hoffman, joking that every Wharton team he thinks will pitch well ends up hitting well, and vice versa. This year is no different, as he thought the hitting would be the team’s primary strength.
And, it hasn’t been bad. Hoffman said one hole to fill this year was developing a swing guy who could play multiple positions, and that turned out to be junior David Limbach, a backup catcher who showed more athleticism than Hoffman originally thought he had. In his utility role, Limbach has played in both the infield and outfield and is fourth on the team with a .343 batting average and tied for third-best with 20 RBI.
Dylan McDonald leads the Wildcats in a handful of offensive categories and thinks this team could be a State championship contender.
That puts him right behind Wharton’s formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup — senior centerfielder and Saint Leo University signee Dylan McDonald and senior shortstop Zach Ehrhard, who is bound for Oklahoma State.
McDonald, who bats leadoff, leads the team with a .410 average, 10 doubles, three home runs, 33 hits and 22 RBI, while Ehrhard is hitting .440 with 12 doubles, three homers and a team-high 24 steals. Ehrhard has gotten hot at the right time the past two weeks, going 10-for-18 with two homers, three doubles and eight RBI.
“I feel like we are definitely a pretty good 1-2 combo,” McDonald says. “When I get on, I know the 2-3-4 guys tend to get me in. And, when we start out quick, we seem to do pretty well.”
In fact, the Wildcats are 15-1 when they score first, with the only loss coming to Jesuit.
The Wildcats also have flexed their muscles this season, with seven different players combining to blast a school record 17 home runs in 24 games.
In the previous five seasons combined, Wharton hit 16 homers in 111 games.
Although the Wildcats have hit well in spurts, Hoffman is still looking for that stretch of offensive consistency — they are averaging nearly nine runs a game during their current 5-game win streak — that will elevate the team to a true playoff contender. If that happens, last year could become even more of a distant memory.
“We had a really good team last year, but is this team better?,” asks McDonald. “I think we kind of flip-flop on that every day. We could have won State last year, can we win State this year? We have a lot of chemistry this year, so it’s possible. Either way, these have been two of the best years Wharton has ever had.”
Drivers pulling out of Hollybrook Plaza need to be cautious.
Residents were assured during a sparsely attended virtual public hearing hosted by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in February that the plans to redesign and modify part of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. south of its intersection with S.R. 54 are ongoing.
Construction on the median project is expected to begin in early 2022.
The project centers around the northbound and southbound median just south of the actual intersection.
The median currently has an opening allowing motorists to cross from exits between the Sonny’s BBQ and Sun Trust Bank adjacent to the Publix-anchored Hollybrook Plaza to southbound BBD or straight across to the west, to the Village Market shopping center, and from the Village Market to northbound BBD or across eastbound to the Hollybrook Plaza.
The plan is basically to extend the median and eliminate any cutting across BBD from either side.
The medians along this stretch will be combined into one.
It is not an uncommon sight to see an accident at the northbound side in front of the Sonny’s BBQ or Taco Bell.
According to FDOT, the median project was initiated by an intersection study that showed 233 “crashes” had been reported in that area from 2011-15.
A Neighborhood News Reader Survey in 2017 voted the BBD/54 intersection as the second-worst in Wesley Chapel, behind the I-75 and S.R. 56 intersection (which will have a new Diverging Diamond Interchange by the end of 2021).
The plan to make the location safer centers around closing what is now a split median and constructing one long median from Eagleston Blvd. to the south all the way north to S.R. 54.
Under the current set up, the northbound far left turn lane, when filled during busy traffic hours, extends beyond the median opening and blocks those trying to cross BBD.
Now, with a single, longer median, that left turn lane will be extended to accommodate more vehicles, which will reduce congestion.
There also will be a new traffic signal installed at Eagleston, and new roadway lighting added to the northbound lanes, as well as some resurfacing.
At the southbound end of the new median where the light will be installed, a dedicated U-turn lane will be built for motorists wanting to get to Hollybrook Plaza (this also can be achieved by merely driving east through the BBD/54 intersection and entering via two entrance points off S.R. 54).
FDOT says it plans to let the project out to bid in October, with construction beginning a few months later.
A likely-to-be-proposed development will affect three different communities, according to Quail Hollow residents opposed to it.
Lane Mendelsohn has had his eye on the more than 1,000 acres of land next to where his family lives in the Quail Hollow area for a few years now. Not because he wants to buy it, but because those who own it have plans he feels aren’t best for that area.
SoHo Capital, LLC, the developers of the proposed Dayflower Master Planned Unit Development (MPUD), may be prepping to ask the county for a rezoning that will increase how many homes it can build on the land from roughly 1,000 to almost 1,500. Mendelsohn is worried about overcrowding, flooding, damage to wetlands and roads buckling under an influx of new traffic, to name a few.
So, instead of sitting back and waiting to see what happens, Mendelsohn and a group of Quail Hollow residents are on a mission to stop a potential rezoning of the land before it even gets started.
Mendelsohn has spent a good deal of his own money founding the Quail Hollow Alliance (QHA), creating a website and forming a team of land and environmental experts. He has rallied the communities of Quail Hollow, Angus Valley and Lexington Oaks — and residents of those developments account for the many of the more than 2,000 signatures in opposition he has collected — in a proactive effort to save the area.
“I’m not an activist that goes around county looking for a fight,” Mendelsohn says. “I got involved because this affects me, my family and my community. We’ve got one shot to stop this proposed development on a very environmentally sensitive piece of property and once built on, that’s it, there’s no turning back. If someone didn’t step up with the time and financial resources, my feeling was we may blow it and have to live with the adverse effects. If I didn’t do this, I would never be able to forgive myself.”
SoHo Capital is likely to bring its plans to the Pasco County Planning Commission in the near future. It owns 1,007 acres north of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and west of Old Pasco Rd. The property touches three established communities, but mostly Quail Hollow and Angus Valley, communities which date back to the 1950s, where home lots are generally three quarters of an acre or larger.
Mendelsohn owns a 75-acre lot just north of the property, a six-acre plot and a 2-acre plot where he lives next to his parents’ 14-acre lot.
Mendelsohn says Soho Capital wants to fill the developable areas (probably 500 acres, due to how much of the property is wetlands) with 40-foot lots.
While he says he respects a land owner’s rights to do what is allowed under its zoning, he is opposed to rezoning to allow even more homes.
While SoHo is already permitted to build around 1,000 homes (2.2 homes per buildable acre due to its current Res-1 zoning), Mendelsohn says the developer is working towards a rezoning which would allow for 1,439 homes.
“My feeling is development has to be responsible, and has to be consistent and compatible with the surrounding areas,” Mendelsohn says.
Jennifer Seney, a Quail Hollow resident who researches most of the information that fills the group’s website, feels the same.
“I’ll even go a step further,” Seney says, “I’ll say that what is being proposed for this piece of land is completely inappropriate.”
The additional density from a rezoning, not what is currently allowed, is where the QHA finds the problem.
According to Mendelsohn, SoHo Capital estimates the development would add 13,309 additional day trips on three small country roads that run right through Quail Hollow and Angus Valley. Mendelsohn says those roads — Sandy Ln., Mangrove Dr. and Armenian Ln. — are already classified as substandard by the county for not being thick or wide enough, and there is no room to widen them without getting rid of the swales that help control the area’s persistent flooding.
Seney has particularly strong feelings about the roads, because she says SoHo Capital is requesting that the county allow it to pay “fair share” on the road improvements, which means splitting the costs with the county, rather than footing the bill themselves. She believes the county’s share would end up as an assessment on those living near and using the roads. In other words, the residents of Quail Hollow and Angus Valley.
“The road improvements are solely for the benefit of the developer,” Seney says. “We don’t need them (with the current population that uses them), and would never ask for them, but will have to pay for them.”
Seney, who worked for Pasco County as a recycling supervisor from 2008-18, fears the county may see this as an opportunity to bring the roads up to a higher level of service without having to pay for anything.
Following a March 1 required virtual public meeting with the developer, QHA members also claimed the project, which is adjacent to the Cypress Creek Preserve, would destroy “at least 11 acres of pristine wetlands, which help recharge Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater’s water supply through Pasco’s Cypress Creek Watershed.”
SoHo Capital, or SoHo Dayflower LLC, does not yet have any meetings scheduled yet before the planning commission, which would be the next step. Mendelsohn is hoping that such meetings won’t happen at all. The main goal of his group is to convince county staff that the project isn’t worth putting to any vote, due to the numerous questions — which Mendelsohn says have not been answered — put forth by the QHA.
“I don’t want this to get in front of the planning commission and then the county commissioners and have us have to fight this out in front of them,” Mendelsohn says. “If the Pasco County Planning department really takes a look at this, they would see that this project is not a good project for this area.”
District 2 County Commissioner Mike Moore says he has been contacted by the group, but until the project moves onto the planning commission agenda, he has little to say about it.
The QHA is not trying to stop SoHo from building any homes on the land it owns. Mendelsohn says he is not anti-development. And in fact, if developers were only trying to build the number of homes the property was currently zoned for, the QHA wouldn’t even exist.
However, if a rezoning does take place, he feels that more homes will equal more problems for long-time residents of Quail Hollow and Angus Valley.
“My main point is, building 40-foot lots is just not compatible in an area where the lots are bigger and there isn’t that kind of density,” Mendelsohn says. ““I do believe property owners have rights and I respect that, however my hope is that the county commissioners are listening to the people and just because a developer requests a rezoning, that is not something they are entitled to or that the commissioners are required to grant.”
For more information, check out QuailHollowAlliance.org
