Hotels, another movie theater on the way for Wesley Chapel area

hyatt-place copy
A Hyatt Place-Wesley Chapel, like the one pictured above at the Tampa International Airport, is coming soon to the area.

Where there is room to grow, there appears to be rooms growing, as the areas around the Tampa Premium Outlets, the Shops of Wiregrass mall, Florida’s soon-to-be-largest ice skating facility, a potential indoor sports facility and a host of other new retail projects is helping spur the growth of hotels and much-needed hotel rooms along S.R. 56 in the Wesley Chapel area.

“We have five hotels moving through the permitting process,’’ Ed Caum, Pasco’s tourism manager says.

Impact Properties is the latest looking to grab some of the expected hospitality dollars, with plans to build a six-story, 130-room Hyatt Place-Wesley Chapel in the Cypress Creek Town Center Development of Regional Impact (DRI) on the west corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd., located at the east end of Sierra Center Rd.

According to its website, Impact’s properties include the 255-room Westin Tampa Bay on the Courtney Campbell Causeway and the Castillo Real Resort in St. Augustine, FL, as well as the Cypress Ridge Professional Center on Cypress Ridge Blvd. in Wesley Chapel.

The only hotel currently serving the S.R. 56 corridor is the Hampton Inn & Suites Tampa-Wesley Chapel off S.R. 56 (next to the under-construction Florida Hospital Center Ice {FHCI} facility), which has 94 guest rooms.

Overall, the county’s hotel occupancy rate is around 70 percent, said Caum.

“If we’re at 75 percent capacity, new development will happen,’’ he said. “That’s why we’re seeing the development.”

Caum said the average daily rate of a hotel room in Pasco County in December was $82.79, an increase from last year’s average of $78.29. In 2015, Pasco County reached a new “Bed Tax” high, collecting $968,263 between October 1, 2014 and September 31, 2015.

Here are the hotels on the way on and near S.R. 56:

• Brightwork Real Estate is planning to build a 100-room hotel at the northwest corner of S.R. 54 and Wesley Chapel Blvd. in Land O’Lakes, across from the Tampa Premium Outlets.

• A Holiday Inn Express & Suites will be built just east of I-75, west and south of the Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) that is planned to open later this year. The Holiday Inn will have 80 rooms.

• A Hilton Garden Inn has been proposed for S.R. 56 and Silver Maple Pkwy. in the Wiregrass Ranch DRI, west of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. The Hilton will be six stories tall and will have 125 rooms.

• A 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is expected to complement the potential indoor sports complex in the Wiregrass Ranch DRI, which we’ve reported about several times over the last year or so.

Caum said the Urban Land Institute, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit research and education organization that focuses on land use and real estate development, issued a report two years ago saying that Pasco would experience an annual growth in hotel rooms of about 75 a year through 2020. “And, we are bearing that out,’’ Caum says.

The reason for the growth is due in part, Caum says, to the county’s waiving of transportation fees for builders, saving them up to $100,000. “The incentive is definitely working,’’ he says.

Movie Theater To Be Part Of Wiregrass Mall Expansion

The Grove in Wesley Chapel has a movie theater, as does New Tampa.

Now, in between those two established theaters, a new multiplex is expected to be part of the next phase of development at the Shops of Wiregrass mall.

A 1,035-seat cinema is being planned by Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises as part of a residential and commercial project to be located just east of the existing mall. Forest City is currently seeking permitting for the movie theater project, which does not yet have a name.

The 39,000-sq.-ft. theater will be on the west side of the new development along S.R. 56, which will also include 249 upscale apartments, four restaurants ranging in size from 4,200 sq. ft. to 12,000 sq. ft, a specialty grocery store (one of four coming to our area we told you about in our last issue), as well as other yet-unnamed retail stores.

Andrew Krance, Master Of Fine Arts, Can Create A Masterpiece For You

Krance6By Gary Nager

I’ll freely admit that I don’t know nearly as much about art as I do about food, wine or single-malt Scotch (go figure!). But, as someone who was born and raised in and near New York City, I was definitely exposed to a lot of art and I have found that whether it’s surrealist, impressionist or cubist, I just know what I like when I see it.

“And that is the thing about art,” says Wesley Chapel resident and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Andrew Krance. “It’s such a personal thing. You don’t always know why you like or don’t like a piece of art, you just know if you do or not.”

But, if you’re moving into a new home or redecorating an older one and you want something really cool to tie together that huge new living room or you just like the idea of purchasing original art directly from the artist rather than buying a signed and numbered print, lithograph or giclet, I believe that if you visit Andrew’s home studio in the Villages of Wesley Chapel and see just how much original art he has displayed in a wide variety of genres and styles, you might end up becoming a customer of his.

A Little Background…

Andrew’s father, Casimir Krance, who also was a renowned concert pianist, had inherited a munitions factory in France before World War II. When the Germans invaded France, the native of Poland moved his family to New York City but they eventually ended up in Wisconsin, where Andrew earned his MFA degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Krance5An accomplished musician himself, Andrew’s artistic bent helped him find his way back to the Big Apple, where he lived with an aunt on Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side, near Gracie Mansion, the residence that is home to New York City’s mayor.

It was while working for Dorothy Maynor, the opera star who founded the Harlem School for the Arts (which provides college curricula in performing and visual arts in Upper Manhattan), that Andrew met Barbara Johnson of the Johnson & Johnson family, one of the world’s foremost collectors of fine art, and where he began dabbling in a wide variety of artistic genres.

“She had Van Goghs, Rembrandts and a 40-foot Monet in her home,” Andrew recalls. “Her collection today is worth in the billions of dollars.” Johnson took the young artist under her wing, as she had many others, and introduced him to everyone from the governors (at the time) of Texas and Arizona to Leo Castelli, whom the actor Dennis Hopper called “the godfather of the contemporary art world.”

The Castelli Gallery was one of the most famous in the world and helped launch or further the careers of everyone from Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns to Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

And, for a while, a young Andrew Krance. Andrew says the artists under Castelli’s “wing” would have drinks together at a place called Magoo’s off Canal St.

Krance2But, “Andrieu,” as his late, Israeli wife Eti (Esther) used to call him, ultimately went into the pet food and pet products business and later moved to Key Largo, FL, where he and his wife opened a lingerie store. They spent 20 years together on the east coast of Florida before moving to Wesley Chapel together a few years ago. She passed away three months after learning she had cancer.

“I did throw myself more into my art after Eti passed,” he admits.

Today, Andrew continues to go through different “periods” with his art, although he mainly uses acrylic paints and a more “pop art” style these days. “The paint just dries so much faster (than oil) and the colors and textures are amazing,” he says.

So, his work ranges from emulating everyone from Picasso to Warhol to Jackson Pollack and some of his favorite pieces are his own “takes” on famous people, like the late music stars Stevie Ray Vaughn and Bob Marley and even Warhol himself.

Corporate Work & More

Today, Andrew says that he can create virtually anything in acrylics and he really enjoys being commissioned to create something unique.

“I can fill those huge walls in a large corporate office or an upscale home,” he says. “Give me an idea and a style and I’ll come up with something great, in less time than you might think.”

Krance7But, even if you’re not sure you want to buy anything, one thing I certainly would suggest is to make an appointment with Andrew to check out the art that’s already in his home. There’s more paintings on Andrew’s walls than at some art galleries I’ve been to and I have included some of my favorites (and his) on these page. So, sit down, enjoy a cup of coffee or a good Scotch with him and talk about art.

The artist has become friends with one of his neighbors, Joe Lawler, and Andrew says, “Joe has bought five pieces from me, but not because we’re friends, but because he likes what I do.”

Joe says, “You can just see the talent Andrew has. I love his art that looks like Picasso so much, I bought my favorite.”

You also can check out most of Andrew’s art at KranceContemporaryPaintings.com (which he says is being revamped a bit as we’re going to press) or call 994-0008 for more info.