Category: Business

The Grove Theater Getting A Major Makeover

When CMX, the parent company of Cobb Theatres and CineBistro, filed for bankruptcy in April, citing the damage done by the coronavirus, it officially brought to an end Wesley Chapel’s popular movie theater in The Grove.

It also, however, has ushered in a new opportunity.

Developer Mark Gold, whose Mishorim Gold Properties owns The Grove, is remaking the popular 85,000-sq.-ft. movie theater into something that he says will be bigger and better.

“I am bringing something for the whole family,” he says. And, don’t worry, he adds, the new project will still be a movie theater, it’ll just be, “unlike any you have seen before.”

To name a few of the major changes: Instead of 16 movie screens (and roughly 3,000 seats), there will be 12 screens, with at least one or two dedicated to children. The additional space freed up by consolidating the screens will be used to create a video game area that Gold says will resemble the popular arcade and restaurant/bar Dave & Buster’s. There will be a sushi restaurant upstairs and one with more traditional American/theater food options below.

Outside, new landscaping and a mini-golf course will create an area for people to gather and make a night of it.

Gold says the entire facility will be redesigned, reimagined and most important, rejuvenated, and that there already are plans for an adjoining housing development featuring 540 townhomes and apartments.

“This is going to be an entertainment complex like no other,” says Tom Peck, the director of operations for The Grove Theater (working title).

The large arcade area — which, in most theaters, is just a small room set off to the side with a dozen or so games set up — will replace the current lobby, with games designed for teens and adults in one area, and games for younger players in another.

At least one or two of the movie theaters will be modified to serve as a “kids zone,” with things like bean bag chairs and sofas for those watching the movie and a play area for those who’d rather climb through tubes and tunnels. The kids theater will be ideal, Gold says, for parents looking to watch a movie or enjoy dinner while their children watch something more suitable for their age.

Gold says he also is considering converting one theater into a ninja-style obstacle course for younger kids.

The other movie theaters will carry the latest Hollywood releases and will be fitted with newer, and more comfortable, leather reclining chairs. There will be VIP theaters, will full-fledged dining options like the old CineBistro model. “The name won’t be there,” Peck says, “but the same concept will continue.”

You Still Have To Feel Safe

Gold says he is most pleased, however, with his plans to ensure safety. In an era where the Covid-19 pandemic has changed everything about the way the world does business, Gold promises that with each movie ticket, gaming pass and meal purchased, customers also will receive the one thing that will best allow them to enjoy the experience — peace of mind.

State-of-the-art cleaning equipment will be employed to keep the theater virus-free. There will be hospital-grade fog machines and ultraviolet lights to disinfect walls, floors, handles, seats and the air in between each movie, and temperature monitors at the front door that will keep those showing coronavirus symptoms from entering.

Social distancing will be implemented, as will face masks, depending on the state of the virus when the theater opens.

“Our theater will be extremely safe,” Peck says. “It will have things in there no other company has ever been able to do because of the (costs associated with the) large number of theaters they control.”

And, if you wonder what happens when (or if) Covid-19 finally passes, Gold says he is still playing the long game with his safety measures, because there will still be plenty of other germs out there and families will be looking to stay safer than ever in the future.

“Everyone is going to want to feel safer, more secure,” Gold says. “Even 2-4 years down the road. The idea is we will be much safer than your grocery store. This place will be 3,4, 5-times safer because we are taking all these steps.”

Only with these safety measures, Gold says, can he see his vision fulfilled, where families come out to play a round of miniature golf, enjoy a dinner together, see a movie and play some games afterwards. Instead of two hours in a theater, families can spend 4-5 hours enjoying a night of entertainment.

“It will have everything in one complex,” Gold says. “At a normal movie theater, maybe you go eat before you come, then see the movie and go somewhere else after. But, this will have everything. It’s going to be a real destination spot.”

The theater renovations, which Peck says could be completed sometime in September, are another part of a massive project at The Grove, which Gold purchased last September for $62.7 million.

By the end of the year, The Grove is expected to have more than 60 converted and redesigned shipping containers open at the trendy KRATE by Gold Box container park, which is being built on nearly 7 acres of land just west of I-75 and east of The Grove’s big box retail stores like Best Buy and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

A host of other restaurants, bars and businesses are opening now, or are expected to open soon in “The Village” portion of the 200-acre complex.

For leasing & other info, search “Grove At Wesley Chapel” on Facebook, call (407) 636-1266 or see the ad on pg. 1 of every issue of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News!

Uptown Cheapskate Can Turn Your Unwanted Clothes Into Cash!

Uptown Cheapskate Tampa Palms owner Amber Watt.

We bet you didn’t realize that there’s money hiding in your closets. It’s sitting there right now. And no, we’re not talking about that $20 bill you found in your jacket pocket, so continue reading if you need a little Covid-19 cash boost. You really can find some convertible cash on your hangers, in your drawers and sitting on your shoe racks.

Thanks to Uptown Cheapskate — a chain of fashion retail stores that are similar to a thrift store but with more upscale, designer-label items — the clothes, shoes and accessories you no longer want, may be of resale value to you. The 4,800 sq.-ft. store that opened in the Publix-anchored City Plaza at Tampa Palms shopping center back in November of 2018 has re-emerged from a temporary Covid-19 closure in need of more trendy clothing and accessory items that you may have outgrown or stopped wearing or using for whatever reason.

Every day, the local Uptown Cheapskate buys your items from the time they open up until an hour before closing. There’s no appointment necessary, but the staff does prefer that your former fashions arrive in hampers or bins. You can shop while one of Uptown’s 12 employees sorts through to find inventory they need. From there, your “upcycled” clothes go through an appraisal system that generates two offers. You can choose cash or store credit — the latter yields an extra 25-percent value.

So, what should you be looking for the next time you clean out your closets? Uptown Cheapskate Tampa Palms owner Amber Watt says the store accepts a plethora of name brands, and fashions ranging from XS-XXL. The store is particularly in need of high-waisted “mom” shorts and jeans, crop tops, tank tops, shirts and trendy, summery pieces from brands like Zara and H&M.

“We cater to a very wide range of people and that’s what makes us so successful,” says Watt, who adds that she regularly shopped at Goodwill as a youngster before attending West Virginia University in Morgantown on a full academic scholarship and studying engineering.

Watt’s store is one of three in Florida from this national franchise that includes more than 80 locations in two dozen states. It launched in Utah more than a decade ago., and the Tampa Palms store is the only one in the Tampa Bay area. Watt says it was doing very well until the novel coronavirus forced a temporary shutdown in March.

“It hit us pretty hard,” says Watt, who was very happy that Publix, the landlord for the plaza, issued her a rent abatement for two months. “We were having a pretty strong Saturday in the middle of March and by the next Saturday, we were completely shut down. We did start an online store over the break (Uptown-Cheapskate-Tampa-Palms.myshopify.com) and were able to keep some of the staff on. It helped, but it wasn’t what we needed.”

Uptown Cheapskate reopened at 25-percent capacity during the first week of May and went to 50 percent by the end of that month. It returned to full capacity by June, along with some new changes.Sneeze guards have been installed on all of the counters and stickers are now on the floor depicting the 6-feet social distancing space.

All employees must wear face masks and customers are required to as well. The store provides free disposable face masks for customers and also sells double-layer cloth masks. All six dressing rooms are sanitized and locked each time a customer uses one, and hand sanitizer is available at all stations.

We Want Your Clothes!

“It was surprising when we reopened,” Watt says. “We expected a lot of pent-up demand to sell us clothes, but when we reopened, it was really the opposite. We had a lot of customers shopping for clothes, but not selling us (their) clothes. We were unprepared for that, so we’ve depleted our inventory quite badly and really need spring and summer clothes now. We hope everyone will clean out their closets and bring their clothes to us. ”

Whether shopping or selling, Watt prides herself on keeping a clean, organized store where customer service is paramount. Clothes are organized by size, then subcategorized by short/long and further by color groupings. The experience was something that Ashlee Fredrickson felt compelled to share on Facebook after recently making the drive from Brandon to shop there.

“Clean store,” she said. “Plenty of safety measures in place with recent Covid-19 issues. Great selection and great prices.”

Any time you visit, shoppers should look for stickers. Depending upon the color, there’s various discounts available — as much as 70-percent off retail. Uptown Cheapskate puts new items out within 30 minutes of bringing them in and many are gone within a week. For other items that literally hang around longer, the local store offers a semi-annual sale to push through old inventory and make room for the new styles that come in every day.

Other deals to look out for include Dollar Days — where clearance items go for as low as a $1 — and the tax-free weekend August 7-9, where you save the 8.5% sales tax.

Watt says that plus sizes are hard to keep in stock and the handbag rack also is a popular display. The store also always needs shoes, especially men’s athletic footwear, and offers a wide range of bralets, complete outfits, swimwear and new and used jewelry. The casual clothing store caters to everyday wear fashions – primarily for the age 18-55 crowd.

Customer favorites include brands such as lululemon and Gymshark athletic wear, Kate Spade and Michael Kors handbags and American Eagle jeans. You will find everything from Target brands up to Gucci and Louis Vuitton. On a recent visit ,we found a Coach purse for $22.99, Victoria Secret leggings for $13.99, Adidas shoes for $27.99 and an almost new men’s Ralph Lauren Polo shirt for $13.99.

Anything that the store doesn’t purchase from you can easily be donated to the Salvation Army, which picks up donations onsite 2-3 times a week. You can leave them behind and you’ll receive a tax receipt. It’s better than having your unwanted clothes end up in a landfill, Watt says.

“Resale is on the rise,” she says. “It’s the future — for environmental reasons. Clothing in a landfill lasts up to 200 years. But, your trash might just be somebody else’s treasure.”

Whether or not you think you have a few dollars hanging in your closet, head over to Uptown Cheapskate at 16031 Tampa Palms Blvd. W. Store hours are Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m., 10 a.m.-9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and noon-6 p.m. on Sunday. For more info, call (813) 287-8696 or visit UptownCheapskate.com.

second-hand uptown cheapskate

Pasco EDC To Open Business Incubator In The Grove!

Bill Cronin says that when some people first hear the word “incubator,” they usually think of young chicks being hatched and raised in a confined environment.

That’s not exactly what the new incubator coming to The Grove in the fall is, however.

“The funny thing is, it’s not too far off from the truth,” jokes Cronin, who is the CEO of the Pasco County Economic Development Council (EDC).

Instead of eggs and chicks, though, the SMARTstart Entrepreneur Center and Business Incubator, operated by the Pasco EDC through its SMARTstart Small Business Program, hopes to take business start-up ideas and nurture them into successful enterprises that grow into companies that will stay in Pasco County and bring investment and jobs to the community.

SMARTstart is funded by the Penny for Pasco program.

The Wesley Chapel location will be the third incubator in Pasco County, joining locations in New Port Richey, which focuses on professional services, and one in Dade City that is focused on food innovation.

“They are all looking to build healthy businesses,” Cronin says. “Our goal is to help them become scalable, healthy and strong companies, and that they grow from there.”

The Dade City location, which opened in February, was previously located downtown, but Cronin said so many companies were graduating and then moving back to Wesley Chapel and Cronin says, “it was very clear we needed something in the Wesley Chapel area because that’s the area the demand was coming from.”

So, the Dade City incubator partnered with the University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences Extension and is now an incubator kitchen, and Wesley Chapel is getting its own Business Incubator.

“We are extremely excited to be able to offer our area’s entrepreneurs a place within striking distance to all that our county and region has to offer,” says Dan Mitchell, the EDC’s SMARTstart program director. “This third center will continue to allow our start-ups to have a countywide presence with just one membership. At the same time, this doubles the capacity of our impact in Pasco.”

Located directly above the current office of Mark Gold, the developer of The Grove, and his Mishorim Gold Properties, the 5,000-sq.-ft. space will offer a plethora of tools for budding entrepreneurs.

The incubator will have 10 private offices, 32 desks, a co-working lounge, huddle rooms, an executive board room, classrooms, meeting spaces and a digital media studio, for things like podcasts.

Office rental space will be provided, as well as classes on financing, marketing and legal issues businesses may encounter. Sometimes, it’s a fresh idea that needs a helpful nudge, or it can be an already established business that is stuck and looking to get to the next level.

The Pasco EDC also offers micro loans (between $30,000-50,000 are the most common amounts), and being in the incubator offers opportunities for networking and the exchange of ideas and strategies.

The SMARTstart Small Business Program also will operate a space for food entrepreneurs out of one of the re-imagined shipping crates that are part of the innovative KRATE by Gold Box project that Gold is building in his effort to revive The Grove.

Because small businesses have a large fail rate within the first two years, Cronin says the idea behind the incubator is to give businesses the tools they may otherwise lack. Cronin says it is like taking an idea and adding the entrepreneurial approach to it.

“Inventors are good at inventing things,” Cronin says, “but sometimes not as good at getting those inventions to market.”

While many businesses are struggling during the current Covid-19 pandemic, and opening something new may seem ill-timed, Cronin says times of economic turmoil are perfect for a business incubator program.

“This is when you see a big increase in start-up activity,” he says. “This incubator offers them a great opportunity.”

For already-established businesses, the EDC has helped the county provide numerous grants of up to $5,000 per business during the Covid-19 crisis.

To join the waiting list for incubator space, or get more information, visit http://smartstartpasco.com/?/The-Grove-Entrepreneur-Center.

incubator Pasco EDC

Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus Still Set To Open Next Month!

In June, more than 300 teams from around the country competed in youth baseball and softball tournaments at Champions Park in Newberry, FL, a baseball/softball complex which features 16 fields on 40 acres, with plenty of room for social distancing.

Parents were seated beyond the outfield fences, many watching from beneath 10’ x 10’ tents. Dugouts were sprayed with disinfectant, and precautions were taken against the spread of the Covid-19 virus, which had shut all sports down from March to May.

So, when you ask Richard Blalock — the CEO and founder of RADD Sports, which is managing the nearly complete Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County — if youth sports tourism (see story on next page) is ready to bounce back in Wesley Chapel, he is predictably bullish.

“The youth sports travel industry is the most resilient tourism industry out there,” says Blalock, a 40-year veteran of the business and the former parks director for the City of Newberry. RADD Sports also manages Champions Park.

“In 2008 (when the last recession hit), Mickey Mouse was down 38 percent,” he says, “but youth sports was only down three percent. When it comes to parents’ discretionary spending, they most often choose sports.”

Based on the first few months for the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, parents and athletes definitely are eager to get back at it.

The first event Blalock has scheduled for the new, 98,000 sq.-ft. indoor facility is only six weeks away — on Sunday, August 23 — a Blue Star Basketball event that will feature some of the best girls basketball players in the country.

The following week will be the NIKE Volleyball championships, which will have more than 60 teams in different age groups, and the week after, a 40-team high school volleyball tournament is scheduled.

The campus also is pretty much booked for September, and also already has multiple events planned in October and November as well.

Blalock says his staff is working closely with Pasco County officials on local programming protocols for the weekdays, and hopes to launch a wide variety of recreational and competitive local basketball, volleyball, cheerleading and soccer programs in September.

While recent spikes in positive cases of Covid-19 — including amongst the younger demographics — were again rattling many in Florida as June drew to a close, Blalock is confident youth and adult sports can return safely.

“We’re all just trying to do what we have to do to keep everyone safe, so we can keep allowing the kids to play,” he says, adding that the campus likely will have to limit spectators — where, for example, mom can only come watch her kid play in the morning, while dad gets the afternoon shift.

Covid-19 presents a complex set of unique challenges, and Blalock says the sports tourism industry is undergoing a massive shift to meet those challenges head on. “We have to bob and weave a little bit to figure this out,” he says.

Whatever that transformation will be, it will not only require providing a safe environment, but it will have to assuage parental fears about the dangers of Covid-19 transmission. He says the entire industry is communicating about best practices and sharing ideas, and those have been passed on to his staff during their training for the opening of the new facility.

Regardless, the interest clearly hasn’t waned for cabin-fever-stricken athletes and their families. “We’re booking the thing up pretty quick,” Blalock says.

For registration and other information about the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County (3021 Sports Coast Way), visit Wiregrass-Sports.com or see the ad on pg. 3 of this issue. For sponsorship information, email Jannah@RADDSports.com.

basketball campus volleyball Wiregrass sports

Sarah Vande Berg Tennis Center In Zephyrhills Nears Completion!

*At the SVB Tennis Center VIP preview on June 27, (l.-r) Bo Sun, Mark Shepherd, Gary Blissett and CEO Pascal Collard were among those who greeted dozens of well-wishers.*

Pascal Collard has been pitching an exciting vision for the Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center just outside of Wesley Chapel in Zephyrhills for some time, but on June 27, he was able to show some people how that vision is shaping up.

Collard and his staff hosted a VIP event, complete with beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres, to announce that Advent Health has come aboard as a major sponsor and to show off the new center, which he says should open in August.

While none of the rooms are filled just yet and the tennis, pickleball and padel courts haven’t yet been surfaced, Collard filled in the empty spots with his excitement.

And, with Covid-19 cases in Florida rising sharply in recent weeks, Collard promised one thing — it will be safe.

“I hate to say ‘most sanitized place in America,’ but that’s what we’re shooting for,” Collard said, adding that the center bought 1,000 face masks and put the staff through hours of classes and presentations to keep the facility virus-free.

The indoor portion of the facility will have plenty of space and feature an indoor restaurant focusing in healthy foods — think air-fried fries and bento boxes with edible flowers — with popular local Chef Mark Vesh of Vesh Catering designing the menu.

There also will be yoga, cryotherapy, a salt room, an exercise room and licensed massage tables. The all-around focus of the facility is on health, from exercise and playing tennis to recovery to refueling the body.

Collard also helped create a school — United Global Academy — offering an accredited curriculum for athletes training in tennis, golf, soccer and one of Collard’s own personal passions — skydiving.

And of course, there will be plenty of racquet sports. The SVB Tennis Center will have four padel courts, eight pickleball courts, two hard tennis courts with U.S. Open surfaces, and eight Har-Tru tennis courts with underground irrigation. Collard says there also will be a grass court: “It’s like a little garden.”

There will be a viewing court with seating up to 1,000, and able to expand for bigger tournaments to more than 3,500.

The 30,000-sq.-ft. indoor facility with have four tennis courts but can be converted to accommodate soccer, weddings and even concerts.

If everything goes as Collard hopes, the facility will open Aug. 15.

“It’s really starting to come to together, you can just see it,” Collard says. “We’re pretty excited about it.”

For more info SVB Tennis Center (6585 Simons Rd., Zephyrhills) memberships and how to join, please visit svbtenniscenter.com or call (813) 361-6660.

pascal collard Sarah Vande Berg tennis tennis center