Grace Episcopal Church In Tampa Palms Breaks Ground On New Sanctuary

Local dignitaries and church members turn dirt where the first row of pews will begin in Grace Episcopal Church’s new sanctuary. Bishop Dabney T. Smith, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida looks on.

On an April Sunday morning twenty years ago, the Rev. Larry Hooper led a joyful procession of Grace Episcopal Church’s congregation from their temporary home at Tampa Palms Elementary to the Promised Land at the confluence of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., Tampa Palms Blvd. and Amberly Dr., where their newly constructed worship building was completed.

Parishioners’ spirits were similarly raised, along with some earth, on June 3 while breaking ground on Grace’s new sanctuary, in a ceremony that united members of New Tampa’s religious and civic communities in celebration.

Referred to as the “Amazing Grace Building Project,” the finished structure will provide 4,500-sq.-ft. of worship space for the church’s 300 parishioners. It is being built by Waterford Designs, Inc. at a cost of $1.5 million.

Etta Green, chair of the Amazing Grace Visions capital campaign, expresses optimism that the labor will be finished in time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

“We’re hoping it will be done by Christmas,” she says.

So far, the capital campaign has raised more than $160,000 of a $450,000 goal, according to Green. Parishioners have the opportunity to contribute to the campaign through donations which can be designated to specific spaces or needs of the project, such as its nursery, carillon or even individual pews, bricks and benches. The remaining cost is being funded from cash the church has on hand.

The groundbreaking was presided over by the Rt. Rev. Dabney T. Smith, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida. Featured speakers celebrating the occasion included Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who was introduced by Luis Viera, a Hunter’s Green resident who represents New Tampa’s District 7 on the Tampa City Council

“Communities are defined by their institutions and this church is a great strength and support to the families of New Tampa,” said Viera. Grace’s current Rector, the Rev. Canon Benjamin Twinamaani, known affectionately as Fr. Benjamin, served as the event’s master of ceremonies.

A Little History…

Grace Episcopal Church had its genesis in 1992, when it held its first services in a storefront in the nearby City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center. It was one of the few places of worship in New Tampa at the time, and Mayor Buckhorn recognized the relationship between the church and the community it has served in the 25 years since then.

Artist rendering of the new sanctuary.

“We have watched the amazing growth of this community and this church has been an important part of the growth of Tampa,’’ Buckhorn said. “Go make us proud; continue to grow and continue to prosper.”

The event was a bit of a homecoming for Shawn Harrison, who represents District 63, which includes most of New Tampa, in the Florida House of Representatives. He is a former parishioner of the church who said he recalls the relationship between Grace Episcopal and Tampa Palms, which donated land for the church. “This has always been the little community church of Tampa Palms,” Rep. Harrison said.

Bishop Smith turned the soil at the place where the sanctuary’s future altar will be. As he did so, he noted the significance of the occasion, which he referred to as “a moment of aspiration for the church. What we are doing today in simply turning dirt will create a space of transcendence.”

Among members of the congregation who gathered for the groundbreaking, the consensus is that Grace Episcopal is, above all, a welcoming place.

Bernard and Nancy Guss are founding members of the church, and also are a mixed-religion couple. Bernard is Jewish and Nancy is Episcopalian. They say Grace has been a spiritual home that has accommodated both of their respective beliefs.

Bishop Dabney T. Smith, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, turns dirt at the future site of Grace Episcopal Church’s new altar. He is flanked by (left) Fr. Benjamin Twinamaani, the church rector, and the Revd. Deacon Lynn Grinnell.

“Nancy and I visited several churches before coming here,” Bernard said. “We felt like it was open to a variety of beliefs. It’s truly a unifying place where I have felt welcome.”

Zainaba and Charles Forster are both from the West African nation of Sierra Leone who now make their home in Heritage Isles. Charles said that Grace Episcopal Church is a tranquil place that is always open. “It is indeed what church is supposed to be,” Charles said.

The Forsters were married by Fr. Benjamin, who has been the church’s spiritual leader since 2005. Fr. Benjamin, who is known throughout the New Tampa area, considers the new sanctuary to be a tangible expression of Grace Episcopal’s commitment to the local community.

“We are renewing our identity as a church that anchors the community,’’ Fr. Benjamin said. “In today’s world, we need that.”

Grace Episcopal Church, located at 15102 Amberly Dr. in Tampa Palms, holds services each Sunday at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Visitors are always welcome to attend services. For more information, visit online at GraceNewTampa.org or call (813) 971-8484.

RADDSPORTS: Sports Complex Is ‘Ready To Go!’

Anthony Homer (left) and Richard Blalock of RADDSPORTS, with WCCC CEO Hope Allen. (Photo: OurTownFla.com)

Richard Blalock is eager to get shovels in the ground and the long–awaited indoor/outdoor sports complex in Wiregrass Ranch built. He says that these days, it’s just a waiting game.

However, when Pasco County is ready to issue the permits and get the ball — or, in this case, basketballs — rolling, Blalock assured local business leaders on May 25, at the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) Economic Development Briefing, that his team is ready to go.

“We’re hoping to get it all papered up in August,’’ said Blalock, the CEO & Founder of RADDSPORTS, the Sarasota-based company that will build and run the Wiregrass Sports Complex (WSC) at Pasco County, as he said it is currently called. “We are 30 percent into drawings, 40 percent into civil design, and it will be 18 months to build, but we think we might be able to get it in 12 or 14.”

That would mean a spring 2019 opening for the $44-million WSC, which is planned for part of a 224-acre parcel located northeast of the Shops at Wiregrass.

“We’re excited for it,’’ said WCCC CEO Hope Allen. “We’ve been waiting.”

Blalock and RADDSPORTS VP of development Anthony Homer showed some new designs and news to the monthly WCCC gathering at the Pebble Creek Golf Club in New Tampa.

In conjunction with Mainsail Development, the sports complex will have one of the first full-service Marriott-branded Residence Inns, a 120-room hotel that will now be L-shaped to create a courtyard at the entrance to the WSC, with a sports theme and rooftop bar overlooking the complex, which also will have an amphitheater for concerts and seven soccer fields.

Blalock also showed plans for ponds and a trail system through the complex, in an effort that could appease the older, more country-minded Wesley Chapel residents.

“We’ll be marketing this complex nationwide as kind of an ‘old Florida’ theme,’’ Blalock said. “We want to keep the natural sites, and the ponds
.we’d like to tell the basketball teams and volleyball teams up in New York to come down and see a gator. We want to keep that whole theme of nature; that’s what the community is looking for.”

As for the programming, Blalock said it’s too early to determine if the 98,000-sq.ft. indoor facility will be something residents can just walk in off the street and use, but the focus will clearly be on drawing the top youth sports tournaments and athletes not only from around the state, but also from around the country, for tournaments that will fill hotel rooms and restaurant seats and make an economic impact.

Blalock said an intensive youth program will focus on different levels (recreational, competitive and elite) of five primary sports —cheerleading, basketball, volleyball, soccer and lacrosse. The plan is to develop and promote players, like a minor league would do, while also developing the athletes into good citizens.

“The youth sports industry needs a culture change,’’ he said.

Blalock also said the indoor facility will offer educational and tutoring labs, coaching programs for kids who are not inclined to play sports competitively, concession stands and meeting spaces.

“The flexibility is huge,’’ Blalock said.

The indoor complex will co-market with the hotel, much in the way Disney Sports ties in athletic events to its Disney resorts. Homer said they have 38 events already planned for the first year, but he expects to “blow that number out of the water.”

Despite the on-site presence of the Residence Inn, Homer said there will still be plenty of rooms to go around. A volleyball event, for example, could attract 128 teams, resulting in a need for 800-900 hotel rooms.

“Our 120 rooms won’t even put a dent in it,’’ Homer said. “It will fill up not only our hotel, but the others in the area.”

The county says the sports complex is expected to generate 27,000 room nights per year.

Blalock said RADDSPORTS has already secured U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting, and is now just waiting on the county.

There is still one obstacle to get over — getting the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) raised in order to help finance the complex. The WSC will be built with $11-million previously set aside by the Board of County Commissioners ($8.5-million in tourist tax funds and $2.5 million in excess bond proceeds from a prior half-cent sales tax bond), a county-backed loan of $14,253,700, plus $18,750,000 from Mainsail Development.

The proposed two-percent increase in the TDT is expected to generate $1.2 million annually, which will help by paying down the loan, along with the revenue RADDSPORTS says the WSC will generate. A super majority vote (four of the five BCC commissioners) is required to officially pass the TDT increase. A vote will be held at a future meeting, following a public hearing.

For more information and to take a look at the plans, visit RADDSPORTS.com/pasco-wiregrass-complex/.

New Audi Dealership In Wiregrass Ranch Holds Its Official Groundbreaking

Dirt and excitement are in the air at the groundbreaking for Audi Wesley Chapel, which will open later this year off S.R. 56, a mile or so east of the Shops at Wiregrass. (Photo by Stephen John Photography)

A high-tech concept in luxury car sales is coming to Wesley Chapel. Dimmitt Automotive Group has broken ground (and has already begun going vertical; see photo below left) on its new Audi dealership, a 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility off of S.R. 56 in Wiregrass Ranch, that’s considered Audi’s most innovative retail experience yet.

Audi Wesley Chapel is expected to open in the fall of 2017 (“probably in November,” according to Dimmitt CEO Scott Larguier). The project, referred to as Audi Terminal, will be a modern, open-area facility (rendering, bottom right, from the Dimmitt Automotive Group) that’s designed to be fully client-centric.

“From the moment you enter the showroom, you’ll notice that the entire facility is designed with the customer experience at its core,” Larguier explained during the building’s May 22 groundbreaking ceremony, which included members of the Dimmitt family, Bill, JD and Quinn Porter and Scott Sheridan of Locust Branch, LLC (which is developing the Porter Family Trust property in Wiregrass), Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore and Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce CEO Hope Allen, as well as more than a dozen WCCC business members.

According to a Dimmitt press release, the Audi Terminal will “capture customers’ imaginations before they even walk in the door. Its stunning architecture will look like a modern art building. Inside, customers will be greeted with exciting Audi automobiles, iPads and luxury lounges filled with sleek leather club chairs.”

Larguier explained that the high-tech building is reflective of the high-tech luxury Audi vehicles that will be on display and sold inside.

What customers won’t see are sales desks and phones. “It’s the perfect union of elegant interaction and advanced technology,” Larguier said.

Audi Wesley Chapel is the latest example of Dimmitt Automotive Group’s commitment to an elevated car buying experience. The Dimmitt family already features Cadillac, Land Rover, Jaguar, Toyota, Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls-Royce and McLaren dealerships.

Everyone on hand praised not only the Porter and Dimmitt families, but also Pasco County for bringing yet another luxury brand to “the Chap,” as Allen loves to call it. Audi will open just a few months after Lexus of Wesley Chapel, which is being opened by the Williams Auto Group.

Will The Diverging Diamond Fix The I-75/S.R. 56 Interchange?

This rendering of the recently-opened Sarasota DDI is nearly identical to what will will be built at S.R. 56 and I-75 in Wesley Chapel, which the major exception being I-75 passes over the intersection, while in Wesley Chapel S.R. 56 passes over I-75

A diamond could be a commuter’s best friend, according to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

A diverging diamond, that is.

That was the message delivered by Ryan Forrestel, PE of American Consulting Professionals, LLC, as he presented what he feels will be the solution to the snarled mess that is the S.R. 56 interchange of I-75 to the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) on May 23, during a meeting at the Mercedes-Benz of Wesley Chapel dealership located just a few hundred feet from where the construction of the diverging diamond interchange (DDI) will begin.

Forrestel, the consultant design project manager for the $24.1-million Diverging Diamond Interchange project, told a group of roughly 20 representatives from affected  businesses like Havertys, Tampa Premium Outlets, Chick-Fil-A, Florida Hospital Center Ice and others that it will be a good news, bad news proposition.

The good: engineers say the DDI is going to make traffic smoother and more efficient and in the long run yield improved results for local businesses.

The bad: during the long-awaited construction beginning in fall of 2018, the already-congested interchange is likely to become even more clogged.

No one, however, was surprised.

“I think this is a good opportunity for us,’’ said Stacey Nance, the general manager of TPO, located just west of the DDI. “Is it going to be cumbersome? Absolutely it is.”

Forrestel’s presentation seemed to assuage some of the concerns of representatives from those local businesses, many of whom are concerned that shoppers already are avoiding the area because of the traffic.

Ryan Forrestel

The project, moved up twice from its original 2024 and then 2020 start dates, is expected to expedite traffic through the much-maligned interchange, which handles roughly 100,000 vehicles a day and connects many of the residents of Wesley Chapel, Lutz and Land O’Lakes to Tampa.

Forrestel said he will have the DDI plans drawn up by January, and then in June of 2018, bidding will begin to find the company to build it.

Construction should start by the fall of 2018, and Forrestel said it could tentatively take anywhere from 18-36 months to build.

“We haven’t gotten that far yet,’’ Forrestel said. “That’s just a safe range.”

The timing of the construction is a concern to local businesses, as it will likely conflict with the busiest shopping time of the year.

“The fear was starting in the fall,” Nance said. “If there is any concern, it’s that it is hitting us all at prime time.”

Forrestel said the current LOS, or Level of Service, of the interchange is “F,” and “it is only going to get worse before it gets better” as development continues on the north and south sides of S.R. 56, both on the west and east sides of the interchange

Much of the traffic is caused by morning commuters trying to get on I-75 southbound, and evening traffic trying to exit northbound, which can back up two miles from where I-75 splits to S.R. 56.

“On the northbound off ramp and southbound on ramp, we’re making a lot of changes,’’ said Forrestel, who said he drives past TPO every morning and sees the eastbound traffic backing all the way up to Old C.R. 54 (or Wesley Chapel Blvd.).

As part of the DDI project, however, that mile-long backup during peak morning hours is projected to be reduced to 300 feet once a second lane is added to the exit for people getting on I-75 southbound.

The other change, which Forrestel describes as minor but really important, is widening the northbound off ramp. He said the original design had four lanes, with a center lane serving as a shared lane for travelers going east or west. But, they found that it created confusion for drivers and had a significant impact on the traffic, so the exit will be widened where the barrier wall on the east side of the ramp ends, and will now be five lanes.

Three of those northbound exit lanes will be dedicated to go west (turn left onto 56), and two lanes will be dedicated to go east (or right onto 56).

“It will be a significant improvement,’’ Forrestel said.

The first DDI in Florida was recently completed in Sarasota — at the University Pkwy. exit (No. 213)  — and has drawn positive reviews (including from Neighborhood News editor Gary Nager, who will provide a video tour of the Sarasota DDI in the episode of WCNT-tv that will premiere on YouTube and Facebook on Friday, June 9), after nearly four years of construction that involved rebuilding everything. Forrestel said that the Wesley Chapel DDI project will involve no expansion of the overpass, although it will be reconfigured, so it shouldn’t take nearly as long to complete.

The median on the bridge, as well as the current walkways, will be eliminated to create an additional westbound lane, and the bridge (which is technically two bridges) will be connected. Pedestrians will be able to cross right down the center of the bridge.

Forrestel added there will be plenty of signs directing drivers. The fourth eastbound lane on S.R. 56 is being pulled back 500 feet, so signs can alert commuters much sooner about the interchange directions.

“All of these changes will be improving the efficiency of the interchange dramatically,” Forrestel said.

The real key to making it all work, however, remains the DDI’s signature crossovers, where the east and westbound lanes appear to cross over. Though other solutions were considered for the interchange — like a flyover similar to what was built an exit south at Bruce B. Downs Blvd. — the DDI was chosen for its ability to handle large swaths of traffic from both directions.

“Huge left turns lanes work best for the DDI,” Forrestel said. “In some places, they are a great solution; in other place they are a terrible solution.”

The Wesley Chapel interchange, however, it is expected to move more cars through the interchange in a free-flowing manner, as the left turn lanes will no longer be crossing in front of other traffic and only entail two phases of lights.

Forrestel showed a video of a DDI in Atlanta (which can be seen at youtu.be/gY8xU-UAQWs) which has fewer lanes but otherwise resembles the one coming to Wesley Chapel.

Forrestel said the timing of the lights will be adjusted to accommodate the busier traffic in the morning and evening.

The scope of the DDI project takes into account a model that projects traffic out to 2038 and considers the lengthening of S.R. 56 (one of the signs at the interchange will point you to Zephyrhills, in fact) as well as projected land uses in the Wiregrass Ranch area.

Local businesses asked that they be kept updated so they can inform customers of the construction. “We want everybody to be prepared,’’ said WCC CEO Hope Allen.

New Tampa Man Admits To Murdering His Roommates & To Neo-Nazi Ties

Devon Arthurs

Devon Arthurs walked into the Green Planet Smoke Shop in New Tampa at around 5:30 p.m. on May 19, held three hostages and then surrendered to police before revealing that he had shot his two roommates back in the apartment they shared at the Hamptons in Tampa Palms.

Things got stranger from that point on.

According to a Tampa Police Department (TPD) report, the 18-year-old Arthurs ended up telling officers he fatally shot Jeremy Himmelman, 22, and Andrew Oneschuk, 18, because they disrespected his recent conversion to Islam. Arthurs claimed the three men previously shared neo-Nazi beliefs (a claim denied by the family of the two victims in a Tampa Bay Times story).

Stranger still, when police took Arthurs back to the apartment, a fourth roommate, Brandon Russell, was outside the door crying.

Russell, a Florida National Guardsman, was the one who leased the apartment, according to a federal complaint filed on May 20.

Police found Himmelman and Oneschuk dead inside, with gunshot wounds to the upper body and head. After being read his Miranda rights, Arthurs voluntarily agreed to speak with law enforcement officials and confessed to the shootings, providing specific information about the weapon he used and the exact location of the shot placement on each victim. Arthurs told authorities that Russell had nothing to do with the shootings, but that he had participated in online neo-Nazi chatrooms “where he threatened to kill people and bomb infrastructure.”

TPD obtained a search warrant for the residence, and discovered a cooler in the garage (beneath the apartment) “containing a white, cake-like substance that two FBI and TPD bomb squad technicians immediately recognized 
as HMTD (an explosive also known as hexamethylene triperoxied diamine).”

Other explosive precursors were found in the garage, including one in a package addressed to Russell. Electric matches and empty 5.56-caliber ammunition casings with fuses that could be used to detonate destructive devices were discovered. “I know that the HTMD found in the garage combined with the amount of ammonium nitrate and nitro methane also found in the garage would constitute a “bomb,” FBI special agent Timothy Swanson wrote in the complaint.

Inside Russell’s bedroom, officers found Nazi and white supremacist propaganda, and a framed photo of Timothy McVeigh, the man  executed for killing 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

The complaint says Russell admitted to being a national socialist (more commonly known as Nazism), and that he had manufactured the HTMD. He also confessed to being a member of the group called Atomwaffen (German for atomic weapon). The Southern Poverty Law Center listed the Atomwaffen as one of 99 active neo-Nazi hate groups.

Russell said when he was in an engineering club at USF in 2013, he used HTMD to boost homemade rockets and send balloons into the atmosphere for testing.

“Based on my training and experience, HMTD is too energetic and volatile for these types of uses,” Swanson wrote in the complaint.

He also wrote that he received confirmation from ATF Explosive enforcement officer Kevin Miner that the HTMD is an explosive, and that probable cause existed that Russell was intending to assemble a destructive device.

Russell was arrested on an FBI warrant May 21 in Key Largo and charged with possessing an unregistered destructive device and unlawful storage of explosive material.

Why Russell was released and ended up in Key Largo two days after the shooting is unclear.

Arthurs was charged with two counts of first degree murder, three counts of armed kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault.

According to police reports, Arthurs walked into the Green Planet Smoke Shop at 15352 Amberly Dr. in Tampa Palms and pulled a handgun from his waistband. He ordered a store employee and a customer to the floor, asking, “Why shouldn’t I kill you?”

Another customer entered the shop a few minutes later and was also ordered to the floor. Arthurs told the hostages that he had already killed someone and that he was upset because of the American bombings in the Middle East.

When TPD contacted Arthurs, one hostage managed to escape, and police convinced him to allow the other two to leave as well.

After surrendering, Arthurs made several references to Allah, according to the report.

“I had to do it,’’ he told officers. “This wouldn’t have had to happen if your country didn’t bomb my country.”

Arthurs claimed he shot his roommates to prevent them from committing planned acts of domestic terrorism.