Category: News

Dempsey Family Sells Historic Saddlebrook Resort for $15 million

Saddlebrook Resort, the first centerpiece of Wesley Chapel and a forerunner of all the development happening today in the area, has been sold.

But, it’s not going anywhere, says longtime owner Thomas L. Dempsey, who told the Neighborhood News that the sale just marks a new chapter in the resort’s long and fabled history.

“I’m very pleased; it has a long way to go,” said Dempsey. “A great group of people bought it and intend to expand it in the future and we’ll be working with them in the future.”

The iconic conference center, vacation resort and athletic getaway was purchased by Mast Capital and Amzak Capital Management for $15,009,000 according to Pasco County Property Appraiser website.

Dempsey was the Chairman and CEO of Penton Publishing, a subsidiary of the Fortune 500 Pittway Corporation, when he helped develop Saddlebrook Resort after Pittway purchased the 480-acre property in 1979. Saddlebrook Resort opened in 1981, and Dempsey purchased the resort from Pittway in 1988 and has been Chairman and CEO — as well as a full-time resident — ever since.

Saddlebrook Resort, tucked away south of S.R. 54 and east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., is a 500-unit condo and hotel property, featuring restaurants, gift shops and other amenities, including more than 100,000 square feet of conference space.

It is often the choice of visitors with plans to stay in the area for a long time. For example, in 2018, the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team stayed at Saddlebrook while training at nearby AdventHealth Center Ice for the Winter Olympics, before they won gold at PyeongChang, South Korea.

The Olympic hockey team is just one of many high-profile athletes that have been associated with Saddlebrook.

Both of the 18-hole golf courses were designed by PGA legend Arnold Palmer, but the most famous athletes the resort has hosted and trained have been professional tennis players.

Saddlebrook has been well-known for being a training ground for players like Jim Courier, Jennifer Capriati (also a long-time resident), John Isner, Martina Hingis and Andy Roddick, as well as many others. It hosts many tennis tournaments, most recently (and notably) the Women’s Fed Cup finals between the U.S. and the Czech Republic in 2017.

The property also is home to nationally-renowned tennis and golf training academies, which are part of Saddlebrook Prep, a fully accredited college-preparatory school (grades 3 through 12) with roughly 100 students from more than 25 different countries attending the school while getting world-class training in their respective sports.

The gated resort, however, had begun to show its age in recent years. Mast Capital CEO Camilo Miguel told the Tampa Bay Business Journal (TBBJ) that the property will receive a major renovation, and may even add residential and commercial space in the future.

“I think there’s a lot of opportunity in elevating the property and bringing back some of its luster,” Miguel said. “There hasn’t been much investment in the property in decades, so that’s the low-hanging fruit.”

Miguel also told the TBBJ he has already hired HEI Hotels & Resorts to manage the resort, and instead of bringing in a different flagship hotel to the property, feels that the Saddlebrook name still carries enough weight to make it a desired destination.

Mast Capital also announced earlier this week that Troon, the world’s largest golf management company providing services at 630-plus locations around the globe, was hired to manage the resort. In addition to golf, Troon specializes in homeowner association management, private residence clubs, estate management and associated hospitality venues.

Dempsey, 97, declined to talk about the sale or why he sold the resort after all these years, but did say he was proud of what his family accomplished with one of the first big-ticket locations in the area north of Busch Gardens.

“From the time we arrived some 40 years ago, there was very little here, practically nothing,” Dempsey said. “It grew to be a prominent part of Florida. and one of the fastest-growing areas. And, we were very much a part of all that, and will continue (to be) for the future.”

Dempsey thinks the outlook for Saddlebrook is promising. He said the new owners have plans to expand and improve it, making them an attractive buyer.

As for what he will remember the most from his stewardship of Saddlebrook Resort, Dempsey says there are too many things to mention.

“It’s been a long series of very good things,” he said. “We had a lot of help along the way with the people here, and also the county and all of that. They were there to work with us and will continue to do so.”

For Mast Capital, a Miami real estate investor/developer, it is the second major purchase it has made in Wesley Chapel in the last six months.

In November 2021, in a joint venture with private equity firm Rockpoint Group, it acquired roughly 16 acres of land located at 5101 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. for $4.5 million with plans to build a 248-unit luxury apartment community later this year.

saddlebrook resort & spa tennis

Award-Winning High School Artists Featured In Local Exhibit

Submissions by 11 New Tampa teenagers were chosen as award winners in the 2022 Hillsborough Region Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Exhibition. Of more than 1,200 entries, judges chose 231 art awards and 95 writing awards.

Wharton High senior Brianna Lee picked up three photography awards, including Three Bodies (right) being chosen as one of just five American Visions Nominees. The nominees are chosen from among all Gold Key winners, and one of the five will be selected the overall winner by a national panel. Brianna won a second Gold Key award for Caked On Disguise, and Faultless was chosen as a Silver Key winner.

Brianna describes their artwork as inspired by Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, lust and beauty.

“There are only two models in this picture: one model with a beautiful full figure with well-defined curves and the other with a tall, slim frame,” she says. “By overlapping the two photos of the two different body types creates a semi-distorted, unusually small body in the middle. This is also another body type that some people strive to change themselves to. I hope this work can show that there really is no perfect body type and that it will constantly change time and time again, and no one should feel the need to change along with it.”

Gold Key winners will be submitted to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in New York City, where they could be selected as national winners and recognized in a ceremony this summer.

Several other Wharton students also were recognized:

• Sabrina Valencia won a Gold Key award for the digital art piece Body Water, which also won a Judges’ Award, and a Silver Key award for Dyssoconnected.

*The Vulnerability of Black Men* by Terance Eady

• Taylor Vanderpuyl won a Gold Key award for the photograph We Eat the Mushroom The Mushroom Eats Us which also won a Judges’ Award, and an Honorable Mention for Megan.

• Terance Eady won a Gold Key award for the photograph The Vulnerability of Black Men.

Honorable Mentions were awarded to Isabella Ancheta for the photograph Reflections and to Pranshu Modi for the painting Tokyo.

These students are all taught by Wharton art teacher Curt Steckel.

Honorable Mentions also were awarded to Benito Middle School students in the drawing and illustration category.

• Ananya Dongre won for The one who makes me smile and Frances McKoen won for Medieval Battle.

These students are taught by art teacher Cheyenne Causby.

Freedom High had three writing award winners, all taught by English teacher Robert Counts.

Frankie Vilsaint won a Silver Key award for his dramatic script The Egg Thief.

In the science fiction and fantasy category, two students were awarded an Honorable Mention, Haileigh Mereness for Beating Hearts and Jayden Mujica for Dark World.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, established in 1923, is the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the United States and claims to be the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. Previous winners include Stephen King and Andy Warhol.

This is the eighth year that the Hillsborough County Public Schools and the Hillsborough Education Foundation are serving as the regional affiliate for the national award program.

The Hillsborough Region Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards virtual awards ceremony is available online at EducationFoundation.com/2022ScholasticArtandWritingAwards. These and other award-winning works are on display at the University of Tampa’s Scarfone/Hartley Gallery (310 North Blvd., Tampa) through Friday, March 25. The gallery is open Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

The Push Is On For The New Tampa PAC To Recognize Doug Wall

Unfortunately, Doug Wall didn’t live long enough to see his vision of a New Tampa cultural or arts center come to fruition, but those who remember his impact on the local arts scene say his contributions shouldn’t be forgotten.

The founder of the New Tampa Players (NTP), a local acting troupe, Wall succumbed to cancer in 2017. But, in a recent letter to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera urged the board to give Wall “a place of named honor” in the New Tampa Performing Arts Center, which is currently under construction in the Hunter’s Lake area off Bruce B. Downs Blvd. and is expected to be completed later this year.

“He came to New Tampa long before we became a booming suburban area,” Viera wrote. “He quickly became the backbone for the performing arts scene in New Tampa….Mr. Wall was here as one of the early pioneers of (zip code) 33647. He needs to be honored on this building.”

Others, like former Hunter’s Green resident and former State Rep. Shawn Harrison and his wife Susan, also support recognizing Wall.

Wall founded NTP and held its first event, a membership gala, in June 2002, and began auditions for its first production “They’re Playing Our Song” the next month, with plans to perform it later that year and Hunter’s Green and Tampa Palms Country Clubs.

For two decades, he fought to help make the Performing Arts Center a reality, while putting on productions and holding youth theater camps in the area.

Nora Paine, the producing artistic director for the NTP, says it would be a fitting honor to include Wall in his long-hoped-for dream.

“Community performing arts in New Tampa are Doug Wall’s legacy,” she said. “Starting in 2002, he set in motion and promoted the efforts that have finally come to fruition in the New Tampa Performing Arts Center…We miss Doug every day, and we are proud to continue his legacy at New Tampa Players.”

Doug Wall new tampa players

New Tampa All Abilities Playground Breaks Ground

When K-Bar Ranch resident Pauline Sturtevant lived in California, she would drive 30 minutes, sometimes more, to the nearest all-abilities park for her son Caleb, who has Downs Syndrome.

It was the only place she could find with swings that were designed to hold his neck up properly, slides with higher sides to prevent him from falling off, or even a ramp to accommodate Caleb’s still-developing walking skills.

Caleb is 17 now, and while he may be too old for it, Pauline Sturtevant is thrilled that other parents will have a similar park closer to their homes in New Tampa.

“It’s important, you just don’t realize how much,” she said. ‘‘For the parents to feel like someone took the time to think about (a project like this), to make sure their kids were included and had a place to go, was super important.”

On Feb. 14, ground was broken at the New Tampa Community Park on the City of Tampa’s first disability and sensory-friendly playground.

District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who championed the New Tampa All Abilities Playground almost immediately after being elected in 2016, echoed Pauline Sturtevant’s message at the groundbreaking.

“You are not alone,” Viera told the crowd, which included members of the New Tampa Players’ Penguin Project, a theatre program for children and young adults with special needs. “You have friends, you have family, you have people who have been through this many many years before…and you have the City of Tampa having your back and making sure everyone has a place at the table.”

The 10,000-sq.-ft. park will cost roughly $2 million — paid for by city money and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funding — and will include multiple play pieces that are wheelchair-accessible, a sensory area geared towards children with autism and other sensory or cognitive challenges, a new art mural based on a “Fantastic Florida Nature” theme, and more.

At the groundbreaking, City of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said that the park will have “16 different opportunities involving all of the sensory abilities in that park. It will be fantastic.”

Mayor Castor said the importance of parks in the development of a number of skills in children is sometimes taken for granted.

Making the city’s parks more accessible to everyone is a movement she strongly supports.

“I feel everything starts at parks and recreation, out on those fields,” Castor said. “That’s where children learn the life skills, that’s where they make lifelong friendships, and that’s where healthy skills and attitudes are developed. It all starts with ‘Hey, you wanna play?’”

For children with special needs, regular playgrounds can be a haven for emotional discomfort and even injuries, and it is easy for them to shrink away in fear. Pauline Sturtevant says it always pained her to see special needs children sitting on the sidelines at most other parks, and “developing a mentality that they are different and should be in a different place.”

Now, they will have their own place.

“The families are excited,” said Melissa Ewen, the director of fellowship and special connections, a special needs ministry at St. James United Methodist Church, also located in Tampa Palms. “Most of the ones I talk to have older high school or adult-aged family members, but for them it’s a sigh of relief. They know the challenges they faced; others won’t have to.”

New Tampa Community Park

New Branchton Regional Park Set To Begin Permitting

A splash pad, pickleball courts and hiking trails are just some of the amenities that could be available to New Tampa residents by the end of this year, or early next year.

According to District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, the county is ready to move ahead on a new park for the Branchton area off Morris Bridge Rd. south of Cross Creek Blvd. Hagan says the county staff is ready to submit plans for the park’s permitting.

“Ideally, after that’s approved, we should be able to have a groundbreaking out there probably in the April-May range,” Commissioner Hagan says.

If that happens, Branchton Regional Park will likely be completed sometime in early 2023, although Hagan says he is hoping the park can be finished by the end of 2022, if the summer weather and supply chains cooperate.

The park will replace the current Branchton Park, which sits on the southwest corner of Morris Bridge Rd. and Cross Creek Blvd. While the current park has an outdoor basketball court, playground and trails, it only has parking for roughly 10 cars and no bathrooms.

A Little History

In 2017, the county acquired four parcels of land totaling an additional 10 acres just south of the existing Branchton Park. The newly acquired land will be home to the new park, which will be developed in two phases.

The first phase of construction includes 130 parking spots, walking trails, two dog parks, restrooms, shelters, four pickleball courts and a multipurpose court that can be configured as two basketball or two volleyball courts, according to a conceptual site plan provided last year.

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

The new park also will include a playground and a splash pad.

Hagan says he has already secured the $6.1 million to construct the first phase in previous county budgets.

He added that he also has talked with Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister about building a mini-substation at the park, and that Chronister was in favor of that possibility.

“He likes the idea,” Hagan says. “I spoke to him about it and we agree that it would help increase the Sheriff’s Office’s presence around the park and also increase its presence throughout New Tampa.”

Although nothing has been formalized, Hagan also says that there also has been continuing conversation with private sector companies about a possible public-private partnership (PPP) about a zip line or “challenge” course for the park, perhaps in Phase 2.

The county already has completed the public survey portion of the project. Last year, nearly 500 people responded online to a survey with their requests for what they would like to see the park include. Many of the residents’ choices are included in the plans, according to the county’s website.

Plans to build some kind of new park in the Branchton area have circulated in Hillsborough County for years, going as far back as 2005 when the county had plans to build an athletic complex south of the existing Branchton Park. Those plans, however, never materialized.

As for that old Branchton Park, it will remain intact for the most part, but Hagan envisions re-developing it into a business center that could include a sports bar and other restaurants.

Branchton Park