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.

 “The 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.

Meadow Pointe Blvd. Connection To New Tampa On The Way

The connection between Meadow Pointe Blvd. and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. is currently under construction and could be completed by the end of 2021. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

After years of debate over connecting Mansfield Blvd. in Wesley Chapel to Kinnan St. in New Tampa for through traffic, the consolation prize (for those who unsuccessfully fought for that connection) could be completed by the end of this year.

MI Homes, which is developing New Tampa’s K-Bar Ranch community, located directly to the south of Meadow Pointe, has targeted Dec. 31 as a completion date for the K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. connection to Meadow Pointe Blvd., opening up traffic in both directions.

Although the Pasco County side of the connection is completed, there are still some permitting issues to resolve that could stretch that completion date into 2022, but the goal is sometime this year. 

The Meadow Pointe Blvd. connection will be the only northbound way out of K-Bar Ranch or southbound way into K-Bar Ranch (other than Morris Bridge Rd.) when K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. is completed.

The roadway is currently under construction. About 100 feet of dirt road separate the southern end of Meadow Pointe Blvd. and the connector, which will lead to K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.

After the debate over Kinnan-Mansfield intensified in 2018, and after years of negotiating with Hillsborough County, Pasco County commissioned a study that recommended connecting those two roads for emergency use only. A gate that can only be accessed by emergency response vehicles is supposed to be keeping motorists from crossing the Pasco and Hillsborough county lines (although we reported in a previous issue vehicles have been bypassing the gate).

However, the study did recommend instead making a connection at the unfinished Meadow Pointe Blvd., as well as at Wyndfields Blvd. further to the east.

The Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) also conducted a Connections Survey, and 67 percent of approximately 1,200 residents who voted made the connection to Meadow Pointe Blvd. the No. 1 choice.

One of the primary arguments against Kinnan-Mansfield, but for Meadow Pointe Blvd, made by District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore and others, was the ability of each road to handle the additional traffic — the Roadways Report suggested it could add as many as 4,000 vehicles — from Hillsborough County.

Mansfield Blvd. is a two-lane road as is Meadow Pointe Blvd. (though in our last print edition we said it was four lanes, our apologies) and connecting to New Tampa via Meadow Pointe Blvd. instead of Mansfield Blvd. was the “most sensible choice,” according to District 5 commissioner Jack Mariano.

K-Bar Ranch Pkwy. is being constructed in segments and, once each road segment is completed, it will permit the developers to build more homes in that area. 

Segment C, starting at the Kinnan St. entrance, is currently completed. Segment D, which is partially completed, will connect to the Meadow Pointe Blvd. extension, which also is under construction.

Big USF Alzheimer’s Study Looking For Volunteers

Jerri Edwards, Ph.D.

A team of professors at the University of South Florida (USF) has a new weapon to fight Alzheimer’s disease and dementia — a $44.3-million grant for the next five years to continue a study that has shown some positive results.

Jerri Edwards, Ph.D., a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, is heading up the school’s Preventing Alzheimer’s with Cognitive Training (aka “PACT”) study. 

Dr. Edwards says the grant could help finally find a way to prevent Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, which are among the most expensive medical conditions to treat — along with heart disease, diabetes and cancer. These diseases also are becoming more and more common.

“Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia are an increasing public health crisis,” Dr. Edwards says. “One in every nine persons 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease right now and the prevalence of the disease increases with age. It could be that as many as 33 percent of people 85-plus have dementia. We’re living longer so that means the prevalence of Alzheimer’s is increasing exponentially.”

Edwards and many of her colleagues have been investigating an intervention commonly known as brain training for the past decade. “It is the first intervention ever shown in a randomized clinical trial to reduce the risk of dementia,” she says. “So, we’re very excited.”

Brain training is basically using computerized programs to train the cognitive abilities of participants. The trial, called the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent & Vital Elderly (ACTIVE), had more than 2,800 healthy older adults ages 65 and older participating.

The trial was essentially focused on the functional ability of older adults when it came to things like managing their finances, driving and going grocery shopping — essential tasks required to remain independent with age.

“Dementia essentially is diagnosed when you lose that functional ability,” Dr. Edwards says. 

That study, after 10 years, showed that participants had a 29-48 percent lower incidence of dementia than people who received no training.

The PACT study will be expanded to across the U.S. at five different sites and will be enrolling 7,600 older adults.

“We really believe this intervention can reduce people’s chances — reduce their risks — of Alzheimer’s disease,” Edwards says. “It’s a very exciting opportunity to be a leader in the field here at USF and engaging our Tampa Bay community area.”

Dr. Edwards encourages anyone healthy and age 65 and older in Wesley Chapel and New Tampa to participate in the PACT study. She says that one of the goals of the study is to have a diverse sample. She also says that blacks are twice as likely as other adults to get Alzheimer’s, and Hispanics are 1.5 times as likely, yet both are typically less willing to participate in clinical studies.

Participants will be screened and tested during their first two visits — at a choice of the Cognitive Aging Lab on USF’s Tampa campus off E. Fletcher Ave., the St. Petersburg campus, as well as at locations in Lakeland and Winter Haven in Polk County — and will be asked to continue the brain training for three years at home.

“We really need people who are interested in joining the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Edwards says. “We need healthy, older adults 65-plus willing to do that. It’s low burden — we’re asking for a three-year commitment.”

If you want to volunteer for the PACT study, call (813) 974-6703, or visit PACTStudy.org.

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.