The petition to re-zone the property of the former Ruby Tuesday restaurant on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. was unanimously approved earlier today by the Tampa City Council on the second reading.
The city’s Development Review & Compliance staff had already found the petition, which requests to be reclassified from a PD-A (Planned Development, Alternative restaurant) to PD (Planned Development, retail sales, shopper’s goods), to be consistent with applicable City of Tampa land regulations.
The proposed Aldi store, which will be located at the corner of BBD and Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. in front of the AMC movie theater, will be 19,160 square feet — almost four times the size of Ruby Tuesday — with 106 parking spaces.
Leon Capital Group, the owners who purchased the 2.36-acre lot for $2.82 million in 2018, were represented at the first reading on Jan. 16 by Scott Stannard of Commercial Site Solutions.
Stannard said the plans include not only replacing the vacant restaurant, but enhancing the surrounding area.
“We feel it’s an improvement, actually,” Stannard told the council members. “We’ve had arborists go out and we’re going to be taking down some of the dead trees and replacing them with new landscaping and beefing that up. It will be a nice fit for what’s out there.”
Stannard also said as that, as part of the new development, a sidewalk will be built on Highwood Preserve Pkwy., to aid pedestrians who are shopping, as well as those using the bus stop at the same corner.
“It’s really surprising there’s not one there already,” Stannard said.
Aldi, a German discount grocer, will be the third supermarket to open along a less-than-one-mile stretch of the west side of BBD. It would join a Publix at the corner of BBD and New Tampa Blvd. and Sprouts Farmers Market, which will be open by this summer in the new Village at Hunter’s Lake development across from the entrance to the Hunter’s Green community.
While Publix is the largest of the three and Sprouts is a “green” grocer, Aldi is a hugely popular German discount chain that carries brands that many shoppers here in the U.S. may not recognize, including their own. More than 90 percent of the brands Aldi carries are exclusive brands.
One unique aspect of Aldi is the quarter charge to rent a shopping cart at the store, to prevent stray carts from being left in the parking lot where they can dent cars.
Users get their quarter back when they return the cart.
Another Aldi is just weeks away from opening on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel, right in front of the Costco.
In a rather stunning move, Earth Fare, Wesley Chapel’s first – and only – large green grocer, is closing all of its stores, including the Cypress Creek Town Center location on S.R. 56.
In a press release earlier today, the North Carolina-based grocer
announced it was liquidating all of its stores nationwide, and liquidation sales
will begin immediately. Even store fixtures can be had, the release noted.
“Earth Fare has been proud to serve the natural and organic
grocery market, and the decision to begin the process of closing our stores was
not entered into lightly,” the company said in the press release. “We’d like to thank our Team Members for their
commitment and dedication to serving our customers, and our vendors and
suppliers for their partnership.”
The Wesley Chapel location will, perhaps, barely make it to its first anniversary. More than 100 shoppers lined up on Feb. 19, 2019 eager to be some of the store’s first customers.
“A gut punch,” says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce.
Allen said she had recently read about Earth Fare closing a store
in Gainesville on Jan. 11 after only four years, but still didn’t think the
Wesley Chapel store, which was the 12th for the company in Florida, was in any
danger.
“It is very shocking,” Allen says. “I thought we would be immune from
those closures because it was so recently opened.”
On a VIP tour of Earth Fare a week before it opened, CEO/president
Frank Scorpiniti touted the quality of Earth Fare’s organic products, which do
not contain high-fructose corn syrup, artificial fats, colors, sweeteners, or
preservatives, or meats that were bred with antibiotics or growth hormones. The
chain had a “boot list” — a long list of banned ingredients it does not allow
in anything sold in any Earth Fare store.
At the time, Scorpiniti said the Wesley Chapel opening was just the beginning of an aggressive plan to expand Earth Fare’s footprint. At the time, the company was operating 50 stores, and Scorpiniti said he expected there to be more than 100 locations in a few years.
Earth Fare, which was founded in Asheville, NC, in 1975, said its financial struggles were too much to overcome, and hinted that its efforts had failed.
“While many of these initiatives improved the business,
continued challenges in the retail industry impeded the company’s progress as
well as its ability to refinance its debt,” the press release said. “As a
result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a
go forward basis. As such, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision
to commence inventory liquidation sales while we continue to engage in a
process to find potential suitors for our stores.”
At a July meeting at Compton Park, roughly 75 people showed up to discuss the New Tampa business climate.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor will be on hand as the findings of a New Tampa business climate study by the University of South Florida School of Public Affairs — triggered last year by concerns over the number of businesses closing in our area — will be revealed at a community meeting on Monday, February 3, 6 p.m.
Castor was briefed on the results of the study on Jan. 27, and will deliver introductory remarks at the meeting, which will be held at Compton Park (16101 Compton Dr.) in Tampa Palms.
Tampa District 7 City Council member Luis Viera will host the meeting, which he first helped spearhead last year after he said he received phone calls and emails from constituents — as did Castor — who were concerned about the closing of local businesses.
In early 2019, the Neighborhood News, after receiving many of those same calls, addressed the issue of the closings since 2017 of stores like HH Gregg, Staples and Bed Bath & Beyond in the Market Square at Tampa Palms Plaza, as well as restaurants like Casa Ramos in Tampa Palms and Ruby Tuesday on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd just north of I-75, also have been shuttered, and two Mexican restaurants have failed at the site of the one-time Romano’s Macaroni Grill.
USF’s School of Public Affairs and its director Ron Sanders agreed to take on the project of studying New Tampa’s business climate, along with graduate students working towards their Master’s degree in Urban & Regional Planning.
“The meeting will reveal those findings, and then those in attendance can weigh in,” Viera said. “It will be interesting to see what they found, and if we have a challenge, how to face it.”
Four students volunteered to conduct the study. At a meeting in July, they heard from close to 100 people who attended a meeting with Viera, District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan and District 63 State Representative Fentrice Driskell.
While some community members expressed worry, others were confident New Tampa would bounce back, in part due to the sometimes-cyclical nature of business.
Since that meeting, in fact, a number of the local businesses that had been vacated have announced new tenants. The Brunchery (Boston Market), Urban Air Adventure Park (HH Gregg), Taza Market (Staples), Regina Margherita, which was formerly Chefs of Napoli (Beef O’Brady’s) are either open or close to it, while Aldi is looking into taking over the old Ruby Tuesday location.
And, as we reported last issue, even the long-vacant Sweetbay supermarket could have a new tenant signed up by the end of 2020.
“We have seen some positive changes,” Viera says. “I still think there’s some cause for concern, but at the very least, this is something that tells us about the business markers and growth in New Tampa, and what we need to do to keep the momentum going. We want to make sure our area does not deteriorate.”
Viera says the study also should provide some insight into some of the transportation challenges local businesses face, as well as how the design of New Tampa, especially along BBD, plays into commercial success.
To RSVP to attend the community meeting since seating is limited, you can email brannon.jordanlazo@tampagov.net.
I’m betting that most Wesley Chapel residents have never eaten an actual meal at the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel, located off S.R. 56, less than a mile east of I-75.
And, that makes me a little sad.
For those who have never stepped foot inside this beautiful, award-winning (the year-old hotel won the New Business of the Year honors at the North Tampa Bay Chamber’s 2019 Awards of Excellence gala in Nov.), 124-room hotel, much less enjoyed a meal there, I hope this article will help you decide to go.
Even if you don’t have relatives visiting or need a night in a local hotel room yourself, the Hilton Garden Inn’s restaurant — also known as the Garden Grille — serves outstanding food and drinks at great prices and will find its way into my top-10 favorite restaurants in Wesley Chapel when I release my list of favorites for 2019 in our March 13 issue.
I also hope that you’ll sit down with the hotel’s market director of sales Lisa Moore to discuss the possibility of hosting an event for 8-to-200 (and more) people at this contemporary hotel that still has that great new hotel smell.
Lisa, an ambassador with the NTBC who also is a member of the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel, is a fellow New Yawka who will make sure that your event comes off without a hitch and will send everyone home happy afterward.
For example, when my stepdaughter Kristen’s best friend Sami needed an affordable location last month for a bridal shower, Lisa sharpened her pencil for me, knowing that I was planning to write this story shortly afterward.
The Hilton Garden Inn’s spacious ballroom (above) is easily subdividable to fit the size you need to host a variety of amazing events.
“Just tell me what you need and we can make it happen,” Lisa says. “We have a set menu for dinner, but we have an extensive catering menu and a great chef (Frank Skalitza) on the premises who can make pretty much anything you want.”
Jannah and I were on hand for the Grand Opening of the hotel in October of 2018 and we were so impressed (as was everyone who was there) with the filet mignon carving station and the four different pastas (top right) that also were created in front of the guests that we figured it must have been an outside catering company that was brought in for it.
“Nope,” said Lisa, “that was all in-house. Pretty good, right?”
Actually, I would go so far as to say excellent, and the deliciousness doesn’t end there. Although the Garden Grille only serves buffet and cooked-to-order breakfast (that I haven’t tried yet) and dinner (I wish it was open for lunch), I have to say that virtually everything we’ve sampled there has been delicious.
In other words, there’s a good reason why the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel is going to make my Wesley Chapel top-10. The hotel is beautiful and has great amenities (nice pool, fitness center, etc.) and, even though we’ve never stayed there, we have toured some of the beautiful rooms, too.
For info about the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel (26640 Silver Maple Pkwy.), call Lisa at (813) 591-6907 or visit TampaWesleyChapel.HGI.com
The real estate professionals at the new Real Living Casa Fina Realty office in the Shoppes at Amberly in Tampa Palms want to help you buy, sell, rent or manage your home or property.
It sounds like something they might hear from one of their clients — “We’ve outgrown our current place.”
The team at Real Living Casa Fina Realty has always loved the office’s Tampa Palms neighborhood, but needed more space than at the office in the Tampa Palms Professional Center.
So, in 2020, the agents will help people in New Tampa and surrounding areas buy and sell homes from a larger, more modern workspace in The Shoppes at Amberly, located on Amberly Dr., also in Tampa Palms.
Nick Parrinello, the Broker/owner of Real Living Casa Fina Realty, moved his company into its new digs on Dec. 17. “As we have continued to grow,” he says, “we needed more space and wanted a little more visibility.”
Casa Fina Realty began as an independent real estate brokerage in Tampa Palms in 2003. Nick came to work for the company in 2007, shortly before it became a franchise of GMAC Real Estate, which was rebranded as Real Living in 2011.
Nick bought the company in 2014. In the past few years, Nick says Casa Fina Realty has grown to be the third largest brokerage in New Tampa.
While the company has expanded from 15 agents, and Nick is excited to own a larger firm, he says he won’t let his Casa Fina outgrow its boutique feel.
“We have the same culture and our core values haven’t changed,” he says. “Some agents have been with us from the beginning.”
And, while the company serves 10 counties, and focuses on Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk counties, Nick says the heart of Casa Fina is right here, a few minutes south of Wesley Chapel.
“We have just one office and it’s always been in Tampa Palms,” says Nick. “We want to keep our roots here.”
He says many of the agents and staff live in New Tampa or Wesley Chapel, and the company sees the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. corridor as its home and primary market.
While real estate agents typically work from anywhere — whether it’s driving around neighborhoods, meeting clients in restaurants or coffee shops, or making phone calls from home — Nick is optimistic that Casa Fina’s new space will be a place his agents will want to be.
“It’s a great location, in the same plaza with five spots to grab lunch without having to get in the car and drive,” he says. “We expect it to have a lively, vibrant atmosphere.”
Instead of cubicles, the new space offers agents shared private offices, where they can close the door for privacy, but have the efficiency of sharing the space with other agents.
The new location also features a large conference room for company meetings, or where agents can present seminars or classes to the community. Nick is planning to see that space used for customer appreciation parties, new homebuyer seminars and other events that bring people together, as well as to share valuable information.
While Nick says Casa Fina Realty serves about 700 families a year, the goal is to provide the best possible customer service to each one.
“We want to empower agents by ensuring they are well-trained and giving them the tools they need,” he says.
He describes himself as “a stickler for knowing the contract,” saying that having a license in real estate is just the bare minimum when it comes to being prepared to buy and sell homes.
“We’re not attorneys, but we are responsible for our clients,” he says. It’s a big responsibility, especially when contracts start at 12 pages and often grow from there.
He adds, “We all started out inexperienced and there’s nothing wrong with that, but inexperienced agents need the backing and support of management if something goes wrong.”
One Satisfied Customer’s Story
Lisa Souza is a Cross Creek homeowner who worked with Casa Fina agent Seena Allen when she and her family moved to the Tampa area from New York this past summer.
“It was extremely challenging, because we knew nothing about the Tampa area,” Lisa explains. “She honestly helped us get our dream home, and we’re so happy. It’s even better than what we hoped.”
Lisa says Seena was professional, patient and kind, and worked hard when things got complicated.
“We made an offer on a house but then found out there was lots of work that needed to be done after the inspection,” Lisa explains. “Our house in New York was sold, the one we wanted to buy fell through, and it was an extremely stressful time. But, Seena was such a pleasure to work with that it took the stress out of it.”
Lisa says that when issues popped up, Seena would call on her colleagues if she had questions or wanted another opinion about how to handle the issues. “They all got back with her almost instantaneously with text messages,” she says.
Nick says his agents work hard to ensure they are able to be a network of resources for their clients, whether they are in the middle of a transaction, or they are a past client from years ago.
“We try to be the go-to person if you need something,” Nick says. “Maybe you bought a house three years ago, but now you need a plumber. We think of ourselves as local guides or resources.”
This Wesley Chapel home is just one of the many sold by Real Living Casa Fina Realty along the Bruce B. Downs corridor in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel in 2019.
He says that even in the days of Google and Yelp, people still prefer a personal recommendation. No matter what you need, someone in the company has a connection and a personal experience they can share.
Another way the firm provides added value to its clients is by serving as a full-service brokerage, with agents who specialize in commercial services and property management.
“If you need help finding a tenant or you need full management of your property, we fully cover New Tampa and Wesley Chapel and some of the surrounding areas,” Nick explains.
Casa Fina Realty also can help anyone who may need to move but isn’t sure if they want to sell.
“It gives us the flexibility to offer different options,” he says. “I can’t tell you how many houses we put up for sale and for rent at the same time and then see which happens first.”
He says sometimes people relocate and then move back, or sometimes they choose to sell after their home has been rented for a few years.
No matter what your personal situation is, Nick and the agents at Casa Fina want to help you determine what’s best for you and help make it happen.
Lisa’s experience with Casa Fina Realty has led her to recommend the company to both her mom and sister — both of whom she hopes will move to New Tampa — and an acquaintance who already lives in the area.
She says she told them, “The details will be handled thoroughly, things will be done quickly, and there will be a level of professionalism that comes from the heart.”
Real Living Casa Fina Realty is located at 15343 Amberly Dr. in the Shoppes at Amberly. To learn more, visit CasaFinaRealty.com, call (813) 569-6294, or see the ad on page 29.
