Editorial: Raymond James Is Official; More To Come In WC…& On WCNT-tv!

gary-newShortly before we went to press with our latest issue (which hit Wesley Chapel mailboxes Friday), it was announced on TampaBay.com (and on the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce website, WesleyChapelChamber.com) that Raymond James Financial had closed on 65 acres of property in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI).

The Times report says that the finalization of the long-awaited agreement came just days after Pasco County amended its incentive agreement with the company and Wiregrass Ranch Inc. to eliminate a deadline for construction to begin on Raymond James’ planned six four-story buildings totalling 1 million square feet. Combined, the state and Pasco County incentives total $14 million.

JD Porter, who is managing the development of the ranch for his family’s trust, was quoted as saying that now that Raymond James is officially in the fold after closing on the parcel located east of the Shops at Wiregrass mall on S.R. 56 at Mansfield Blvd, “I think a lot of other office uses will follow. It bodes well for everybody.’’

There’s no doubt that the Porter family is still at the forefront of the continuing development of Wesley Chapel, although Wiregrass Ranch isn’t the only part of zip codes 33543, 33544 and 33545 that is still booming.

In Wiregrass Ranch, as we’ve told you before, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) and North Tampa Behavioral Health (see story on pg. 8 in current Wesley Chapel issue) both are in the process of expanding, with FHWC close to completing its upward expansion. In addition, Florida Medical Clinic is very close to opening a new 80,000-sq.-ft. campus on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. just south of the hospital, bringing many more doctors’ offices within minutes of all of our Wesley Chapel readers. As we’ve also reported before, the Shops at Wiregrass mall also is expanding, although at least one major retailer in the mall, Macy’s, may be closing.

The residential portions of Wiregrass Ranch also are expanding, as a new community called The Arbors (also see story on pg. 10) is now building new single-family homes and attached townhomes near the already-popular Estancia at Wiregrass subdivision off BBD north of FHWC. Also selling well are the luxurious GL Homes in The Ridge at Wiregrass Ranch subdivision south of S.R. 56 (see the ad on this issue’s back cover, pg. 48).

But again, there also is plenty happening as you head west along S.R. 56 towards I-75, as a new Wawa gas station and convenience store is getting ready to open just west of the intersection of BBD on S.R. 56. The much bigger news is that Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI), which is expected to open before Thanksgiving of this year, also will host the next “Taste of New Tampa” (and Wesley Chapel) on March 18, 2017.

And, continuing west on S.R. 56, the area around the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO) mall also continues to be white-hot, as WCCC members recently got an update on the progress of the 150,000-sq.-ft. Costco being built next to TPO (see story on pg. 13), and both our future print editions and upcoming episodes of WCNT-tv will provide you with updates on the planned openings of both BJ’s Brewhouse and Longhorn Steakhouse near the outlet mall, as well as any progress on the just-beginning construction north of S.R. 56 between I-75 and Wesley Chapel Blvd.

And, Speaking Of WCNT-tv…

My partner and producer on WCNT-tv — Full Throttle Intermedia owner Craig Miller — and I (and everyone affiliated with the show) are so excited to announce that Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, after completing its initial six-episode commitment to be the Studio Sponsor for WCNT-tv, has agreed to sponsor the next ten episodes of the show, which currently has seven episodes “in the can,” all of which are available on our own WCNT-tv YouTube channel.

Episode 7, which debuted on Sept. 16 (a week before you received this publication in your mailbox) features the exclusive first announcement of the Taste of New Tampa, Mollyana Ward’s interview with our Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce Featured Business — Kent and Cindy Ross of RP&G Printing — and my three favorite steakhouses in Tampa. There’s also three you-heard-them-here-first announcements of three great events coming up in our area, has gotten some of the best response we’ve had to date.

(Note-“Mollyana” is the correct spelling of her name, so apologies to our outstanding Chamber Featured Business host for anytime we’ve spelled it wrong in print before.)

Yes, we’re building momentum with this thing, so I hope everyone who reads this editorial either in your print edition or online will watch, like and share not only all seven episodes produced to date, but also Episode 8 (which will premiere on Friday, September 30) and every 8-9-minute-long show after that. We also re-release every episode as individual 2-3-minute segments, so we never take up too much of your time online. Our only goal is to continue to find new ways to inform and, hopefully, entertain you, too — and get you to frequent the businesses mentioned and mention that you saw them on WCNT-tv!

Look for new episodes every other Friday. In other words, when you receive this publication in your mailbox, a new episode of WCNT-tv will air one and three weeks later. And, look for more unique video programming from the producers of WCNT-tv in the future.

Rotary Club Of WC Planning Biggest Event

honduras-eric-copyThe Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon, which meets Wednesdays for lunch at Quail Hollow Country Club (QHCC) off Old Pasco Rd, is doing more than just planning its next humanitarian trip to Troyes, Honduras, in April 2017.

The club is selling plaques to local businesses and individuals interested in supporting our area’s largest Rotary Club — which has sent 10-20 of its nearly 100 club members each year for the past five years to install latrines and water purification systems (in conjunction with the nonprofit organization called Pure Water for the World) in one of the most impoverished areas of one of Central America’s poorest countries,.

WC Rotary Club member Troy Stevenson of Wesley Chapel Nissan (and Acme Outdoor Movies) came up with the idea because he had been part of a similar fund raiser as a member of the WC Lions Club. Club member Trevor Campbell of Cash 4 Gold off S.R. 54 and Eiland Blvd. in eastern Wesley Chapel, picked up the idea and ran with it.

Campbell, who will be making his third trip to Honduras with the club, says Stevenson’s contacts have helped the WC Rotary get 300 plaques for a reasonable price, which Campbell, Stevenson and other club members have been selling {with all checks made payable to the “Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon Foundation,” the club’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit fund} to area businesses by knocking on doors.

honduras-plaque-1-copy“For a hundred dollars, you not only get a plaque, you get to show the public that you support the biggest international humanitarian effort our club makes every year,” Campbell says. “I took three weeks off from work to knock on as many business doors as possible and people really do seem to know about our club’s efforts and want to support us. It’s been pretty gratifying.”

At our press time, Campbell and his fellow WC Rotarians have more than 100 commitments from local businesses at $100 per plaque. “And, we’ve already got $8,000 of that in-house,” Campbell says proudly. “I’m still hoping to sell all 300 plaques this year. The more we raise, the more we can do for these amazingly appreciative people.”

The WC Rotary has helped install hundreds of these life-saving water purification systems in the homes in Honduras and will continue to send — and help — as many people as possible each year, with the continued support of the community.

Current club president, Dr. Pablo Rivera of Core Spine & Rehabilitation, who has missed only one of the five previous trips, says, “No one has ever come back from our Honduras trips unchanged. Help us this year and maybe you’ll end up wanting to join us next year.”

For more information, visit WCRotary.org or attend a meeting any Wed. at noon at QHCC as my guest. First-time attendees are always free. 

Local Volunteers Walking For Freedom

a21walkwebThe average age of a victim of human trafficking is just 12 years old. Only 1-2 percent of victims are ever rescued. Worldwide, an estimated 27 million people are currently in bondage.

These shocking statistics are according to A21, an organization that gets its name from its mission, which is, “Abolishing injustice in the 21st century.”

A group of local volunteers is supporting this organization and its mission by participating in A21’s annual “Walk For Freedom” with an event in Wesley Chapel on Saturday, October 15, 9 a.m., beginning at the Shops at Wiregrass mall.

“A lot of people aren’t aware that human trafficking is in our own neighborhoods and communities,” says event organizer Rachel Martinez. “We are hosting this walk to bring awareness to this issue.”

Rachel is a Wesley Chapel resident who participated in the walk last year, along with her family and about 100 others. She’s hoping that this year, even more will participate, so that many people throughout our community will see the line of walkers, dressed in black, as silent ambassadors for a cause they want others to care about, too.

“This year, the sidewalks are complete, so we can walk west along S.R. 56,” Rachel says. “We want people to see us in our shirts as we walk all the way to I-75.”

She also says that local churches have supported the walk by paying for necessary permits, and fund-raising efforts cover costs for items such as bottled water for the walkers. There’s no cost for participants to attend, although they are encouraged to purchase an official A21 Walk For Freedom T-shirt from the website A21.org.

Rachel became interested in supporting the mission of A21 when she heard the founder of the organization, Christine Caine, speak at an event at her church. Caine is a Bible teacher, activist, and evangelist from Hillsong Church, an Australian megachurch.

“Her story and her passion really hit home for me,” says Rachel, who adds that in her job handling statewide permitting for a construction company, she’s often on websites for various municipalities, and she’s struck by how often those local governments have task forces and resources dedicated to fighting human trafficking.

For example, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) has information on its website (PascoSheriff.com) that underscores Rachel’s concerns. The PCSO website says that human trafficking is an industry worth billions of dollars, and is one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world, second only to the illegal drug trade. And, there are more people held in slavery in the world today, than at any other time in human history.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center ranked Florida third among all states in the U.S. in the number of calls received by the center’s human trafficking hotline in 2015, as it has in past years, and many of those calls were from the Tampa Bay area.

“It’s big, big money, but maybe by bringing awareness to this issue, we can nip it in the bud,” Rachel says. “Maybe kids will learn something that will keep them safe from an unfortunate situation.”

To register to participate in the walk, visit A21.org/WesleyChapel or email FL4Freedom@hotmail.com.

New School Boundaries Set In Motion

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Pasco School District officials will not name High School GGG off Old Pasco Rd. in Wesley Chapel until after the school’s boundaries are set.

Two days after a heated rezoning meeting took place on the west side of Pasco County, the first stage of east side of Pasco rezoning that will affect many students in Wesley Chapel kicked off Sept. 16 in the media center at Wesley Chapel High.

With a new grades 6-12 high school — currently referred to as GGG High — on the way, District officials are hoping the new school can alleviate the overcrowding at all of Wesley Chapel’s middle and high schools.

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) currently is at 153 percent of its capacity, the most in the county by far. Built for 1,633 students, WRH today has 2,495 students enrolled. It is currently operating on a 10-period school day, adopted for the 2015-16 school year, to ease overcrowding.

WRH’s  primary feeder school, Dr. John Long Middle School, was built for 1,327 students but currently enrolls 1,870, or 147 percent of its capacity.

Wesley Chapel High (WCH) was built for 1,506 students, but has 1,669 enrolled, or at 111 percent of capacity, while Thomas E. Weightman Middle School has 1,186 students, or 122 percent of its 975-student capacity.

gggwebPasco’s School Boundary Committee (SBC), with administrative representatives from every school, as well as two parents from each school, met to begin the process of drawing the boundaries for GGG, which will open in time for the 2017-18 school year on Old Pasco Rd., just south of Overpass Rd.

Chris Williams, the director of planning for the Pasco School District,  is hoping things don’t become as contentious as they have in the Trinity area, where dozens of parents have railed against the School Board over plans to redraw J.W. Mitchell High’s attendance zone.

“At least here (in Wesley Chapel), (parents) may be concerned but they seem to be willing to wait to see how the process evolves and see what the committee does and evaluate then,” Williams says.

Both the high school committee and middle school committee came to the one preliminary opinion –— it makes sense to start filling in the boundary with students located in Quail Hollow West, Lexington Oaks, Grand Oaks, The Oaks, Cypress Estates, Stage Coach Enclave, Cypress Creek Town Center and Veteran’s East (the area located south of Veterans Elementary School encompassing Tampa Downs Heights, Saddlebrook Village West (Westbrook Estates), Willow Lake and Quail Hollow Village).

That would account for roughly 1,000 of the 1,200 high school students that would attend GGG next year, pulling 650 students from Wesley Chapel and 380 from Wiregrass Ranch, while also taking enough middle schoolers to relieve both John Long and Weightman.

That’s just for starters, though. The committee still has to consider socio-economic balance, maintaining feeder patterns, future growth in certain areas (especially in Wiregrass Ranch), transportation and subdivision integrity.

The committee came up with 3-4 other options, as it also has been tasked with helping to relieve crowding at Sunlake High and Charles S. Rushe Middle School in nearby Land O’Lakes.

GGG is being built at a cost of $65-million on 100 acres of land bought by the county 10-11 years ago., Williams said.

“We receive impact fees for new houses, so for every new regular single family house, that brought the district just under $5,000 (per home),’’ Williams says. “On average, that’s $9.5-million per year, so you can see to get to $65 million takes a few years.”

The School District generally looks for 60-70 acres of land for new schools, so Williams says there is plenty of additional space to build a middle school (and maybe even an elementary school) on the site in the future, although there currently is no timetable for building those schools.

The SBC will hold its next meeting on Thursday, September 29, at WCH’s media center from 10:30-1 p.m., and a third meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 20.

A meeting for parents to debate the SBC’s recommendations will be held at WCH on Tuesday, November 29, with the SBC meeting on Friday, December 2, to discuss feedback from the parent’s meeting

The SBC will determine if any changes are needed before forwarding the proposed GGG boundaries to the School Board for a January vote.

Taste Of New Tampa Returning!

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(l.-r.) WCCC CEO Hope Allen, NT Rotary president Brice Wolford, WCCC Board Chair Tracy Clouser and WCCC Ambassadors Craig Miller and James Carner at the signing ceremony held at the Chamber office to officially give the New Tampa Rotary the right to host the 2017 Taste of New Tampa on March 18.

I will admit that I was crazy excited to learn that the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) — our exclusive webcast partner for WCNT-tv — was getting ready to sign off on having the New Tampa Rotary Club (which meets Fridays for breakfast at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club) put on the next Taste of New Tampa.

Sadly, I thought that official announcement was coming a few months ago…and then, a few weeks ago.

Well, on Sept. 14, it became official. There will be a 21st Taste of New Tampa — and Wesley Chapel — on Saturday, March 18, 2017!

But somehow, the bigger news for all of us who plan to dive headfirst into bringing back one of our area’s most popular single-day events than the fact that there finally will be another Taste is the location for the event — Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI)!

FHCI co-owner/developer Gordie Zimmerman may not have been able to be on-hand for the signing ceremony between the WCCC and the New Tampa Rotary, but Zimmerman stepped up to the plate in a big way by agreeing to bring the event primarily back indoors for the first time since the first Taste back in 1994 (when it was held in and outside of Hunter’s Green Country Club), instead of outside in what has too often been either sweltering heat or sideways-falling, driving rain.

tastewebThe signing ceremony, held at the Chamber office in The Grove at Wesley Chapel, featured New Tampa Rotary president Brice Wolford and WCCC Board chair Tracy Clouser signing off on a document that took a little while to finalize, but will definitely prove to be worth the wait for both the organizers and the likely thousands of attendees who will be on hand to help raise money for the New Tampa Rotary’s selected charities.

Also at the signing ceremony were Chamber president and CEO Hope Allen and WCCC ambassadors (and New Tampa Rotary Club members) James Carner and Craig Miller. Yes, that is the same Craig Miller of Full Throttle Intermedia who also is my partner on WCNT-tv.

Putting Together A Team 

The New Tampa Rotary is already putting together a team of volunteers to help ensure the success of the event. I have agreed to be the Taste restaurant coordinator, while former Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel historian (who also has been a past Rotary District Governor) David West of Signarama of New Tampa, who is now a member of the New Tampa Rotary, will be the sponsorship coordinator. New Tampa Rotary member Karen Frashier will be among those responsible for marketing the event and more announcements will come in the future.

The 2017 Taste is only 25 weeks (a little more than six months) away, so the organizers need to move quickly to ensure that the first to be held since 2014 (on one of those sideways-rain days, when it was held in Primrose Park off Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms). I handled the restaurants for that event and there were 30 committed at one point, but the reports of likely bad weather that day caused numerous day- and week-of-the-event cancellations. That shouldn’t be a problem inside the 150,000-sq.-ft. FHCI — which will be the largest skating facility south of New York when it opens.

“It’s a great opportunity to revive an amazing event,” Allen said after the signing ceremony. “The Chamber is getting out of the business of putting on major events like these, so it was great that the New Tampa Rotary stepped up to bring back the Taste.” The Chamber also has divested itself of its own Fall Festival, which will have its 12th edition put on this year at The Grove shopping center the weekend of October 29-30. by Simply Events, which was introduced at the WCCC’s September business breakfast.

Look for more updates about the Taste in these pages, at WCNeighborhoodNews.com and on future episodes of WCNT-tv. We also will post information for those who want to help with putting on the event.