Congrats To The North Tampa Bay Chamber & A Tip Of The Hat To Mike Moore!

NTBC president Hope Allen shows off the Florida Chamber of the year award. (Right, l.-r.) Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore, Hope and NTBC Board chair Karen Tillman-Gosselin at the Chamber’s Monthly Business Breakfast held Oct. 1 at PHSC’s Porter Campus.

(Big congratulations go out to the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce (NTBC) and its president and CEO (and, I’m proud to say, my good friend) Hope Allen for bringing home some impressive hardware from the annual Florida Association of Chamber Professionals’ annual conference. 

The NTBC was named the 2019 Chamber of the Year from among the 300 Chambers of Commerce throughout the state of Florida. “This designation is an absolute honor, as we are able to showcase our organization, its members, and the entire team as an elite chamber,” Hope said in her formal email announcement to the NTBC membership about the award.

“Among the many accomplishments our organization has had over the years, the three major initiatives that set us a part were the development of AdventHealth Center Ice, Metro Development’s Connected Cities, and the RADDSports project (aka the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County).”

Along with those accomplishments, Hope said she and her team of Chamber professionals were excited to be recognized for the acquisition of two chambers within the last five years that led to an official logo and name change. “This award is a testament to not only our staff and our Board of Directors, but to our amazing members who make up our thriving community.”

Hope also was recognized as an individual who has dedicated 15 years of service to the chamber profession. 

The hard-working NTBC president showed off the Chamber of the Year hardware (left photo above) at the Chamber’s September 27 Final Friday networking event, which was held the afternoon we went to press with this issue (on Sept. 27) at Grillsmith in the Shops at Wiregrass mall. NTBC chair-elect Dr. Kevin O’Farrell of Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch gave Hope big props for her efforts on the Chamber’s behalf and Hope actually gave yours truly and this publication some love, telling me that, “Without you and the Neighborhood News always promoting everything we do, we would never have been able to win this award.”

I’m not sure I agree, because Hope and the NTBC have been so influential and ever-present with regards to everything that is happening business- and development-wise in New Tampa and especially, Wesley Chapel, that it definitely deserved to win on its own merits — but I will definitely take it!   

Great Job, Commish!

Speaking of the NTBC, Seven Oaks resident and Pasco County Commissioner (and someone else I am proud to call my friend) Mike Moore was the featured speaker at the Chamber’s Oct 1 Monthly Business Breakfast at Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch and Comm. Moore definitely rocked the packed house.

He touched on Pasco’s recent re-branding as Florida’s Sports Coast, thanks in large part to AdventHealth Center Ice (AHCI) and the Pasco County Sports Campus at Wiregrass Ranch (which will be operated by RADDSports, the company that now employs my wife Jannah) both being here in Wesley Chapel. Moore said the USA Hockey Disabled Hockey tournament at AHCI generated a Pasco record 2,000 hotel room nights and with nearly a million visitors and room nights countywide in 2018, he says  that number will continue to grow. 

Comm. Moore also touted the county’s many road improvements, especially those coming to the Wesley Chapel area — including the recent opening of S.R. 56 all the way to U.S. Hwy. 301 in Zephyrhills, the under-construction Diverging Diamond Interchange at I-75 and S.R. 56, the planned Overpass Rd. interchange off I-75, the in-progress widening of S.R. 54 from Curley Rd. to Morris Bridge Rd. and the widening of Wesley Chapel Blvd. north of S.R. 56.

Mike and I don’t agree on everything, especially his opposition to connecting Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe to Kinnan St in New Tampa, but I don’t think anyone could argue that he isn’t doing a great job.  

What (Teriyaki) Madness Is This?

Although we had been previously told to expect some sort of fried or grilled chicken restaurant in the space previously occupied by Wok Chi in the Shops at Wiregrass, the new restaurant that opened there earlier this month is called Teriyaki Madness, which is more of a Japanese experience, whereas Wok Chi was definitely more of a Chinese restaurant.

Please note that in our October 18 Wesley Chapel edition, I mistakenly called this new restaurant by a different name, which also was a fast-Asian concept that closed several years ago. I already have apologized to the general manager at Teriyaki Madness for my mistake, so I hope you will read this and go visit Teriyaki Madness soon. Feel free to make fun of me when you do visit.

Teriyaki Madness specializes in — you guessed it — dishes cooked with a teriyaki glaze (thicker than most sauces) that, to me, is more like BBQ sauce than something you’d get at a Japanese restaurant. This fast, healthier-than-most-fast-casual concept was founded in Las Vegas in 2003 and currently includes more than 100 locations being operated throughout the U.S. and now Mexico by M.H. Enterprises, which is based in Denver, CO.

In addition to beef, chicken and tofu teriyaki dishes, Teriyaki Madness also offers spicy chicken, spicy tofu teriyaki, orange chicken teriyaki, fried chicken katsu and yakisoba noodles with chicken, beef, tofu or all veggies. Appetizers include crispy chicken egg rolls, edamame (soybeans), crab Rangoon, chicken pot stickers and more.

The veggies are very fresh and you can customize which veggies you want, so yes, I’ll visit The Teriyaki Madness (28152 Paseo Dr.) again soon.

For more information, call (813) 803-3749, search “Teriyaki Madness” on Facebook or visit TeriyakiMadness.com.

Less Contentious Debate Over New School Zones

Chris Williams wasn’t quite sure what to expect on Oct. 7 at the public workshop for Pasco County’s new school boundaries expected to go into effect for the 2020-21 school year.

The director of planning services for the Pasco County School Board said that in the three weeks prior to the meeting, there had surprisingly been only 35 online inquiries about the new boundaries, so he wondered if parents were waiting to address their concerns in person.

Would the same large crowds from the contentious, lawsuit-laden 2016 rezoning meetings come streaming through the doors of the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) gymnasium? Would an angry mob be on hand to confront county planners who were there to answer questions? Would they be carrying pitchforks?

The answers? No, no and no.

It was, in fact, a surprisingly muted showing of roughly 50 parents over three hours, the energy muzzled by the emptiness of the high school’s large gymnasium.

“Based on some feedback, I expected more,” Williams said. “But, I didn’t expect this.”

There were 12 tables set up, with District staff manning many of them to answer questions about the new school zones, which will have the greatest effect on students living in Seven Oaks. 

While current WRH juniors and John Long Middle School seventh graders will be allowed to stay next year to finish at the schools where they started, most everyone else in Seven Oaks is headed to Cypress Creek High and Cypress Creek Middle, if the boundaries are approved, as expected.

When Mica and David Rice decided to relocate from Orange County in New York to Tampa Bay, they say that the right school for their son, an incoming freshman, played the biggest role.

In the summer of 2018, after strongly considering Steinbrenner High in Lutz, the Rices made what they thought was the right decision — they chose WRH, and bought a home in Seven Oaks.

Two weeks after closing on their new home, Mica found out her son’s stay at WRH was likely to be a short one, as the Seven Oaks community would in the crosshairs of rezoning in 2019.

“I saw it on Facebook, and I was shocked,” Mica says. “We did a year’s worth of research before deciding to move here, and did not know.”

The Rices were clearly disappointed that their son will not only have to attend a new school, but one further away from home. Mika says her 7-minute ride to school will now be a 20-minute ride.

“We don’t want to leave (Wiregrass Ranch),” she says.

 However, there is little choice. Most of the parents who visited the public workshop seemed disappointed but resigned to the fact their children — whether at WRH or Long — would be attending Cypress Creek High and/or the new Cypress Creek Middle School, which is currently under construction, next year.

“I’m getting pushback, but not a lot of it,” Williams said. “The impression is that certainly people are not happy, but they are kind of resigned to the fact. Most knew this day was coming.”

To drive that point home, Williams came armed with a newspaper article from 2016, where Pasco School Superintendent Kurt Browning specifically told the Seven Oaks community that while they were spared in the 2016 rezoning, they likely would be moving the next time around.

Cypress Creek High principal Caryn Hetzler-Nettle and new Cypress Creek Middle School principal Timothy Light (see story, pg. 30) had a table at the public forum with the hopes of assuaging any of the concerns of parents whose kids would be attending their schools next year.

Hetzler-Nettles said the process — which eliminated committees arguing over where to draw the boundaries and let the county planners handle it this time around — also seemed to do away with most of the tension from the 2016 process. 

Also, the fear of the unknown has been eliminated. In 2016, students were rezoned for schools that didn’t yet exist.

“It’s night and day,” Hetzler-Nettles said. “Now that we’re established and have a brand and a vibe out there, it’s been much easier.”

According to 2018-19 data, Wiregrass Ranch High was at 136 percent of its capacity. 

By shrinking the zone and reassigning students who live in Seven Oaks, roughly 27 percent of the student body (or 600 or so students) will head off to Cypress Creek High, which today is at only 50 percent of its capacity of 2,090 students.

Long was at 116 percent of its capacity in 2018-19, but with nearly 450 students being rezoned for Cypress Creek Middle School, it could be at 90 percent next school year. 

Williams said county-wide, Pasco is only at 90-percent capacity in all of its schools, but Wesley Chapel’s schools are continuously over capacity, due to the burgeoning development. 

While rezoning Seven Oaks helped Williams meet his directive, he said the county also considered including Northwood in the rezoning, but instead chose to make some minor adjustments elsewhere.

Most of the concerns Williams heard at the public forum revolved around students being able to finish at the same school at which they had started, transportation and what to do about siblings.

Williams explained that siblings of any graduating seniors will have to attend their new school, but any students currently attending Wiregrass Ranch (or Long, since it’s considered the same campus) who are siblings of a junior can likely stay but will have to apply for choice.

However, once those WRH juniors graduate in 2021, their younger siblings will have to attend the school for which they are zoned.

Also, students in any academies only offered at Wiregrass Ranch (medical, hospitality) have to apply for choice but should get to stay. Those in the business academy, however, will have to go to Cypress Creek if zoned for it, because Cypress Creek also has a business academy.

The last opportunity for the public to have its say come son Tuesday, November 5, when the School Board will host a public hearing on the proposed boundaries. The final vote is scheduled for Tuesday, November 19.

THE GOLDEN TOUCH

Developer Mark Gold has big plans for The Grove.

In a tiny office tucked behind The Grove shopping center he recently bought for $62.7 million, Mark Gold is unveiling big dreams.

“Big, big, major,” he says. “This is major.”

Gold’s vision is all over the walls of the leasing office at The Grove, on blueprints and promotional materials. 

There will be a family park, an amphitheatre for musical performances, a brewery, new restaurants, an indoor adventure facility, beautiful landscaping and lighting, and what Gold says will be the biggest shipping container park — think Sparkman Wharf, but on steroids — in the world.

A rendering of how a “container park” will look at The Grove.

There also is room for 400 homes, if Gold chooses to develop the additional acreage.

While others have, for too many years, seen a big box dead end office plaza with empty buildings and overgrown and unkempt land, Gold sees the future.

“This is a diamond that no one has touched for 10 years,” he says. “No one had the money to polish the diamond. That’s just crazy.”

The Grove, which opened in 2007 and whose current tenants include Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michael’s and others, as well as the Cobb 16 Movie Theater, may be an afterthought to many locals, a shopping center that once had great potential before development stopped. Gold and his Mishorim Gold Properties promise that will change.

“The message is, The Grove is coming back,” says Gold, emphatically. “It’s not owned by the bank or an insurance company anymore, it’s owned by creative developers that do this already all over the U.S.”

As Gold lays out his plan, it almost sounds too good to be true. However, District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore, who arranged a meeting for Gold with county planners and administrators, loves the idea.

“I think he’s the real deal,” Moore says. “When he left after his presentation, there was energy and excitement in the room.”

Pasco’s uber-friendly-to-business county commission is likely to do what it can to make things happen fast. Many of the typical hold-ups — such as proper zoning and utilities  — are all already in place.

The mostly vacant Village across the parking lot from stores like Best Buy, Marshall’s and DICK’s Sporting Goods has been mostly vacant but Gold already has new tenants signed to leases.

Gold, who has now owned the plaza less than a month, isn’t wasting any time starting to create a destination that he thinks could serve as a downtown Wesley Chapel one day.

“This is not only about money, it’s about vision,” he says. “Let’s bring something to Wesley Chapel that people like to come to.”

Just a few days after his purchase, he already had signed leases for 15 of the 60 containers, or micro-shops, that will populate the land between The Grove’s office “village” and Outback Steakhouse. Moore said he was impressed to see that overgrown grass had already been moved and some of the area was already being prepped.

Gold is hoping to create a European-flavored market or bazaar, with an emphasis on locally-owned stores and boutiques, and he says that in about two months, the containers will begin showing up.

“Things are moving fast,” he says. “This is big in places like Europe, Amsterdam…you see it all over the place. In the U.S., it is fresh. And, it is going to be the largest one in the world.”

Each of the container “shops,” which are former semi-truck trailers that will be outfitted with solar panels, is 40-feet long (although there are options to split the office containers into two or even three separate spaces), and here’s the big news — he is renting them out for only $1,500 a month for an entire container, with limited up-front costs for design.

“If you have a dream, let’s make it happen!,” Gold says.

“If you have a dream, let’s make it happen!,” he says. “This is your mom-and-pop opportunity, your dream. I care about my tenants. I want to help people come to us. Let me help you.”

A family park for children also will be one of the key components of The Grove’s transformation, as will a 36,000-sq.-ft. indoor trampoline/adventure park (see pg. 14).. 

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a part-owner of Surge Adventure Park, Gold says he already has Surge at four of his developments and that it is likely Brees will follow him to Wesley Chapel, too. Surge Adventure Park would be built near the Cobb 16 Movie Theater.

As we reported last issue, Double Branch Artisanal Ales, owned by Wesley Chapel residents, is expected to open in December, the first new project under Gold’s Mishorim Gold Properties.

“I think it is extraordinarily exciting for our community,” says Hope Allen, CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber. “It’s a long time coming. “It was disheartening to see (The Grove) not living up to its full potential over the last couple of years. I appreciate that new ownership is going to invest in it.”

Gold says he also has signed leases with at least four restaurants — pizza, sushi, gourmet hot dogs and frozen yogurt — for the currently mostly-vacant office park that he calls “The Village,” as well as a restaurant/duelling piano bar owned by Wesley Chapel resident Jamie Hess and his brother Joe.

“I met with him and was very enthusiastic and energetic,” said Jamie Hess, who signed his lease on Oct. 10. “I thought he had an amazing plan. I went home and researched his other properties and after that, I was sold. He’s going to make The Grove a huge success.” We’ll have a separate story about the piano bar in a future issue.

Gold has a reputation for investing in property that is undervalued and turning high-vacancy shopping and office centers into bustling, vibrant, family-focused entertainment destinations.

He bought the Lynnhaven North shopping center in Virginia Beach, VA, in late 2018 and quickly turned that around, with nearly $10 million worth of renovations and upgrades.

Whether you’re talking about the Regency Court Shopping Center in Jacksonville, or the Shoppes at Hickory Hollow in Antioch, TN, the DW Center in Newport News, VA, or a handful of other similar U.S. projects, Gold has swooped in to buy a failing shopping center and invested millions into transforming them.

And, the ebullient Gold is excited about The Grove’s prospects.

He says he has been looking to purchase land in the Tampa Bay area for years, but couldn’t find anything that suited him.

“It was like Mission Impossible,” he says.

He spent eight months negotiating to buy The Grove, when he says it usually takes him only about a month to complete similar deals.

The purchase included the 604,000 sq. ft. of existing shopping and dining space, as well as 1.3-million sq. ft. of retail and office space that he plans to build. 

But, even better, The Grove is located in one of the southeast’s fastest-growing areas.

Not only are there thousands of homes at various stages of development within a 10-mile radius of The Grove in nearby communities like Mirada, Epperson and even Quail Hollow, but Wesley Chapel also boasts an average annual household income of $92,000.

The shopping center is located just off busy I-75, and can be seen by 100,000 drivers a day.

“I am in the middle of the all the action,” Gold says. “Right where I want to be.”

And soon, he hopes, where all of Wesley Chapel will want to be.

For leasing & more information about The Grove, contact keren@mgoldgroup.com.

The Latest On The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus Of Pasco County!


Above is a 3D rendering of the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, which shows eight basketball courts that can be divided into 16 volleyball courts. Source: RADD Sports. 

After years of staring at renderings and blue prints and imagining what the new sports complex in Wiregrass Ranch will actually look like, general manager and RADD Sports CEO Richard Blalock’s vision is now coming into focus.

The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is no longer just a large patch of cleared land, it has gone vertical, and the current schedule is looking towards a July 10, 2020, completion.

After three failed efforts since 2001 to build an athletic complex on the property located northeast of the Shops at Wiregrass and two miles east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., off S.R. 56, the 98,000-sq.-ft. indoor gymnasium is on its way.

Blalock, however, is not letting his excitement get the best of him. While the $45-million facility — which will share a campus with a full-service, Marriott-branded, 120-room Residence Inn hotel featuring a rooftop bar — is a big part of transforming the Wesley Chapel area — and Pasco County — into even more of a sports tourism hotbed, he intends to proceed slowly out of the gate.

“We’ve got people lined up that want to sign a contract now,” says Blalock. 


A drone photo of the progress on the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus. Photo by Charmaine George.

He is proceeding, though, like a quarterback with plenty of time on the clock. It’s not that he doubts the projection. But, he’s leery of Florida’s cranky wet weather that often slows down construction, most recently during Hurricane Dorian’s trip through the Atlantic.

“We had to take all of the cranes down,” says Jannah Nager, who was recently hired as RADD Sports’ director of marketing after working for more than four years as the marketing and events coordinator at the Pasco Education Foundation. She is the wife of Neighborhood News publisher Gary Nager.

With more bad weather lurking, it may not be the last time the cranes and other equipment have to be removed from the site for safety reasons.

“Everybody is beating us up, ‘When are you going to start booking events?,’” Blalock says. “But, I will not start booking events until after this hurricane season. Once the roof is on, or the side panels, I’ll be more comfortable.”

Blalock says a new facility in North Carolina jumped the gun on its opening and, thanks to Hurricane Dorian, had to postpone that opening.

“That’s the last thing we can afford to have happen here,” he says.

By October of 2020, Blalock says, he hopes to have events ready to go at the new facility, which broke ground in June of 2018. He hopes to book at least 25 events in the first 12 months the sports facility is running. Nager’s job is to help spread the word in the community while marketing the facility to sponsors.

“Jannah knows the community, she knows the people, she knows the ins and out, and she knows the politicians,” said Blalock. “We need somebody that knows community and is popular in the community. That makes our job so much easier.”

The primary sports at the new complex will be basketball and volleyball, and cheerleading is expected to be the third core sport at the facility, which can run eight basketball courts or 16 volleyball courts at any one time.

There also is room for multiple mats for wrestling and judo tournaments, with gymnastics also a possibility. Blalock said he even has been contacted by a youth soccer team in the United Kingdom that is interested in training for a few weeks at the new facility, which will have two outdoor soccer fields and plenty of room to train inside if the weather turns bad.

Local Use During The Week!

Weekend sports tournaments, however, will be just part of the big picture at the new facility.

Blalock says there will be plenty of sports programming for local athletes to participate in, too. He says there will be a three-tier system for each of its three core sports — Academy, Competitive and Development — which will allow opportunities for all level of athletes starting at the age of 9 and going all the way through high school 

Jannah Nager and Richard Blalock are just beginning to market the complex to local sponsors. 

The Academy will be for training elite athletes for travel teams, but will also include an educational component and require participants to maintain a certain grade-point-average. He says the sports will be programmed to not interfere with the local high school seasons.

“The ultimate goal is to change the culture of how these kids are trained,” Blalock says, adding that it is well-documented that youth sports are susceptible to being overrun by overzealous coaches and parents, as well as entitled athletes.

The Competitive program also will be in-house, with three days a week of practices and games — and the chance for advancement to the Academy level, Blalock says.

The Developmental program will be “quasi-recreational,” according to Blalock. Volunteer coaches will run the teams, although those coaches will have plenty of access to paid coaches on the complex’s paid sports staff to help develop more drills and gameplans.

The programming also will be competitively priced with the local market, according to Blalock.

For those who like sports but don’t play for whatever reason, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus will offer a Sports Administration & Hospitality program, where kids can gather data, travel with the teams and serve as managers.

And, now that ground has broken on a nearby 55-over community in Wiregrass Ranch (see story on pg. 8), more programming for older residents also may be in the offing, like pickleball and Rock Steady Boxing for those with Parkinson’s disease. There may even be room for some golf cart parking spots, Blalock says.

In addition to its youth and adult sports programs, the facility is able to provide space for conventions, banquets and other non-sports events.

Blalock and Nager are putting together sponsorship packages now, and also are accepting resumes for positions, although Blalock stresses that the actual hiring process is likely several months away. 

For more information about sponsorships and more, visit RADDSports.com or email Jannah@raddsports.com.