Ziggi’s Coffee Drive-Thru has updated its permit application, which previously announced that the growing coffee chain was going to open on Mansfield Blvd.
But, new plans now show that Ziggi’s will instead open on Hueland Pond Blvd., just south of S.R. 56 and the 76 gas station and Daybreak Market (see map, left).
The new permit application announcing this different location was just submitted last month. Preliminary site engineering plans have been submitted for Pasco County’s review, which say:
“The project proposes the development of a new 1,800+/- sq. ft. coffee shop with a drive through, associated parking and drainage improvements.”
Ziggi’s Coffee currently has about 100 locations in 18 U.S. states, but only one other location — in St. Augustine — currently open in Florida . The company is in a rapid growth phase, however, with more than 200 additional Ziggi’s Coffee locations now in development. For more info, visit ZiggisCoffee.com. — Joel Provenzano & GN
Our friends at BayCare Wesley Chapel (WC) Hospital (4501 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.) continue to engage the community so that as many people as possible can get to know the nearly three-year-old, 86-bed hospital.
On Oct. 6, BayCare WC Chaplain Reid Isenhart (at left in top photo) hosted a Pet Blessing event, in honor of the Feast Day for the Catholic Patron Saint of the animals, St. Francis of Assisi. “We always strive to set high standards for compassionate care for people, Chaplin Reid said, “but we also like to recognize the gift of our animals, including the therapy animals who come to the hospital.”
With nearly two dozen animals in attendance — including two young piglets, a chicken and a bunny brought by “Connected City” resident Michael Pultorak (left) — Chaplain Reid said, “Research shows that pet owners consider their pets to be full family members. Today, we also have animals who assist us not just emotionally, but also with sight and sound and to recognize seizures and even cancer, so we bless them all.”
Then on Oct. 15, BayCare WC hosted a North Tampa Bay Chamber Coffee Social (photo, right), where the hospital’s director of operations Bill Sedey gave attendees more info about the hospital: “This hospital features a 20-bed emergency room, a 12-bed intensive care unit, helipad for transporting critical patients, all private rooms and a great partnership with the under-construction YMCA next door.” Other hospital staffers also made presentations about BayCare WC’s imaging center, staffing and more.
Rendering of the resort-style pool at the under-construction Arcadia at Wiregrass Ranch apartments. (Rendering from ThirdLakeDevelopment.com)
It seems that there’s never a shortage of news coming out of Wiregrass Ranch these days, so we always try to check in with developer JD Porter and his development right hand man, Scott Sheridan, the chief operating officer of Locust Branch, LLC, to get the latest news.
After all, the 5,000-acre Wiregrass Ranch already has The Shops at Wiregrass mall, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel Hospital, the Porter Campus of Pasco Hernando State College, more than 3,000 single-family homes (and townhomes) and 1,400 rental apartment units.
Wiregrass Ranch also is home to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, The Beach House assisted living community, Florida Cancer Specialists (FCS), Moffitt Cancer Center and North Tampa Behavioral Health, and coming soon are the Florida Medical Clinic Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital, two Orlando Health-owned medical office buildings totalling 150,000 sq. ft., a PAM Health Rehabilitation Hospital and two additional medical office buildings that Wiregrass Ranch will develop in partnership with Flagship Healthcare Properties, and what Porter says will one day be Wesley Chapel’s true downtown — The Legacy at Wiregrass Ranch.
Publix could soon begin building its new location east of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. earlier this year. Map locations: 1-Chili’s, 2-Chase Bank, 3-Bank of Amer., 4-Advance Auto Parts, 5-Sweet Nail Spa, Mathnasium, Pizza Hut & Starbucks (Map from Publix plans submitted to Pasco County, modified by NN).
One of the big things people keep asking me (and online) is about the new Publix planned for the east side of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd., just north and east of Walmart (see map above left) on a 9.5-acre site appraised at $3.97 million.
Of that 48,848-sq.-ft. Publix (with a 2,100-sq.-ft. liquor store), which is being built in front of the newest apartment community — Arcadia at Wiregrass Ranch — the main thing most people want to know is whether or not the opening of that new Publix will cause the existing store in the Hollybrook Plaza (less than a half-mile away) to close. Neither Sheridan nor Porter would address that question directly, but Sheridan says, “Final permitting [of the new Publix] is under way now, and I expect them to break ground by early next year. We have no direct knowledge of [Publix’s] intent to close the old store when they build the new one.” The site plan for the new Publix shows its main entrance lining up directly opposite the northern entrance to Walmart.
Although most people appear to agree that it seems a little crazy to have two Publixes located so close to each other, we have heard some online chatter that says the Hollybrook Publix will definitely close, while others say that it definitely won’t close. Without confirmation either way from Publix or the Wiregrass Ranch team, it seems ludicrous to me to speculate either way.
But, speaking of Publix, Porter did mention the possibility of another link in the Lakeland-based supermarket chain coming to the area near the new FCS building on S.R. 56, but Sheridan cautioned that although he had seen a post on Facebook that a preapplication meeting had been scheduled, “there has been nothing from us directly on this.”
Also important to note is that if another Publix is coming to S.R. 56 in Wiregrass Ranch, that possible location is not the Publix planned for the front of the Two Rivers development five miles or so further to the east on 56.
In the meantime, the Arcadia at Wiregrass Ranch apartments have not yet gone vertical, but the 15-acre parcel (valued at $7.04 million) has been cleared to build the 320-unit luxury rental community and its resort-style pool, EV charging stations and more, which will be the seventh Arcadia project (and the third in Florida) for Tampa-based Third Lake Development.
As for the planned medical offices near the Orlando Health hospital, Sheridan says that the first 46,000-sq.-ft. Wiregrass Ranch Medical Pavilion (rendering above), in partnership with Flagship Healthcare Properties, is getting ready to break ground before the end of this year.
“The second phase will move forward once the initial building is completed and fully leased,” Sheridan says.
As for the two Florida Medical Clinic/ Orlando Health medical office buildings (MOBs), Sheridan says, “The hospital is expected to open by April of 2026. We expect the MOBs would be under construction soon but can’t say for sure. They are just now completing all of the site work for both of those.”
Sheridan also said that Wiregrass Ranch is, “coordinating with Mast Capital on their requirement to build the Bypass Loop road within Wiregrass Ranch from S.R. 54 to Wiregrass Ranch Blvd.” as part of Mast’s redevelopment of Saddlebrook Resort (see pg. 44). “But we are not engaged or aware of their developments within the resort.”
New Restaurants? Although the rumor mill has said that The Tilted Kilt, a Winghouse/ Hooters-style sports pub could be the still-unnamed restaurant planned for next to Cooper’s Hawk, Porter told me that although they have had discussions with The Tilted Kilt, it definitely will not be the restaurant built next to Cooper’s Hawk.
Meanwhile, Sheridan says, “We are working on several upscale restaurants along the S.R. 56 corridor including next to Cooper’s Hawk, which, we are told, is consistently the #1 or #2 restaurant in that chain.”
But of course, perhaps the most anticipated development in Wiregrass Ranch is The Legacy, which Porter keeps saying will be the only “true” downtown development in Wesley Chapel, and which will tie together everything already built and still planned for the Porter family’s sprawling cattle ranch. So, is there any Legacy news?
“We are exploring that now with potential partners but have not committed any timing yet,” Sheridan says.
Donna Ray of The Middle Place (photo provided by Donna Ray)
The Middle Place Accounting
Donna Ray, the owner of The Middle Place Accounting & Consulting Services, and I have a friend in common — Paula Nuñez, the owner of the Tampa City Dance Center and the founder of the Tampa City Ballet.
“I used to be the executive director of Tampa City Ballet,” Donna says, “and they are currently still one of my clients. I still handle their bookkeeping and accounting.”
Donna says she first launched The Middle Place during the pandemic, “while I was still the executive director of the ballet, because I have two children and their school was closed, so I needed to home school them and work from home. I also was taking care of my father, who has since passed away, so it just made sense to be as independent as I could be based on the needs of my family.”
She adds, “I sent out a big email blast at that time to people I’ve known around the Tampa Bay area for a very long time that my services were available and that seemed to be all that it took.”
The idea for her company didn’t just come out of nowhere, however. Donna has a total of 30 years of experience working in accounting.
After a decade of working in the Cayman Islands as an IT director with Cox Lumber Co. and Senior Accounting and later as project manager with Fidelity Group of Companies, she returned to the U.S., which was still recovering from the financial crash of 2008. She enrolled at the University of South Florida and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Women’s and Gender Studies.
After that, Donna says, “I found myself working for nonprofits for the first time. I accepted a job at the Helen Gordon Davis Center for Women as director of the Women’s Business Center in Hyde Park, where I worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs at all levels of experience and with a variety of needs — from writing business plans and building financial projections to accessing capital. That’s where the Tampa City Ballet found me.” Both nonprofits also extended Donna’s skills with grant writing, reporting and building relationships with community stakeholders and corporate partners, as well as with city, county, state and federal funding authorities.
She adds that since then, she has served, “a lot of female entrepreneurs, helping them either launch or with their business. But, my focus was on finance and accounting, and that was sort of my specialty, helping people build business plans, financial statements and projections.”
A Diverse Range Of Experience
She brings all of that experience with her to The Middle Place, “and I’ve been really lucky because I have a wide variety of clients. Some are in for-profit industries, some are nonprofit. I also work with a law firm and some retail companies.”
Donna says she provides a professional level of service that goes beyond just bookkeeping.
“I focus a lot on software implementation,” she says. “One nonprofit contract [I have] right now was implementing seven different unique technology stacks for them, and implementing Quickbooks Online and payroll and basically automating their entire organization.”
Originally from Chicago, Donna moved to the Tampa Bay area in the 1980s. She grew up as an aspiring young dancer, “but I had a very practical father who said, ‘If you break your leg, you need to have a backup.’ So as a teenager, she started out in business administration and, at age 19, as a legal secretary at a law firm in Clearwater.
While her extensive professional career was focused on accounting, IT, project and nonprofit management, Donna continued to study and dance with a local Tampa dance company and also performed with the Cayman Islands National Dance Company, where she also taught ballet and Gyrokinesis, a movement therapy specifically designed for dancers. After returning to Florida, she taught at the Patel Conservatory for Next Generation Ballet summer program.
Donna was thrilled when Paula Nuñez approached her needing help for the Tampa City Ballet. “I thought, ‘This is a perfect opportunity to work in an industry I love and provide my business expertise to help TCB grow and to help professional dancers in Tampa,’” she says.
She also works with Diaz Shafer, P.A. an immigration law firm in Tampa that was on Quickbooks Desktop but wanted to switch to Quickbooks Online, “so I did that for them.”
Donna also has done contract work for Davis College in Rwanda, Africa, as well as for Drong Ngur Jangchubling, a Tibetan Buddhist Center in Wesley Chapel, and Skate Park of Tampa: She’s also the Board treasurer of Dance Tampa Bay, led by Shana Corrada, E.D.
Donna provides full-service monthly accounting services for businesses of all sizes and industries, including payroll, sales tax filing and software integrations. “A lot of clients first come to me to handle their bookkeeping,” Donna says, “But I also do software implementation, financial projections and can help you grow your business by offering financial advice from a unique perspective. For more info, call (813) 391-6890 or visit TheMiddlePlace.com.—GN
Celly De Freitas Of Clean-It!
Photos by Charmaine George
Clean-it owner Celly de Freitas has been cleaning homes and businesses in the New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and surrounding areas for the last 26 years.
But, she says, that wasn’t always the plan. She was a teacher in her native country of Brazil and planned to continue that career when Celly and her husband, Rogério Buchner de Freitas, moved to the Tampa Bay area, “but it was very hard for me to go to college (USF) here, because I didn’t speak English as well then as I do now,” she says. “I ended up leaving USF to go to school for the skin care business.”
In order to help pay for that schooling, she started cleaning houses and, even though she did end up opening a skincare spa, “I was making a lot more money cleaning houses, so I let the spa go after about two years,” Celly (above left) says.
Today, not only does this Wesley Chapel resident speak and understand English (as well as Spanish, Italian and her native Portuguese) fluently — despite still having a fairly thick accent — she has a team of twelve Brazilian women working with her, all of whom also speak and understand English, Spanish and Portuguese.
“I tell everyone who works for me that they have to be able to communicate with clients in English,” Celly says. “You have to be able to understand what the clients want and do whatever they ask when it comes to cleaning their homes.”
She says she usually uses a “team” approach, sending at least two and sometimes three members of her team to each job. “It’s much more efficient this way,” she says. “We can clean a lot more places when we work together.”
Celly, who has been an American citizen for about 20 years, isn’t usually actually working with the teams — she’s the one coordinating the schedules and checking up on all of her employees to make sure they are getting to each location on time (and calling or texting the clients when one of “my girls” is running late). “But, when I have someone out sick or they’re stuck someplace, I will still go and help out,” she says. “And, I try to be as flexible as possible when a client needs to change their schedule, too.”
The Covid-19 pandemic definitely took a toll on Celly’s business, but says she was able to survive because she received a PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loan from the government, “and continued to pay all of my employees who didn’t go back to Brazil, even though they weren’t able to work for several months. Without that money, I might have lost all of my clients.”
Clean-it offers (and is licensed to provide) residential and commercial (“We are licensed to do medical and dental clinics, but not hospitals,” Celly says) cleaning services, including monthly, bi-weekly and weekly services, one-time cleans and move-in and move-out cleans. “We have amazing references, too.,” she says.
Most of Clean-it’s clients are in Wesley Chapel, New Tampa, Lutz and Land O’Lakes, she says, “but we do travel a little further for some clients, especially those one-time cleaning clients.”
She adds, “We really specialize in those move-in cleans. We usually end up getting the [new homeowners] as clients because we do such a great job.”
For more information about Clean-it and/or a free job quote, call (813) 505-0431. — GN
When Azteca D’Oro co-owner Victor Ramos told me he wanted to highlight his new menu items in his next ad (about a month or so ago), I definitely wanted to check out the new items the authentic Mexican restaurant in The Shops at Wiregrass would be bringing to the table (pun intended).
But, when I saw the photos of those new items he sent me to put in that new ad, I knew Jannah, photographer Charmaine George and I had to try them — all of them, that is!
Already one of the Wesley Chapel area’s favorite restaurants (based on Azteca being named our readers’ second favorite restaurant in Wesley Chapel in our annual Reader Dining Survey & Contest each of the last two years — the first two years it’s been open here), I also knew that Azteca was due for its 2025 Dining Feature, so I figured the new menu items were a great way to tell you more about the restaurant this year. And yes, we were all impressed with the new options.
We started with the Azteca Dip Sampler (left photo), which includes nice-sized cups of non-spicy esquites (Mexican street corn), queso, spiced bean dip and Azteca’s already-famous, house-made guacamole. We all liked the esquites the best, but the queso, bean dip and guacamole were all pretty tasty, too.
We also took the plunge by ordering the huge, 55-oz. “Big Azz Margarita,” served “Grand Vida Style” — topped with two small bottles of Grand Marnier orange liqueur. It certainly was big enough for all three of us (and maybe a fourth person) to share. But no, I had the great idea to also order a regular-sized (16-oz.) Grand Vida Style margarita, so we could show just how much bigger the Big Azz Margarita is by comparison (right photo). Azteca’s full premium liquor bar has lots of top-shelf tequilas if you want to truly make your margarita your own or add a shot to it, as well as my Jameson and a nice variety of Mexican and other beers.
We all also agreed that our favorite of the new menu items was the birria “pizza” (top photo), which layers melted cheese and a unique combination of lamb, pork and beef between two large flour tortillas (like a quesadilla), garnished with fresh cilantro, pickled onions and lime and served with a cup of birria consommé that is plenty large enough for dipping every delicious piece of the “pizza.”
We did also enjoy the huge 12-taco Taco Sampler Platter (left photo), where you can select up to three different proteins (four tacos of each) from: pollo adobato (chunks of chicken marinated in flavorful adobo sauce, made from dried chiles, vinegar, garlic & spices), pastor asada (pork with chiles and spices), carnitas (crispy pork chunks), chorizo sausage, shrimp, lengua (beef tongue) or tripa (beef tripe).
Since I couldn’t eat the shrimp, we chose to have four chicken, four carnitas and four of the crispy fish tacos and all were yummy. My favorites were the crispy fish tacos, served with a semi-spicy chipotle ranch sauce. Jannah preferred the chicken tacos, which also had their own zesty sauce, and Charmaine liked the carnitas the best. Being able to sample at least one of each was fun, too!
And of course, Azteca still has upscale favorites you can’t find at most other Mexican places, like pescado frito (whole fried snapper), grilled salmon and molcajete d’mar (snow crab, clams. mussels, scallops, shrimp & octopus), as well as Mexican standards like fajitas, quesadillas, enchiladas, vegetarian dishes and more.
And, don’t skip dessert! Try the deep fried ice cream, churros, tres leches, flan or the cream cheese-filled mini empanadas (right) we had for the first time. All delectable ways to finish a meal!
Azteca D’Oro (2000 Piazza Ave., Unit 170) is open every day for lunch and dinner, from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. (and until 11 p.m. on Friday & Saturday). For more info, call (813) 527-6033 and visit AztecaDoro.com.
