Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar is coming to S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel, part of an aggressive expansion by the sports bar franchise owned in part by New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees.
Permitting has been filed with Pasco County planning for a 15,664-sq.-ft. shell building that is expected to be a commercial strip center right off S.R. 56, in front of the soon-to-open Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center.
The strip center is expected to be home to a number of coming projects that have been previously reported, like Golf Galaxy, Total Wine & More and others.
But two highly-anticipated eateries, Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar and Blaze Pizza, have already begun the permitting process, and won’t be headed to the new center as once-rumored.
Instead, both are beginning construction soon a little bit to the west, near the corner of S.R. 56 and Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54). They will be located in the same center with Chipotle Mexican Grill, and a 3,000-sq.ft. Sleep Number store will also be on that parcel.
Pizza is the cover story in our upcoming Wesley Chapel issue hitting mailboxes on Friday, so you can read more about the emergence of the popular fast-casual chain.
Walk-On’s, a franchise with more than a dozen locations across Louisiana and Texas with an aggressive plan to expand into 11 other states this year, will be one of the few “pure” sports bars in the area.
Its founders, Brandon Landry and Jack Warner, met in 1997 at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where both were walk-ons (hence the name) for the Tiger basketball team.
While they didn’t play much, they did get to travel the country with the Tigers and, along the way, visited enough sports bars that they formulated an idea for starting their own back in Baton Rouge.
According to the Walk-On’s website, in 2000, Landry and Warner sketched out their vision for a floor plan on a napkin from 35,000 feet above the earth, as they flew home from a road game at the University of Tennessee.
They opened their first location in 2003 and, in 2012, Walk On’s was named the No. 1 Sports Bar in America. Two years later, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees joined the business as a co-owner.
Walk-On’s menu is a little different than many sports bars, highlighted by some unique Cajun dishes, like po’boy sandwiches, gumbo, crawfish, fried Lousiana Alligator and Cajundillas (a tortilla stuffed with chicken, andouille, boudin sausage, caramelized onions and cheese).
All of it served by waitresses dressed as cheerleaders and televisions blaring the calls from your favorite sporting events.
While there are other sports-related options in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel, Walk-On is likely to be a welcome addition for area sports fans.
The fruits of this year’s New Tampa-friendly budget are beginning to ripen, as meetings in June and July presented visions of the expansion of the New Tampa Recreation Center (NTRC), as well a sensory-friendly park, which will be the first of its kind in the Tampa Bay area.
Kevin Smith, senior vice president of FleischmanGarcia, addresses those gathered to hear about the expansion progress.
On July 11, the City of Tampa’s Parks & Recreation Department hosted a community meeting at the NTRC to present its plans for a 7,825-sq.-ft. expansion of the overcrowded Tampa Palms home of one of the Tampa Bay area’s most sought-after gymnastics and dance programs.
The popularity of the programs has resulted in thousands of Tampa and Pasco County residents being placed on waiting lists for years.
However, those waiting lists should dwindle a lot, thanks to $1.95 million allocated in this year’s budget to creating more room for more programs at NTRC — which could double — says Brad Suder, the superintendent of planning and design for Tampa Parks & Rec.
The expansion will add another multi-purpose room similar to the room currently used and there will be a new preschool gymnasium. Currently, the preschool program uses the main multi-purpose room.
Suder said the NTRC also will have a new training box, a 1,760-sq.-ft. rectangular room that can be used for a variety of training regimens. In addition, Suder said, there will be more windows so parents and family can watch the gymnastics and dance programs, as well as six new bathrooms.
One of the bathrooms will have an electromagnetic lock, so it can be open on the weekends for those using the outdoor areas when the NTRC is closed.
The expansion currently is in the design stage, and bids are expected to go out in October. Suder said he expects construction to begin in January, and for the expansion to be completed for the summer of 2019, or a year from now.
Public Shown Sensory Park Plans
At another public meeting held in June, more than two dozen residents and City of Tampa officials gathered with design architects at the NTRC to share ideas and their vision for a 5-acre sensory-friendly park that will be located behind the B.J.’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms.
David Conner, president of David Conner & Associates, showed some preliminary plans to area residents. Conner heads up the planning, landscape architecture and urban design firm that is being paid $49,400 (of the $90,000 budgeted by the City of Tampa) to begin designing the sensory-friendly park.
Attendees looked over a series of display boards (left) showing examples of other sensory parks in the U.S. — which are created for children and adults identified as having Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and are focused more on soothing and serene activities — with some additional ideas for the New Tampa park.
Those who are on the autism spectrum can take in information from their five senses just like everyone else, but cannot process it the same way and can become overwhelmed, which makes them unable to communicate and interact because they are overcome with anxiety.
Sensory-friendly parks focus on incorporating easier-to-process activities and sights. They are, however, still accessible to everyone.
Proponents of the park say as many as 40,000 children in and around the New Tampa area are likely to use the park each year.
The displays showed photographs of potential amenities that could be part of the park, like slides, swings and jungle gyms. Residents were asked to place “Like” and “Love” stickers (above) on the amenities they liked the most.
District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, whose older brother Juan has autism, spearheaded the effort to get the study and design of the sensory park funded in this year’s city budget.
Several residents voiced their excitement and approval during a short presentation by Conner and Brad Suder of Tampa’s Parks & Recreation Department.
“We live in Stafford Place (in Tampa Palms), like one block away from the park,” said Jeff Chacon, who said that he is eager to take his two-year old grandson, Finn, to the park. “I want to be able to walk down there with my grandson. We’re excited. It’s good for the neighborhood and good for the City of Tampa.”
Freelance writer Andy Warrener contributed to this report.
More homes have been approved for K-Bar Ranch, which is now completely rezoned and headed towards nearly 2,000 total homes and condos/townhomes in the next few years. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
After two readings and one continuance, the Tampa City Council has approved a rezoning that will pave the way for developer M/I homes to build 698 new homes in K-Bar Ranch.
The growth of the soon-to-be burgeoning community, located north of Cross Creek Blvd. in the northeasternmost part of New Tampa, has been a point of some public debate, due to the lack of infrastructure, namely roads, in the area.
But, only councilman Luis Viera, who represents District 7, which includes all of the neighborhoods within Tampa’s city limits in New Tampa — including K-Bar Ranch — was the only vote against the rezoning approved by the council (by a 6-1 vote on June 28) to allow the new homes to be built in K-Bar.
As it is with any zoning matters, Viera is not allowed to comment on the case for 30 days following the vote.
More homes means more cars, and currently, the only way in and out of K-Bar Ranch is Kinnan St., which runs north and south, or Basset Creek Dr., a two-lane road that runs past Pride Elementary before connecting to Kinnan.
Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa are still pursuing connections north into Pasco County at three different points to help relieve congestion, and K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., an east-west road which is connected to Kinnan St., is still under construction and will provide a path out via Morris Bridge Rd., but not until late 2019 at the earliest.
There was very little discussion amongst the City Council members before the vote, and no one from the public spoke.
Craig Margelowsky, the president of the Heron Preserve neighborhood in K-Bar Ranch and an opponent of adding more homes in his community without more roads, attended the May meeting but was unable to attend on June 28. He says he was disappointed with the decision, but not surprised.
Margelowsky says that he is concerned that by passing the rezoning request, the City of Tampa gave away any leverage it might have had in securing connections with Pasco County. If the rezoning was conditional upon new roads, government officials, as well M/I Homes, would be more pressed to find quicker solutions.
“This took away all the expediency,” Margelowsky says.
However, the City Council had little choice but to okay the rezoning, says Melanie Calloway, the senior transportation planning engineer for Tampa, in order to guarantee the connection of K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
Calloway cited House Bill 7207, or the Community Planning Act, passed in 2011 and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, which handcuffed local governments from imposing what was once state-required concurrency for transportation, parks and schools. The bill allows developers to build without making improvements on over-capacity or failing roadways, which aren’t considered when performing traffic analyses.
Calloway says the City of Tampa can’t legally require M/I Homes to make the connections, but are encouraging them to work with Pasco County, which M/I Homes says it is continuing to do so.
“I think there is more interest in making those connections than there has been,” said K-Bar Ranch attorney Donna Feldman. “I think, in time, they will occur.”
Feldman also said that at the Wesley Chapel Roadways presentation on May 29, it was shown that the majority of those on the Pasco side wanted connections.
However, that “majority” was only true for two of three potential connections — at Meadow Pointe Blvd. & K-Bar Ranch Pkwy., and Wyndfields Blvd. at K-Bar Ranch Pkwy.
No indication has been given that there is enough support for the most convenient, controversial and contentious connection — between Kinnan St. and Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe. Pasco County District 2 commissioner Mike Moore, who represents the area, is on record as being adamantly opposed to it. He has suggested the Pasco Board of Commissioners (BOC) may not even vote on the connections until next year.
While Moore favors only two of the three connections, the City of Tampa feels that all three connections need to be made.
But, Margelowsky isn’t convinced the Tampa City Council will hold firm on that stance. “Without requiring roads (before passing the rezoning), now Pasco County can sit on this for five years,” he said. “I know that the Wyndfields and Meadow Pointe Blvd. connections will get done, but I don’t see anybody going and actually fighting for Kinnan-Mansfield.”
Connections or no connections, Feldman said the rezoning needed to be approved. The 2,280 acres of K-Bar Ranch was annexed into Tampa in 2002 to “grow the wealth, size and import of the City of Tampa, and the City of Tampa has done that,” she said.
She said the land-use entitlements allow for far more density than what was allowed for in a 2015 rezoning of the area.
The current rezoning is for a northwest portion of land adjacent to Kinnan St., and a northeast portion of K-Bar Ranch adjacent to Morris Bridge Rd. The rest, Feldman says, already has been rezoned.
Feldman told council members that M/I Homes has done its part. The financial impact of building K-Bar Ranch Pkwy is $18.8-million, and she said that M/I Homes also donated 60 acres of K-Bar Ranch land to the city for a park, which also was more than required.
“This project, as a whole, has been mitigated over and above what is necessary to accommodate this rezoning, which really started with the annexation of this project in the early 2000s,” Feldman said as she asked the council for approval.
K-Bar already has roughly 500 homes and townhomes already built, with another 700 or so approved in 2015 — despite similar protests from residents then about a lack infrastructure and roads — that currently are under construction. The new rezoning will add nearly 700 more homes to the community, bringing the total to nearly 1,900.
Hunter’s Green resident Peter Mirones (left) listens as residents voice their concerns about bike and pedestrian safety in New Tampa, as well as about the reckless driving that Mirones and others say has contributed to some of our area’s traffic problems. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
After sitting in on a quickly organized town hall meeting called by a local resident, District 7 City of Tampa councilman Luis Viera says the next New Tampa Council (NTC) meeting could be one of its most informative, as well as most important.
On Wednesday, July 25, 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Compton Park in Tampa Palms, the NTC will host a town hall with the City of Tampa’s Transportation Department, as well as with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
Viera says that the city will discuss the new timing for the traffic signals on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., including the troublesome intersection at Cross Creek Blvd., as well as upcoming transportation projects that will affect our area.
“It’s very important for New Tampa residents to come to this meeting,” Viera says. “There are a lot of exciting and pivotal things happening in our city with regards to mass transit and transportation and we need to be updated on all these developments. And, most importantly, New Tampa residents have to be engaged, because without engagement, we will not see the results we need for our area…and our area needs results now.”
April Ingram would agree.
The K-Bar Ranch (see separate story on pg. 6) resident isn’t exactly sure when her outrage over local traffic in New Tampa boiled over.
Was it during the 30 minutes or so she says it has sometimes taken her to turn right onto Cross Creek Blvd. from BBD on her way home from the University of South Florida?
Was it the first time a car did not yield to her as she tried to walk across Kinnan St. at a designated crosswalk, or was it the second?
Was it one of the many times she’s seen cars speeding by? Or the times she has been awakened at night by the sound of car tires squealing and screeching, the result of racing down Kinnan St.? Or, just how unsafe she feels in general when she’s biking with her son or walking her dog?
Whenever it was, Ingram hosted a meeting at the New Tampa Regional Library on July 2 to find out if she was alone…and she wasn’t.
Roughly a dozen local residents from Meadow Pointe, Cory Lake Isles and Hunter’s Green showed up — including Viera and Eric Denney, an aide to District 5 Hillsborough County commissioner Ken Hagan, as well as two Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) corporals — to sound off on traffic issues they encounter on a daily basis.
“I am pleased and happy that anyone showed up,” said Ingram. “I think this was a good start.”
Those in attendance focused primarily on many of the same issues Ingram has, as well as bicycle and pedestrian safety.
A lot of the frustration was aimed at what they feel was a lack of response to their complaints from the Tampa Police Department (TPD). Most in attendance also argued that more of a police presence in New Tampa would help deter reckless drivers.
Peter Mirones, who lives in Hunter’s Green, said he has seen a parked TPD car dramatically alter the way people drive. But, when that police car leaves, “it’s Hell’s Bells.”
Mirones, an avid bicyclist, says New Tampa is not friendly to bikers, and others agreed. The bike trail on New Tampa Blvd. is in such disrepair it is practically unusable, he said.
Mirones organized a biking event over the weekend to memorialize West Meadows resident Pedro Aguerreberry, who was killed by a driver on June 24. The ride began at the entrance to Flatwoods Park and eventually made its way down New Tampa Blvd. near where Aguerreberry was struck. Mirones said some of the police officers even suggested that the bicyclists should ride in the road because the bike path was so bad.
Others at the July 2 meeting who enjoy but also fear biking in New Tampa suggested some kind of pedestrian bridge that crosses over BBD at Richmond Place Dr. would allow safer access into Flatwoods Park for those who live on the west side of BBD. While there is a light at Richmond Place Dr., the general consensus was that it is not safe for anyone crossing BBD.
Another suggestion: New Tampa should consider installing rectangular rapid flashing beacons, or RRFBs, similar to the ones at crosswalks on E. Fletcher Ave., at some of the New Tampa area’s trouble spots.
Viera encouraged everyone to attend next week’s NTC meeting to present some of the concerns and suggestions that were raised at the meeting.
“There were some good ideas presented tonight,” Viera said. “I think the momentum has really been growing in the City of Tampa the last 6-9 months toward pedestrian safety. Meetings like this can help.”
IMAGINE, IF YOU CAN, your husband or wife taking the kids for their usual bike ride together and waiting for them to come home. Everyone knows bicycles can be dangerous, but even those times that you get that feeling in the pit of your stomach because it’s taking a little longer than usual for them to return, it pretty much always turns out OK.
Doesn’t it?
Then, imagine what the family of West Meadows resident Pedro Aguerreberry, 42, is going through today, less than three weeks since Pedro took his sons Lucas, 8, and Bennett, 3, out for a bike ride, never to be seen alive again by his wife Meghan or those young boys.
But, this wasn’t just another tragic accident that, in an instant, changed forever the lives of the Aguerreberry family and everyone who worked with the always-smiling Pedro at Citigroup and their friends and neighbors in New Tampa.
Instead, it was an intentional act by a sadly mentally deranged young man who posted on Instagram the day before he made that quick U-turn in his car on New Tampa Blvd. (the main road that runs through West Meadows) to run down Pedro and his young sons that no one should blame him for what he was about to do. Instead, Morse said, “blame the devil.”
Yes, Morse, the former Freedom High student who was Baker Acted by the Tampa Police Department (TPD) on June 12, just two weeks earlier, only to be released — against the protests of his own mother — on June 19, a week after being held and evaluated, was obviously dealing with a serious mental illness. But, this isn’t about whether or not the man charged with the first-degree, premeditated murder of Pedro should be declared not guilty by reason of insanity or not. It’s about what happens after a happily married, devoted husband and father is intentionally taken from the arms of his loving family by someone he had never met.
Trying To Make Sense Of It
Even though I had never met Pedro or Meghan, I was one of more than 200 people who filled St. James United Methodist Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. on June 27 for his funeral. The next day, I also came out to take pictures of the 100 or so who got together to put on a memorial bike ride and run in his honor.
At the memorial service on Friday, I was stunned that the start of the service was delayed by an hour, as I was one of only maybe 30 people who were actually sitting in the seats. The other (approximately) 175 or so people in attendance made a circle around the outside of the seating area and every last one of them hugged Meghan and the boys (Lucas was able to get himself into a seat, but Bennett, who was more severely injured in the crash, was still in a wheelchair) and offered them all prayers and other words of love and encouragement.
I had never seen this done at a funeral before but I definitely felt this amazing energy flowing between every one of those well-wishers and the entire Aguerreberry family.
As if he hadn’t already been through enough that week, poor Bennett simply couldn’t handle the receiving line. After the first 20 minutes or so, he said, “Mommy, please stop letting go of me,” as Meghan tried desperately to continue holding his hand while hugging every one of the attendees with her other arm.
Still 20 minutes later, Bennett pleaded with her again, “Mommy, please stop hugging them.” I can’t imagine that anyone who left St. James did so with his or her heart still intact after hearing this sweet child’s plaintive cries.
After that, it was difficult to focus on the beautiful, sweet words of remembrance from Brett, Oscar and Laura, Pedro’s friends and coworkers at Citigroup who spoke. Everyone who did mentioned Pedro’s smile.
“Pedro was always happy and always had the greatest smile on his face,” Brett said. “He was always saying, ‘Hey, Brett, isn’t this just the greatest day?’”
It’s still so hard to believe that someone like that could be taken away from the people who love him by such a senseless, heinous act.
Even so, I personally wanted to thank Loyless Funeral Homes for providing such a beautiful video memorial for Pedro, both online and during the service. All of the pictures of him and his family on these pages were saved from that video.
Honoring Pedro’s Memory…
It certainly isn’t difficult to understand why so many people have felt compelled to try to help the Aguerreberry family. In addition to the memorial bike ride, a GoFundMe page has already raised tens of thousands of dollars to help them and The Fat Rabbit Pub in Tampa Palms and 900º Woodfired Pizza in the Shops at Wiregrass (owner Steve Falabella lives in West Meadows) were among those holding fund-raising events (Fat Rabbit’s was on July 8) to help.
As for the bike ride, cyclists young and old started at the BBD entrance to Flatwoods Park, turned right onto BBD and left onto New Tampa Blvd., pausing to honor Pedro at the makeshift shrine set up by his fellow West Meadows residents near where he was struck and killed by Morse’s car a little west of Wood Sage Dr.
Brett was among the handful of runners who said a little prayer for Pedro before taking off to run the park’s paved loop together.
