Miss New Tampa Is Aiming Higher

Udeme Ikaiddi (Photos courtesy of Udeme Ikaiddi)

New Tampa’s Udeme Ikaiddi (pronounced Oo-DEM-ee A-Ky-dee) didn’t grow up in the world of beauty pageants. She grew up playing violin, reading books and hanging out with friends.

It wasn’t until she was in college that she ever considered entering one herself, and that was only after producing different pageants at the University of South Florida, like the Miss Africa USF event, and others.

At the age of 25, with some prodding from a friend, Udeme entered and won her first beauty pageant. A year later, she was named Miss New Tampa. In July, at the age of 26, she will vie for the title of Miss Florida in Coral Springs, although a date has not been set.

“It’s been a fun adventure,” she says.

Udeme, a Cross Creek resident and 2012 Wharton High graduate, didn’t win an actual pageant to earn the title of Miss New Tampa. While she has modeled and taken part in Tampa Bay and Orlando Fashion Week events and various bridal and wedding expos, she only had to apply to become a hometown delegate by sending in pictures and a resumĂ© to the Miss Florida USA organization. She was one of many chosen to represent their area — there also is a Miss Brandon, Miss Riverview, Miss Hillsborough, and so on. “When we all come together in July, there will be roughly 100 girls (vying to be Miss Florida),” Udeme says. 

The winner will be determined by the highest scores from three competitions: fitness (athletic wear/swimsuit), evening gown and interview. The winner will represent Florida at the Miss USA competition, and the winner there will represent the U.S. at the Miss Universe pageant.

It’s still all so new for Udeme. 

“I literally just jumped into it when I was 25,” she says. “To me, it’s a really huge deal because my No. 1 goal is to go to Miss Universe and represent the United State of America, and this is like the first step. So, instead of just being super excited, there’s a lot of nerves, but also a lot of determination.”

Although she’s no shrinking violet herself, Udeme basically honed her pageant skills while producing them. She trained and conditioned participants by making them feel good about themselves, giving them confidence, and assuring them that public speaking was not so scary. 

“I helped them find that confidence and that fire to step on the stage,” she says.

And now, she has ended up lighting her own fire.

Her first pageant was the Miss Akwibo USA pageant, which she won in 2019. Although she was born in Tallahassee, FL, Udeme is of African descent, with her parents coming to America in the 1980s from their birthplace in Akwa Ibom State, located in southern Nigeria. There is an annual convention in the U.S. for Akwa Ibom natives, which draws nearly 2,000 people. Udeme compares it to a convention of Florida natives being held in Germany.

The pageant is held during the convention. Her platform was “Live. Love. Learn.” It focused on preventing malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS and promoting healthy life choices (“Live”), documenting Akwa Ibom traditions and culture online (“Love”) and educating Akwa Ibom youth (“Learn”).

In September 2019, Udeme traveled to Akwa Ibom State as Miss Akwa Ibom USA to complete one of her pet projects — giving school supplies to children in the primary school of the villages where her mother and father are from in Nigeria.

As part of her duties as Miss Akwibo USA, Udeme visited Nigeria in 2019, met the Akwa Ibom governor and worked on projects related to her platform.

“It was such a humbling experience, I cannot stress that enough,” Udeme says. “It really made me see the good things I could do, and made me think about other ways to do even more with this platform.”

Udeme started to look into other opportunities, to see if pageants and the platform they afford might be something she’d like to spend more time pursuing. She says she was moved when she watched the 2019 Miss Universe pageant on YouTube, which was won by Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa, as well as the Miss USA 2020 event, where Asya Branch, the first ever black contestant from Mississippi, earned the crown.

“I said, ‘Yep, this is what I want to do,’” Udeme says. “I was like, ‘These beautiful black women are so smart, so intelligent, so humble and so loving, I want to try and do this.’”

While she waits for her opportunity at the Miss Florida pageant, Udeme is pursuing her passion for hospitality and tourism. She got her Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Management from USF and may apply for the Master’s program. She also is a sales coordinator at the Hilton Tampa Downtown and owns her own event-planning business, Gifted Engagements, which she says is currently on hiatus, due to Covid-19.

In her role as Miss New Tampa, Udeme already has forged a collaboration with the Hillsborough branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She hopes that relationship is just the beginning.

“I’m really excited about July,” Udeme says. “Sure, the goal at the end of the day to is to win, 100 percent, but even now, if I didn’t try, I wouldn’t have been connected with NAMI (as Miss New Tampa). Even before Miss USA, I’ve accomplished something that warms my heart, and I just want to do more.”

Helping Pasco Sports Tourism Rebound in 2021

Club volleyball has been keeping the January calendar full at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County.

If tourism is going to bounce back from the Covid-19-ravaged 2020, a series of spikes, dunks, cheers and racquet sports will have a lot to do with it.

At least that’s how it looks to Pasco County tourism director Adam Thomas, who says that after a tough year for tourism around the world, events are returning to Pasco’s “sports tourism” sites, including the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, Advent Health Center Ice and the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center — all part of the county’s “Florida’s Sports Coast” branding.

Thomas says the three facilities have 14 events scheduled for the first two months of the year, with many more to come, as national governing bodies like USA Volleyball, USA Wrestling, USA Powerlifting and others look to take advantage of Florida’s open-for-business status and have eyed the Wesley Chapel-area to hold events.

“We are just now getting back to normalcy,” Thomas says, despite rising Covid numbers in Pasco, in Florida and around the nation. “We are looking at sports tourism in 2021 to really get us back to where we need to be.”

One event that won’t provide as much help as originally expected is Super Bowl LV, which is being played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on February 7. Generally, a huge event like the Super Bowl would have a major economic impact on nearby Wesley Chapel, with visitors staying in local hotels and eating and shopping at local restaurants and stores.

But, Covid-19 protocols will limit the crowd at Raymond James Stadium, which can hold 65,890 fans, to roughly 20,000 for the Big Game.

Thomas thinks Wesley Chapel will still enjoy some benefit from the Super Bowl, but in October, Pasco backed out of plans to spend $250,000 on a Super Bowl sponsorship and instead use that money for something more likely to bring a bigger return to the county.

So, while the Big Game won’t make as much of an impact, hundreds of little ones will — and that’s fine with Richard Blalock, the CEO of RADDSports, which runs the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, thanks to a public-private partnership between Pasco and RADD Sports.

The 98,000-sq.ft. AdventHealth Sports Arena will host a variety of club sporting events in 2021, bringing hundreds of teams and players and their parents’ wallets to Wesley Chapel.

The January calendar was filled with volleyball tournaments and gymnastics meets. Volleyball and gymnastics club seasons will roll into a basketball club season in the spring, and then the camp season over the summer. The Sports Campus is already proving to be responsible for a lot of hotel room nights and money spent at Wesley Chapel restaurants, malls and shopping centers, as nearly every weekend is booked through August and even Covid-plagued 2020 proved to be a success.

“We are not one-sport-specific, and that helps us,” Blalock says. “We made that decision by design. We can run a multitude of events here. As one season ends, another is starting.”

Blalock says in August and September of 2020, the first six weeks the Sports Campus was open, its events were responsible for 1,800 hotel room nights and just over $150,000 in sales, resulting in a $1.2-million indirect impact on the local economy. 

He doesn’t have numbers yet for the rest of 2020, but Blalock says he expects to exceed those numbers in 2021. He says this while staring out his office window at construction workers laying masonry blocks on the fourth floor of the Residence Inn by Marriott hotel, which is being built adjacent to the arena on the Spots Campus site and is expected to open around the first week in August.

But, 2021 also is planned to include  an NFL-style combine for pro football hopefuls, organized by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Yo Murphy, as well as the possibility of European soccer teams camping here prior to their fall 2021 seasons.

Hockey Tourism, Too

Thomas says the Sports Campus isn’t the only local venue to have a slew of events booked to meet pent up demand. AHCI currently is hosting a six-week United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) camp — a college and pro showcase with hundreds of players staying at Saddlebrook Resort and playing games at AHCI — as well as in Ellenton and Brandon. 

The USPHL’s Hub City concept is designed in part to make up for the loss of games and exposure events for players last year, especially from hockey areas hit particularly hard by Covid-19, like the northeastern U.S.

Because so many events were cancelled last year and so many seasons went unfinished,  Thomas anticipates eager event organizers to be heading our way.

“Our event calendar looks pretty promising,” he says.

The SVB Tennis Center in Zephyrhills is attracting sports tourism with growing sports like padel (photo) and pickleball. 

The county won’t recover in one year, Thomas adds. He believes the Covid-19 vaccine will help make people more comfortable when it comes to travel and attending larger events, but that change will take a while. While 2021 is expected to put the Florida Sports Coast back on track, Thomas says the tourism industry is looking at 2023 before a full recovery can probably be expected.

“It’s going to take some time,” he says. “We’re still licking our wounds.”

When the pandemic hit last year, the county was coming off a record-setting February. March began the nosedive, and when the state was shut down for much of April, the county saw its tourist tax revenue drop to below $100,000 for the month, down from $430,000 in tourist tax collected in April 2019.

There is some good news, even if it is anecdotal — Thomas says the last weekend of 2020 saw 6.2 -percent growth, with almost 40 percent hotel occupancy. “We had a really good week,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll continue to see that.” 

In fact, Lisa Moore, the market director of sales for the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel on S.R. 56 says, “We’ve been at or near 100% occupancy every weekend since the Sports Campus opened. It (2020) was a tough year, but things are looking better now.”

I-75 At Overpass Rd. The Latest To Get Under Way


The rendering above shows the planned flyover entrance to I-75 at the new Overpass Rd. interchange (Exit 282), which began construction in October and is expected to be completed by 2023. (Rendering: FDOT)

Pasco County District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore says one of the most common complaints he receives from his constituents is about the traffic, especially here in Wesley Chapel. Before too long, however, he says many of those complaints will go away.

“There’s a lot going on, and a lot of (transportation) projects are kind of coming together at once and are going to make an enormous and immediate impact,” Moore says.

Three major local road projects, totalling nearly $150 million combined, are under way right now. The projects — the diverging diamond interchange (DDI) at S.R. 56 and I-75, the widening of S.R. 54 to past Morris Bridge Rd., and a new I-75 interchange at Overpass Rd. — will provide a large measure of relief to our area.

The widening of S.R. 54 (pictured here is the intersection of SR 54 and Meadow Pointe Blvd., as of December 13, 2020) is one of three major road projects, along with Overpass Rd. and the DDI, currently under construction in Wesley Chapel. (Photo: FDOT)

The $33-million DDI (which we’ve updated for you quite a bit recently) and the $42.5-million widening project — which will widen S.R. 54 from a two-lane road to a four-lane road with medians, and include a sidewalk on the north side and a 10-foot wide multi-use trail on the south side — are both well under way.

Meanwhile, the $70-million Overpass Rd. interchange will be located approximately halfway between the S.R. 54 and S.R. 52 exits (which are six miles apart), and work began on the project in October, with local road and drainage work in the southwest corner of the planned interchange.

Instead of a traditional interchange, or even another DDI (which was considered), the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and Pasco County have settled on a flyover ramp onto southbound I-75 from westbound Overpass Rd., similar to the one in New Tampa at the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. Exit 270 off I-75. The Overpass Rd. interchange will be Pasco County’s first flyover.

The existing Overpass Rd. bridge over I-75 is being torn down and will be replaced by two bridges, one each for eastbound and westbound traffic on Overpass Rd.

“You could say incorporating that particular design is the wave of the future,” Moore says. “We’re not going have to have to go back and fix something like what’s going on with S.R. 56 and I-75. With that interchange, it’s just going to be general maintenance.”

FDOT’s John McShaffrey says the flyover configuration was selected “primarily because this alternative provides the most capacity to handle anticipated future traffic demands for the westbound Overpass Rd. to southbound I-75 traffic movement.”

The project also will include the widening of Overpass Rd. from two lanes to four lanes between the interstate and Old Pasco Rd., and from two lanes to six lanes between the interstate and Boyette Rd.

The interchange is being constructed by the Middlesex Corporation, and is expected to have a major effect on the adjacent interchanges. It was the best choice to accommodate the traffic from future development coming to the east side of the county, primarily from the Epperson Ranch and Pasadena Hills communities.

Other benefits of the I-75/Overpass Rd.) interchange, according to FDOT:

* It will substantially reduce traffic at the adjacent interchanges (SR 54 & SR 52), thus improving the traffic flow at both of these interchanges (reducing delays and improving safety).

* It will provide a detour route for traffic on I-75, quicker access for first responders servicing this area of I-75, and another access point to I-75 for evacuees during emergency evacuations. 

* It is an integral part of the transportation network being developed in this growing area of the county, and is identified as a needed improvement to accommodate the Villages of Pasadena Hills development and the Connected Cities development. 

* Will improve access to I-75 for businesses that will be located at the approved Overpass Business Center, and will provide a direct route for businesses that are/will be located along the entire length of Overpass Rd., as it develops eastbound towards U.S. 301.

* FDOT and the county both acknowledge that the existing system, even with reasonable improvements, is incapable of satisfactorily accommodating future traffic demands. The location of this new Exit 282 Overpass Rd. interchange is ideal in terms of placement (approximately 3 miles from both Exit 285, or SR 52, and Exit 279, or SR 54). 

The estimated completion time of the Overpass Rd./I-75 interchange is summer 2023. The DDI and widening of S.R. 54 could be completed by the end of this year.

“I’m excited as a resident and as someone who has a wife and daughter that drive,” Moore says. “We see the effects the traffic has. But, also as an economic impact, too. When companies are looking to grow or relocate, they are looking for areas that have a great transportation infrastructure.”

Ready For A Theater Like No Other?

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The All-New Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment Is Opening Soon & You Definitely Need To Check It Out!

When you’ve been in the local news business as long as I have, you hear a lot of people do a lot of talking, but very few back up their words with solid action.

Considering that developer Mark Gold of Mishorim Gold Properties has only owned The Grove shopping center development for about a year, you’d think there’d be no way he could back up everything he promised to do when he spent more than $64 million to buy The Grove in late 2019.

And you’d be wrong.

Since then, during the worst pandemic of our lifetimes, Gold has turned The Grove area he calls “The Village” from a mostly vacant mess into a vibrant new destination anchored by Treble Makers Dueling Piano Bar & Restaurant and Double Branch Artisanal Ales, with much more to come.

Closer to the Outback Steak House, Gold already has begun delivering on another promise — to create a container park that will dwarf Sparkman Wharf in downtown Tampa by sometime this year.

But now, Gold has done something that certainly seemed impossible when he took over the former Cobb 16 Theater at The Grove towards the end of last summer — he’s not only ready to reopen it, he’s completely transformed it into The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment — and he promises the formerly failed movie theater he and his team have totally overhauled in less than six months will be a safe, family-friendly experience that will attract visitors from far beyond the borders of Wesley Chapel.

“South Tampa will come here to see this,” Gold promises. “There’s nothing else like this in the U.S.”

I’ll admit I was excited when Mark Gold and his team took us on an exclusive tour of all of the unique entertainment options that will be available right here in Wesley Chapel when The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment opens to the public sometime after this issue reaches your mailbox.

The Grove Theater will have 12 new-release movie theaters, including six VIP sections upstairs, with literally the most comfortable reclining theater seats you’ll find anywhere. But, that’s just the beginning. 

In addition to a huge arcade stocked with 43 giant-sized video games near the entrance, The Grove also has one theater that will be solely for children in a safe, supervised environment.

“It’s going to be like a nanny room,” Mark says. “Parents can feel comfortable leaving their kids while they have dinner or watch their own movie.”

Another will be home to a “Spin Theater,” equipped with competition-style stationary bikes, both for top athletes to use for training and for those who want to exercise while watching a movie. There will be instructor-led classes, as well as open spin classes.

Still another theater will be available for rent for private parties and events. “For a birthday party, you can rent the theater for $300-$400, pick whatever movie you want and we’ll screen it just for you,” Mark says.

Plus, yet another theater will be offering Broadway and other professionally produced shows that Mark says will be brought in by a professional theatre company.

And finally, as we announced in our Sept. 29, 2020, issue, one theater will be the concert-style-seating home of SideSplitters Comedy Club. There’s even a SideSplitters reception area near the completely reconfigured movie concession stand. SideSplitters, of course, has a popular location on N. Dale Mabry Highway in Carrollwood, where top-level comics, as well as yours truly and members of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel have performed.

A True Dining Experience

But, best of all, Gold also has transformed the theater’s second-floor dining and bar area into a legitimate high-end bistro, complete with a sushi bar and Italian-trained Head Chef Wissam (“Sam”) Itani. 

“It’s a chef-driven concept,” says Grove Theater manager Tom Peck. “We’ll have everything from Mediterranean items like chicken shawarma, steaks, salmon, you name it.”

Peck adds that the whole concept is to keep guests at the Grove Theater for longer than the average 2-1/2 hours spent at most theaters by the average moviegoer. “We’re not just a movie theater,,” Peck says. “We’re both a great restaurant and the greatest entertainment experience ever.”

Concerned about safety these days? Who isn’t? But, Gold and his team have that covered, too!

“I think we’re #1 in safety out of all the movie theaters in the country,” says VP of operations Matheus Gold. “We have fog machines sanitizing each theater after every movie, disinfecting UV lights, temperature and mask checks when you enter and hand sanitizing stations everywhere.”

In other words, if you live anywhere near Wesley Chapel, you should definitely check out the all-new Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment. There’s literally nothing else like it.

“This is a totally new concept that is the future of movie theaters in the U.S.,” Mark says. “Everyone really needs to come see this place.”

For more info about The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment, visit GroveShopping.com.

Pebble Creek Golf Course Not Designated A ‘Brownfield’ Site

Pebble Creek Golf Club is on its final legs, according to owner Bill Place.

The plan to have the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC) designated as a “brownfield” site has failed, saving the property value of many of the homes that surround the golf course.

Bill Place, whose Ace Golf Inc. owns the PCGC and has been trying to sell it for years now, said he will still go ahead with plans to decontaminate and sell the golf course to developers.

Place had been seeking the brownfield site designation for the golf course, which carries with it a state tax credit equal to roughly 75% of the cleanup costs.

A brownfield site is a property that is contaminated, thus hindering efforts to expand or redevelop it. In 1995, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created a tax-credit program to help clean such properties up, so it could be reinvested in, helping the local economy as well as the local environment. The EPA estimates there are more than 450,000 brownfield sites in the U.S.

However, the word “brownfield” carries with it a negative connotation, especially in regards to a “green” golf course, causing Pebble Creek residents to rally together to fight against the course receiving the designation. There were petitions signed, a meeting on Nov. 30, and there were public hearings on Dec. 9 Dec. 16, prior to the vote. 

The message from the residents was clear — the brownfield site designation wasn’t deserved, carried with it a stigma and that they wanted the golf course to remain a golf course.

While at least one Pebble Creek resident registered support to doing what was necessary to get the course cleaned up — “the cat is out of the bag,” said Pamela Jo Hatley — the overwhelming majority were opposed to using the brownfield site designation to do so.

Michael Jacobson, the president of the Pebble Creek Homeowners Association, said that the contamination was mostly concentrated around the tee boxes and greens, and that the brownfield designation would suggest that the entire 150 acres was contaminated, having as much as a $62-million impact on property values in Pebble Creek.

Jacobson was one of 14 speakers registered on Dec. 16 to voice their disapproval of the designation. 

Following 30 minutes of public comments, the county commissioners voted unanimously against the 150-acre property being declared a brownfield.

“I’ve represented North Hillsborough for a long time and, candidly, I do not believe I’ve ever seen a neighborhood more engaged and unified in opposition to an issue,” said County Commissioner Ken Hagan, who District 2 includes Pebble Creek. “This is evidenced by the over 300 emails, 150 letters and 450 residents who signed an online petition and — with the exception of (one) — 100 percent being in opposition to the brownfield designation request for the Pebble Creek Golf Course. I want to deny that request today.”

While admitting that the future of the PCGC was “uncertain,” Hagan cited a number of concerns. First, the loss of 30 jobs that would result if the designation was granted and not meeting the economic productivity threshold that is required. 

Also, the county has never before designated an active golf course as a brownfield site, and that all recent brownfield approvals have been zoned for their intended uses in advance of the brownfield request, which did not happen in this case. “Not only is this request putting the cart in front of the horse,” Hagan said, “but it would potentially be precedent setting.” 

Place was disappointed in the decision, but said that he understood. He had even offered to pull his request for the designation, but it was too late.

“I didn’t expect the pushback when I started this,” Place said afterwards. “I realized as we got into it that it is a poorly named program. It conjures up images of the superfund industrial sites (which are designated as polluted locations that require a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations). The reality is, brownfield is used across the country in a number of locations, including golf courses. But, I get it. I understand. If I lived there, and someone told me it was gonna be a brownfield, I’d be concerned, too.”

So what now? Place says he will pay for the testing, which will take place over the next few months.

DR Horton, one of the original interested buyers of the PCGC, had done preliminary testing two years ago and discovered contaminants on the golf course before withdrawing its interest. South Florida developer 13th Floor, however, remains interested.

Place said that after DR Horton did its “very preliminary” testing of the golf course, he paid $50,000 to a company that did more extensive testing. High levels of arsenic and dieldrin were discovered, from insecticide applications before he owned the property, Place says. He added that those chemicals were banned prior to 2000, and he bought the course in 2005.

“The company told me this is not unlike what they have seen on golf courses this age,” Place says. “It’s not as excessive as some they have seen, but yes, it’s contaminated beyond state levels and we’ll have to clean it up before anything else can be done with the property.”

Place estimates the potential cleanup could cost $1 million, though 13th Floor has told him it could cost as much as $2 million. Without the tax credit from the brownfield designation, which would have covered three-fourths of that cost, Place will have to foot the bill.

Place said while the remediation of the contamination begins, 13th Floor will concurrently start a rezoning effort. While it is likely to meet some resistance, 13th Floor has already held a number of meetings with the HOA as well as residents.

While the property could accommodate as many as 600 homes on it, 13th Floor has already agreed to build fewer than 300. Place says that number is now projected to be between 220-250.

Place also said 13th Floor has agreed to other concessions requested by residents as well.“I certainly expect there will be people opposed to this being anything but a golf course,” Place says. “But there’s also people that realize that if it’s a certainty that the golf course is going away, why don’t we try and get as much as we possibly can from the developers to make this as good a situation as we possibly can?”

There are only 20 golf club members among the residents in the 1,400 or so homes in Pebble Creek. Place says he spends $500,000 every year on labor and fertilizers. The 53-year-old course, which opened in 1967, still has its original irrigation system.

“We’ve just been band-aiding it and band-aiding it,” Place,says. “It would cost a half-a-million dollars to put a new one in. The golf course is not viable going forward. It’s just not paying the bills. We don’t see another away. You can only operate a losing operation for so long before you’re like, ‘Okay, why am I doing this?’”