A rendering of the new library planned near Seven Oaks Elementary.
The Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) has okayed $1 million for the design of Wesley Chapel’s second library.
The consent item sailed through with barely a discussion at the BCC meeting on Dec. 8.
The roughly 20,000-sq.-ft. library is expected to be built in front of Seven Oaks Elementary, off of Mystic Oaks Blvd., inside the Seven Oaks community. The land already is owned by Pasco County and was set aside in 2014 as part of the development agreement for the Seven Oaks DRI with the intention that it would one day house a Pasco County library.
“I think this is a huge deal,” says District 2 County Commissioner Mike Moore, who represents much of Wesley Chapel and is a Seven Oaks resident. “This is the fastest-growing area of Pasco County, and when you have more residents, you have more needs.”
Wesley Chapel’s only existing library — the New River Branch Library on S.R. 54 near Zephyrhills — although it has been closed for the past year while undergoing a major renovation.
Moore said the designer of the new library should be chosen by summer 2021, but the construction bidding process and permitting ensures the library won’t be finished until late 2024, or early 2025.
Moore has said the whole project could cost roughly $10 million.
“This will be a lot more convenient (for many Wesley Chapel residents),” Moore says. “The needs of the community have changed. It’s not just about books. It’s also about the ‘maker spaces,’ meeting rooms and a safe place for kids to congregate, whether they are reading a book or on a computer. This won’t be your old school library.”
Pasco County Libraries has put a lot of effort into reimagining their existing libraries. The New River Branch Library is getting an improved community garden and covered learning space, while others have woodworking and sewing workshops, music studios and even a robotics lab.
“It’s way too early to say what this new one will have,” Moore says. “It might be a new technology that hasn’t even been invented yet. A lot can happen in three years.”
The work around the junction of S.R. 56 and I-75 is beginning to show some progress, as efforts pick up to finish the Diverging Diamond Interchange by the end of 2021.(Photo: FDOT).
If you’ve been by the construction site of the Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) at the junction of I-75 and S.R. 56, you may have noticed a difference from past trips.
More machines. More workers. More dirt being moved.
Just over a month after Pasco County commissioners, particularly District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore (whose district includes much of Wesley Chapel), criticized the efforts of D.A.B. Constructors, Inc. — and expressed disappointment that the project would not finish on time — the work has clearly picked up in the area.
“There has been significant improvement,” Moore says. “I want to thank D.A.B. and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for getting this back on schedule.”
Moore said he met with both D.A.B. and FDOT, and as a result, he is feeling more confident that the project will finish closer to its original finishing date of sometime in the fall of 2021, as opposed to fears construction would stretch well into 2022.
“I feel good about what I heard,” Moore said.
The $33-million project also had drawn the ire of more than 20 local businesses, who signed a letter to Moore and District 3 Commissioner Kathryn Starkey expressing concern about the progress.
Community outreach manager John McShaffrey says FDOT has continued to look for opportunities to move the project forward, “including working with the contractor on alternate materials, construction phasing, and other ways to shorten the construction duration.”
With traffic thicker than usual due to the holidays, there aren’t too many things FDOT can do to ease congestion right now, although it is suggesting alternate routes to get in and out of the Tampa Premium Outlets and Cypress Creek Town Center areas. FDOT also has made efforts to assist in traffic flow since before Thanksgiving by:
* Adding message boards on S.R. 56 westbound advising drivers to use the next two signals (the entrance off S.R. 56 and the entrance off the Wesley Chapel Blvd. extension) to enter the outlet mall.
* Adding message boards on S.R. 54 eastbound advising that drivers can turn right where Wesley Chapel Blvd. meets S.R. 56 to enter the outlet mall.
* Setting traffic signals to “holiday timing” (a common practice near mall areas) to maximize traffic flow.
* Adding message boards on southbound I-75, north of the S.R. 54 Exit 279, to encourage traffic to use the S.R. 54 exit to avoid backups on the Exit 275 ramp to S.R. 56.
* Adjusting the setup of the barrier wall on the southbound I-75 exit ramp to give a little more space for drivers turning right (westbound) onto SR 56.
* Installing additional cameras for FDOT’s traffic management staff to better monitor traffic at all of the signalized intersections.
Developer Mark Gold’s vision of a one-of-a-kind hip, trendy and photogenic new outdoor shopping experience off Wesley Chapel Blvd. at I-75 has begun taking shape.
There will there be a sneak preview of the newly-revamped but not yet open movie theater on Dec. 31 at The Grove’s New Year’s Eve Countdown Extravaganza. The event will feature a 4-course meal with complimentary wine pairings for each course, as well as a private open bar cocktail reception with musical entertainment by Cal Morris Music.
Tickets are limited, and for more information click here.
The movie theater party comes on the heels of the first soon-to-be converted shipping container being officially placed on November 20 at KRATE, the outdoor “container park.”
More than a dozen more containers also are now in place, as Gold hopes to open many of the new businesses in the first quarter of 2021.
Seventeen modified containers, which will be home to nine businesses, make up the initial phase of what will one day be one of the largest container parks in the world.
Though Gold’s vision began with a sun-beaten, unsightly faded yellow steel container being lowered onto a sandy patch of land, the shipping containers will be unrecognizable from their original forms after being transformed with air-conditioning, glass windows and doors, countertops, cabinets and wood and tile flooring and a few coats of brightly colored paint designed to create a festive look.
The first set of containers will be occupied by restaurants offering diverse dishes and items like Asian noodles, Puerto Rican cuisine, desserts and charcuterie boards.
Empty shipping containers like these, amongst the first to be put in place at KRATE, are being transformed into a trendy new food and retail “container park” experience at The Grove, which is expected to begin opening in early 2021. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
KRATE is expected to be the biggest of all the container parks. Once complete, it will feature 94 containers and 55 units comprised of 70% restaurants and 30% retail stores. Other restaurants will feature cuisine from around the world like Colombia, Peru and Germany.
Some of the most recently announced tenants include The Cake Girl, Yummy Tablas and ATO, a burrito bowl concept by the owners of Zukku-San Sushi (which we featured last issue). The planned retail shops include a music store and a Lego® brand product superstore.
KRATE also will feature a stage with daily live entertainment, a dog park, a playground and plenty of outdoor seating.
“There is nothing like this in the world,” says Gold, a partner in Mishorim Gold Properties, which purchased the Grove for $62.7 million in September 2019. “KRATE is receiving attention across the globe for its unique concept and offerings. We will become the ultimate shopping and entertainment destination, not just for Wesley Chapel, but for the region and around the world.”
When it is complete, KRATE (rendering above) will feature 94 shipping containers making up 55 units, including more than 30 new restaurants.
While the container park concept is still relatively new, it has proven to be popular. Downtown Tampa’s Sparkman Wharf has re-purposed shipping containers housing roughly a dozen takeout restaurants, and places like Kansas City and Philadelphia have opened container parks of varying sizes the past two years.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a popular container park — actually named Container Park — has 34 outlets with an emphasis on hip and quirky local businesses, as well as a stage and a playground.
Since purchasing The Grove, Gold has signed on 75 new tenants, including some businesses that are already open in what Gold calls The Village area — like F45 Fitness, the dueling piano bar restaurant Treble Makers (see pg. 21)and the Double Branch Artisanal Ales brewery (see pages 32-33).
Gold says he has invested more than $110 million into the renovation of The Grove property which, in addition to KRATE, will include a reimagined movie theater and restaurant, a miniature golf course expected to break ground in January and, potentially, a water park.
With pandemic safety at the forefront, Gold says all of the businesses in The Village and in the KRATE complex will include “medical grade” sanitation technology, like fogging machines, automated thermal temperature scan swing gates at the entrance and UV lights.
Those safety steps are expected to encourage people to feel comfortable both inside and outside while shopping and dining, including inside The Grove Movie Theater, which is expected to fully open sometime in January, not too long after the planned VIP sneak preview event on New Year’s Eve.
YMCA vice president of operations & executive director of Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA Robyn Ostrem and membership and wellness experience director Ryan Pratt revealed that a Wesley Chapel Family YMCA will be breaking ground in 2021. (Photo: Charmaine George)
The Bonefish Grill officially completed its move from Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Wesley Chapel to the Cypress Creek Town Center along S.R. 56 at a grand opening Dec. 14, but it turns out there were even bigger fish fried during the event.
Wesley Chapel is getting a YMCA!
That announcement was all the buzz as folks nibbled on some of the best appetizers the beautiful, new Bonefish Grill has to offer.
“We’re about to be your new neighbor,” Robyn Ostrem, the VP of operations and executive director of the New Tampa Family YMCA, told the gathering right before Bonefish Grill officially opened. “We’re going to build a Wesley Chapel Family YMCA that will break ground in early 2021, and will built by June of 2023.”
Ostrem, who has been with the New Tampa YMCA since 2019, did not announce an exact location for the Wesley Chapel location, only that it would be located on Bruce B. Downs Blvd, although that really only leaves two possibilities — the land in front of the new BayCare Hospital being built in the northesatern portion of Seven Oaks, and the land in front of Meadow Pointe across the street from the Super Target on County Line Rd.
Ostrem said the new facility will cost $15 million to build and will be 30,000 square feet. The New Tampa Family YMCA, which is the closest current option for many Wesley Chapel residents, is 35,000 sq. ft.
“We’re in New Tampa now, but we’re going to be closer to you now in Wesley Chapel,” Ostrem said.
Generally, YMCAs have indoor courts for basketball and volleyball, workout areas and rooms for exercise classes and daycare, as well as meeting rooms. Many, like the New Tampa Y, also have pools and can host events like high school and youth swim meets.
The Wesley Chapel Y will be only the third YMCA in Pasco County, joining the East Pasco Family YMCA in Zephyrhills and the James P. Gillis Family YMCA in New Port Richey.
After years of rapid growth in the housing and restaurant markets, the “sports & activity” market in Wesley Chapel has picked up the pace this year.
The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County opened in August, with the ability to host sports leagues and tournaments for basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports, while the indoor Recreation Center at the Wesley Chapel District Park is currently under construction and will be completed sometime next year. An outdoor hockey rink right next to the rec center was completed last week as well.
If you’ve been craving freshly made Italian food and haven’t yet tried Oronzo Honest Italian, located in the outparcel building to The Walk at Highwoods Preserve plaza on Bruce B. Downs Blvd., I suggest you go now because it’s a one-of-a-kind fast-casual dining experience that’s sort of an Italian take on nearby Chipotle.
Owner Dan Bavaro, who started his career in the food service business at the age of 16 in New Jersey, when he worked for a food truck/caterer who provided food for movie sets. Two years later, he started a high-end limousine company and made enough money when he sold the business to open his own restaurant.
“I knew I didn’t want a ‘slice joint’ or a fine dining Italian place,” Dan says, so after moving to Tampa in 2007, “I ended up becoming one of the first three places in the country to serve wood-fired true Neapolitan-style pizza (that has since become all the rage) when I opened the original Bavaro’s Pizza Napoletana on Franklin St. downtown in 2009.”
Dan Bavaro (far left) with his family.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Dan says that when he first opened Bavaro’s, his whole menu was maybe ten items — including two pizzas, two appetizers, two salads.
By his third year in business, however, Bavaro’s had added pastas and sauces, all made in house and started selling the sauces in the restaurant.
“When we started, I got up to making 250 pizzas a day. Once we added other items, only 60% of the business was still pizza.” By 2015, Bavaro started franchising his place, with new locations popping up at Tampa International Airport and in downtown St. Pete and downtown Sarasota.
In 2016, he began talking with Bob Johnson, the owner of the uber-successful The Melting Pot franchises in our area and the two decided to start working on a fast, casual Italian concept together that four years later became Oronzo, which was named for Dan’s grandfather when it opened earlier this year. Oronzo and Angela Bavaro emigrated from Italy to Brooklyn, NY, where he owned and operated a trucking company, delivering fresh ingredients to local markets and restaurants.
What About The Food?
Dan is proud that even though Oronzo is a fast, casual concept, the restaurant is a true scratch kitchen, where the pastas, sauces, bread for the piadina sandwiches (aka Italian burritos) and crispy, Roman-style flatbreads (Dan warns that they are not pizzas, although they’re yummy, whatever you call them) are all made in-house. Even the salad dressings and amazing tomato basil zuppa (soup; Jannah’s favorite, which is served with crisp, toasted rosemary focaccia bread) are all house-made.
Start with an Italian-inspired salad (the Italian chopped, classic Caesar and “Iconic Caprese” are all delicious (we added grilled chicken to the Italian chopped salad on this page). Our favorite dressing is the Caesar, but the roasted pepper vinaigrette gets Dan’s vote.
Jannah and I love the spaghetti with meatballs (and I love adding the fresh Italian sausage to it) and the fresh-cut zucchini noodles with antico pomodoro (fresh tomato sauce). You can choose from Oronzo’s pomodoro, spicy arrabbiata, crema, pesto, butter or extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) sauces.
I’m also a big fan of the chicken pesto pasta. The only pasta on the menu I haven’t tried is the primavera, which you can get with spaghetti or zucchini noodles.
Also outstanding is the Caprese forza bowl, made with farro, an ancient grain from Sicily that has become popular here, too. The Caprese bowl features farro, crispy baked chicken, heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, pesto and a balsamic drizzle. So savory!
Senior video producer/photographer Charmaine George, who took most of these pics, also raved about the Caprese piadina (above) and Dan says his favorite is the chicken parm piadina.
My favorite flatbread so far is the Carne (with San Marzano tomato sauce, spicy Italian sausage, prosciutto cotto and spicy soppressata, fresh mozzarella and EVOO).
For dessert, Oronzo has three unique options. The only one I’ve had so far are the cannoli crisps, which are house-made cannoli cream, served with almost cookie-like cannoli crisps for dipping (above). There’s also a warm Nutella piatto flatbread and Italian wedding cookies. There’s even a great kids menu (labeled “Bambino”).
Oronzo also features an easy-to-use ordering kiosk which quickly walks you through all of the available menu items and Dan says his online ordering system is state-of-the-art, too.“You can go on there and order for a week from now at a certain time and the system will remind us to make your food fresh a few minutes before you’re set to pick it up,” he says. “Technology is a key part of what we do and it’s been made better by listening to our customers.”
And now, Oronzo also offers beer and wine. The new additions include a Montepulciano D’Abruzzo red, a Pinot Grigio white and a sparkling prosecco, plus Peroni beer on draft and an Oronziata non-alcoholic beverage made from scratch with blood oranges, plus delicious espresso and Americano coffees.
Oronzo Honest Italian is located at 18027 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. And is open every day, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, call (813) 730-0100 or visit Oronzo.com.
