Category: News

Councilman Viera To AMC Theater: Clean It Up, People!

Tampa City Council member Luis Viera has said from the very beginning of his current term that cracking down on blight in New Tampa would be one of his priorities, and he has not been shy about sic’ing code enforcement on those he feels aren’t keeping the District 7 area he represents up to a certain standard.

His latest target is the AMC Highwoods 20 movie theater on Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.

Viera sent a letter to AMC Corporate headquarters in Leawood, KS, on Nov. 12 requesting to speak with someone about the condition of its movie theater in the heart of New Tampa.

According to Viera’s letter, he has received a number of calls and emails from residents that the building’s facade looks run down and dirty and the surrounding vegetation is not being maintained.

Viera wrote that the condition of the property was “not properly reflecting the exterior standards of New Tampa” and that it was in “desperate need of attention.”

At our press time, Viera said he had not received a response.

“I don’t think we’re asking for a lot,” Viera says. “This isn’t an onerous regulation. Just take care of the exterior of your building and the landscaping. These are basic steps. We aren’t asking them to put in new seating and start serving Dom Perignon.”

Alicia Kanhai, who lives in Richmond Place, says she is glad Viera wrote the letter. She lives right down the street from the AMC 20, and says it is apparent that the theater management has let the building and the surrounding area deteriorate unabated in recent years.

The theater started out as a Muvico theater until being purchased by Carmike Cinema in 2013 for roughly $32 million.

In 2017, AMC bought Carmike for $1.1 billion.

“Every time we go for a walk, we pass it, and it’s gotten pretty bad,” says Kanhai, who is married with 12- and 13-year-old boys. “We used to love going there, but we can’t handle it.”

It appears Kanhai isn’t alone. Viera posted his letter, as well as two pictures of the area, on the community message board NextDoor.com, and it received more than 100 responses.

Many online posters complained about the exterior, but they were also unhappy about the conditions inside.

While the theater might be showing its age in an era of large reclining seats and in-theater food service, some wrote that things like outdated seating, sticky floors and dirty bathrooms keep them away. Others used stronger wording, calling the conditions “vile” and “disgusting.”

Many posters said they would rather drive 20 minutes to see a movie at The Cobb Grove 16 in Wesley Chapel, which features many of the amenities now more common in theaters across the country.

But some, while stopping short of defending the movie theater, said other buildings in New Tampa were just as bad, if not worse. Namely, the abandoned old Sweetbay grocery store next to Home Depot, which is in far greater disrepair than the AMC 20, was cited by some as a greater concern.

Mostly, however, the prevailing response on NextDoor.com and people Viera says have emailed him is that the movie theater has seen better days, and he hopes his letter nudges management to give the theater a little TLC.

“How much can a couple cans of paint cost?,” Viera asks.

A recent Forbes.com story said that AMC Theaters reported that second quarter revenues in 2019 were up 4.4-percent, and 97 million tickets were sold during the quarter, an all-time record for the company.

The article also said that the company has added premium recliner seating to some of its 639 U.S. movie theaters.

“We can go to other places, but I don’t want to go to the Cobb, I want to go here,” Kanhai says. “This is my neighborhood. I want to go to the theater here. But, if they want people to keep coming, they are going to have to do some upkeep to keep it an attractive place.”

Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar To Breathe New Life Into The Grove

Jamie Hess was as excited as he could be when he jumped headfirst into a pool built — and filled with hope and dreams — by developer Mark Gold.

Within days of Gold’s $62.7-million purchase of The Grove shopping complex, Hess (and his brother Joe) was one of the first local business people to sign a lease which will allow his idea of bringing a non-chain restaurant and dueling piano bar to Wesley Chapel to come to fruition.

Hess wasn’t alone in his excitement, apparently. When it came to naming his place, Hess turned to four area Facebook pages, including the popular Wesley Chapel Community and Wesley Chapel Network pages, and turned it into a contest.

The result: 1,830 entries, more than a thousand more than he says he expected.

So, welcome to Wesley Chapel, Treble Makers.

“The response has been unbelievably overwhelming,” says Hess, who has owned Gadget Repair in the New Tampa Commons plaza near the Shops at Wiregrass since January. “It has definitely exceeded expectations.”

The credit for coining the name Treble Makers goes to Wesley Chapel’s Rodney Beuno, who was the first of three Facebook posters to suggest it.

He will be rewarded with VIP entry at the Treble Makers grand opening, with free food and free drinks, and will also receive a $500 bar and restaurant tab.

Sara Brinkley and Mara Mroz, both of Wesley Chapel, also chose the same name, and will each receive a free VIP experience for their efforts.

With the name out of the way, Jamie is now focusing on bring the piano bar to life. He will apply for his permit on Nov. 26, he says, and has been ordering kitchen equipment while the designs are being finalized.

“Once that permit comes, we’re running,” he says.

Treble Makers will be located in “The Village,” as Gold now calls it, which is the long-dormant retail/office plaza located across the parking lot from the big box stores in The Grove, closer to I-75.

Jamie and Joe will be located right across a parking lot from the new Double Branch Artisanal Ale brewpub, which is hoping to open by the end of the year.

“That whole area was a ghost town, but they (Gold and his Mishorim Gold Properties) are shaking it up,” Jamie says.

Jamie also says that Treble Makers will be a full menu restaurant serving American cuisine from salads to steaks and everything in between.

On most weeknights during dinner hours in the 6,000-sq.-ft. restaurant, a single pianist will be featured. And, on the weekends, dueling pianists — adults only, Jamie says — will take over. There also will be other forms of live entertainment, with karaoke and trivia nights sprinkled in.

Treble Makers will be surrounded by a number of ethnic-themed restaurants, and a short walk from a container park that already is drawing massive interest. Being a part of The Grove was a big deal for Jamie when he signed his lease three weeks ago.

“I’m a big believer in the Wesley Chapel community,” Jamie says. “This is really an exciting time, and I think Wesley Chapel needs something like The Grove. Downtown Tampa is great and nice, but we need a place like that at home.”

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Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot Ready For 7th Year

The Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot continues to grow, from roughly 1,400 runners in its inaugural year of 2013 to a total of 2,263 last year.

Will that number be topped again in 2019?

This year’s 5K (3.1 mile) race is scheduled for Thanksgiving morning — Thursday, November 28, 7:30 a.m., with a 1-mile family walk starting at 8:40 a.m.

Since the Wobble began, more than 14,000 people have come out to take on the 5K course that winds around the mall and down Paseo Dr. to kick off Thanksgiving morning.

In that time, more an $170,000 has been raised and distributed to area charities by sponsors The Rotary Club of New Tampa, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel Foundation and FitNiche charities.

AdventHealth Wesley Chapel Foundation put its Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot 2018 proceeds to work by providing the needed medical/hygiene supplies for Pioneer Medical Group Foundation’s second annual Health Fair. The fair will be at Perry Harvey Park in downtown Tampa and will serve the homeless and underserved.

There is still time to register for the race at WiregrassWobbleTurkeyTrot.com, which also offers registration for team competitions for families, corporation and schools.

The registration fee is $35 in advance, or $40 on race day.

All runners will receive a tech shirt, with awards for the top three finishers in each 5K age group.

There will be finisher medals for the 1-Mile Fun Run, and post-race festivities and awards from 8:15 a.m.-10 a.m.

In Honor & Memory Of My Friend Taken Way Too Soon — Rick Ward

I first met Mollyana Ward at what was then called a Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce event somewhere between three and four years ago.

Mollyana, Jannah and I became close pretty quickly — she was fun, outgoing, smart and she was very interested in helping me with what was then a fledgling idea I had about starting a video program for YouTube and Facebook.

I didn’t meet Mollyana’s husband Rick until a few months later and Jannah and I never spent as much time with him as we did his wife, but there was just something special about the guy. He was super laid back and soft-spoken — which doesn’t always mesh well with my loud, Type A New York personality — but it was hard not to notice how much he loved his wife, his three sons, God, people and life in general.

Like most couples who have raised children together, he and Mollyana had some issues over the years, but one thing was certain — Rick was convinced he “married up” when he married the love of his life.

Three years ago, at the party at our office where Jannah and I first got engaged, not only did I get to know Rick a lot better, I witnessed something that forever changed how I looked at this man.

It was a simple act of kindness. Although the music was playing and adults beverages were being served outside in the parking lot, the food was in my office on the second floor — and even though there is an elevator in the building, the party was at night and the people who occupy the office downstairs had all gone for the day, so there was no access to the elevator.

And, it just so happened that I had a friend in attendance who was in a wheelchair who had no way to get up the stairs to check out the food or even use the restroom.

Rick saw my friend at the bottom of the stairs and immediately sized up the situation. Even though no one asked him to do so — and there were plenty of other men at the party (including yours truly) who could have offered — Rick asked my friend if it was OK if he carried her up the stairs and she got a big smile on her face. So did I.

He then carried her up the double flight of stairs, put her in a chair in the office, went back downstairs, carried the wheelchair up the stairs, put her gently back in it, and said to her, “When you’ve had enough to eat and want to go back downstairs, I got you.”

I’m an emotional guy anyway, but I immediately felt tears running down my face. It was such a beautiful gesture — and moment — that summed up the measure of this sweet man. And yes, when she was ready, he put her back in an office chair, carried the wheelchair back down the stairs, carried her down the stairs and put her back in the wheelchair.

Unfortunately, although Mollyana, Rick, Jannah and I did get to spend some more time together after that, it was a little over a year ago that Rick was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor after suffering a seizure. Multiple surgeries and treatments (and an infection) later, without seeing the improvement in his quality of life they were hoping for, Mollyana and Rick decided to literally put the rest of his life in God’s hands.

And, although we and many of his other friends and family members did get to spend more quality time with him over the last several months of his life, it was hard for everyone to see him slowly deteriorate. Even so, you could tell how strong his faith still was because the Wards all believed with all their hearts that even though he couldn’t defeat cancer, he wasn’t going to let cancer defeat him either. He didn’t just believe — he knew in his heart and soul that even though he was going to leave this life before they would, they would all be reunited one day in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jannah and I got back from New York City the evening of Oct. 29, and Mollyana posted on Facebook that Rick had passed away (at age 49) the following morning. His passing was devastating, but also merciful because those last few weeks were particularly tough on his family, especially Mollyana as his primary caregiver. Her efforts to keep him comfortable were truly amazing.

Rick’s Celebration of Life was held Nov. 4 at the First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel, and he was buried in the church’s small adjacent cemetery, a few hundred feet from where he often taught Sunday school.

And, Rick’s neverending acts of kindness towards others was a primary recurring theme of the service, as a few of his family members, friends and business associates talked about not only his faith, but of his love for Mollyana, his sons Ricky, Nick and Jack, and his entire family.

I thanked one of his friends who spoke at the ceremony and told him the story about my friend and the party. He thanked me for telling him, but added, “You notice from the look on my face that I’m not at all surprised. That’s just the kind of man he is.”

The kind of man I’m proud to have called my friend, even though I never did get to know him as well as I would have liked. I was glad he was at least able to enjoy mine and Jannah’s wedding in March (photo).

Rest in Peace, Rick. We all miss you.

molyanna ward

Tennis Center Adds To ‘Sports Coast’ Brand

As large trucks filled with dirt and tall cranes roll by a flattened lot, local Wesley Chapel tennis guru and businessman Pascal Collard smiles.

The trucks are slowly but surely allowing Pascal’s vision come to life.

The parking lot is there, he says, pointing to his left. Tennis courts, pickleball courts and padel courts over there, surrounding the tennis center.

And, what about way over there, all the way to the right?

Pascal says that will be a 30,000-sq.-ft. indoor training facility with space for both more tennis courts and removable turf for other sports.

“It is beautiful, no?,” Pascal asks.

The Sarah Vande Berg Memorial Tennis & Wellbeing Center in Zephyrhills (at 6585 Simons Rd.) has broken ground, and is expected to open in late spring or early summer of 2020.

When it is done, the $4.9-million project will feature 11 tennis courts, including a main court with spectator seating, eight pickleball courts — one of the fastest growing sports in America — and four courts for padel, another racquet sport that can best be described as a cross between, well, almost every other racquet sport.

The 7,400-sq.-ft. indoor tennis center will house a fitness and rehabilitation center, a restaurant and café, a salt room, cryotherapy, a pro shop and a kid’s club.

The tennis center is another feather in the “Florida’s Sports Coast” cap, joining AdventHealth Center Ice, Saddlebrook Resort and the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, as the area continues to transform itself from ranches to recreation.

“It fits right in with (our new) Florida Sports Coast vision,” says Adam Thomas, the county’s tourism director. “This will make an impact.”

The tennis complex is a public-private partnership between the City of Zephyrhills, the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Foundation and Pascal, the president of Tennis P.R.O., LLC, and the director — and driving force — behind the new facility.

It is the hope of Pascal, who ran the renowned tennis program at Saddlebrook Resort from 2003-06 and lives in Estancia, that the SVB Memorial Tennis Center reaches far and wide into the surrounding communities to help bring it to life.

“It is something that people want,” says Pascal. “I hear it all the time. It will be a place where mom can do fitness and dad can do tennis, or vice versa, and the kids can do the Kids Club, or daycare. That is huge.”

Pascal says he also is teaming up with Buttermilk Provisions owner Dana Morris for a restaurant at the tennis center as well.

“We think this will be something special and unique,” says Pascal, who never stops smiling as he describes the project.

The tennis center, which is located off Eiland Blvd. just a few miles north of eastern Wesley Chapel, is named for former Zephyrhills High tennis standout Sarah Vande Berg, who died in an automobile accident at the age of 21 in 2015.

It will be equipped to host regional (like college) and even national events like United States Tennis Association (USTA) and International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments, and also will provide a place for area residents looking for courts on which to play. Pascal would like to see the area active in USTA league tennis, where Saddlebrook Resort may field an occasional team limited by membership restrictions.

It also will offer instructional tennis for children, and training for the more serious players.

And, speaking of memberships, Pascal is hoping to sign up hundreds at a price he said will be fair and less expensive than the clubs in the area. Depending on what type of membership you buy, it also could include membership to the Silverado Golf & Country Club, which is adjacent to the tennis complex.

While tennis will be the central focus of the facility, Pascal also has formed the United Global Academy, which will be an online school limited to 32 students from a variety of sports, similar to what IMG Academy in Bradenton offers but on a smaller scale initially. Mark Shepherd, former director of student services at Saddlebrook Prep on the resort’s property, will help run the academic side.

Pascal has reached into Wesley Chapel’s sporting community to help develop those athletes, who will be able to train in the 30,000-sq.-ft. indoor facility, which can accommodate four tennis courts and a synthetic turf soccer field.

“Why not create a sports association?,” he says. “Get all the best ex-athletes in the area to come together once a month to promote sports to kids…kids who cant afford it!”

Athletes will be able to receive training from coaches like former English Premier League Soccer player and local club coach Gary Blissett, former New Orleans Saints lineman Mel Williams, Silverado Golf & Country Club golf pro Sean Klotz and others.

“The vision is to bring the community together by offering a family-friendly experience,” says Pascal, who most recently was the tennis director at Merion Cricket Club, a private club in Haverford, PA, with more than 2,000 members. “There will truly be something for everyone here.”

For more information, visit the SVBTennisCenter.com.

tennis Zephyrhills