Business Notes: Another Hockey Store In Wesley Chapel?

With more than a million visitors since it opened in 2017, and a wealth of hockey tournaments, AdventHealth Center Ice (AHCI) is booming.

In fact, it’s booming enough that a northern-based hockey retailer is willing to do what pre-AHCI was probably unthinkable – set up a store in Florida.

Pure Hockey, which has more than 50 locations across the country, is building a 7,500-sq.-ft. store in the Cypress Creek Town Center, which could be considered something of a coup for Wesley Chapel and the Tampa Bay area.

Can a standalone hockey equipment store survive in the Wesley Chapel area? We’re about to find out, as Pure Hockey is getting ready to build a 7,500-sq.-ft. store on the north side of S.R. 56. (Photo: Yelp)

The largest hockey retailer in the country, according to its website, is making its first foray into Florida, and building only its second store south of its Kirkwood, MO location (the other “southern” store is in Dallas).

The hockey shop seems like a golden idea, considering the popularity of AHCI, which hosts thousands of hockey players a year, including high school and adult leagues. 

Gordie Zimmermann, the general manager of AHCI, said he was unaware of the plans to build a Pure Hockey about a mile west of his skating facility, which sells hockey equipment in a space it rents out to Rinkside Sports, which also has a location at the Ice Sports Forum in Brandon.

Otherwise, there aren’t many options for local hockey enthusiasts, and a lot of the hockey merchandise and equipment business is done online, Zimmermann says, who added that it will be interesting to see if such a stand-alone store can thrive in Florida. 

Headquartered in Boston, MA, Pure Hockey sells every hockey product imaginable, from NHL apparel to hockey sticks, skates, protective equipment and goalie equipment. 

A DIFFERENT LOOK: While the arrival of Pure Hockey is good news for the growing local ice hockey community, new homeowners should be getting similar news as the unique El Dorado Furniture works its way through the approval process.

The planned Land O’Lakes/Wesley Chapel store, boasting 70,000 sq. ft. of space, will be located on the west side of Wesley Chapel Blvd., across from the Cypress Creek Town Center. It will be the 13th El Dorado store in Florida.

Instead of the traditional showroom stocked with furniture, El Dorado promises a different experience with its Boulevard showrooms, which are set up like strips of old-fashioned city streets, with benches and street lamps lining the path.

According to its websites, El Dorado Furniture was established in South Florida in 1967 and is the largest Hispanic-owned furniture retail enterprise in the U.S. It also offers same day delivery, and its top-selling brand is Carlo Perazzi, best known for its chic mattresses, chairs and tables.

NEW STUFF IS OPEN!: The Cypress Creek Town Center continues to round into shape, with department store Burlington, bargain store 5 Below and arts & craft chain Hobby Lobby recently hosting grand openings, and HomeGoods scheduled to hold its Grand Opening event on Sunday, April 14.

Burlington and 5 Below, which are located right next to each other, both officially opened on March 29.

Five days before opening its doors, Burlington made an impact on the local area by donating $10,000 to Turner/Bartels K-8 school in New Tampa, just south of County Line Rd.

The money donated goes directly to teachers, who can use it for school supplies and activities as they please.

“This is really a Burlington initiative, but we tie in very very closely with the Adopt A Classroom program,” said Todd Abrams, the regional vice president of stores for Burlington. “We were looking for a local school in the community of the new store that we’re opening. We really want to give back to the community.”

Todd Abrams, the regional vice president of stores for Burlington.

Formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, Burlington is headquartered in Burlington, NJ, and has over 630 stores in 45 states nationwide. It has four other locations in the Tampa Bay area: two in Tampa, one in Brandon and another in Clearwater.

Abrams, who lives in Wesley Chapel, hinted that the newest location may be his favorite. “I’m especially excited to be able to open a store right in my own community,” he said. 

The 5 Below chain offers a variety of toys, tech, beauty and sports items, to name a few, all for $5 or less. It has more than 700 stores in 33 states in the U.S., including eight in the Tampa Bay area.

Hobby Lobby held its ribbon cutting on March 18. The store was Hobby Lobby’s 865th, and its third location in Pasco County, joining the stores located in Zephyrhills and Port Richey.

MORE OPENINGS: By the time you read this, the gas and convenience store Wawa and uber-popular fast food chain Chick-Fil-A (photo above) on S.R. 54, east of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., might both have dates set for their openings. The two much-anticipated locations look like they are having a contest to see which can be completed sooner, as the progress on both of them has been pretty rapid.

At our press time, both newcomers looked just about ready, with “Now Hiring” signs displayed at both sites.

And, for those keeping a watch out for even more new places to eat, there are lots of places still in the permitting pipeline working on final approval, like Bubba’s 33 (going in in front of the Ashley HomeStore on S.R. 56 east of I-75), which had its site plans approved last month.

To the west of Bubba’s 33, just past the I-75 interchange on the TPO (south) side of S.R. 56, Main Event (an entertainment center with bowling and a restaurant), Rock ‘N Brews (created by KISS legends Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley) and Saltgrass Steakhouse have all had their site plans approved and will be built right next to each other. 

They will join Longhorn Steakhouse, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen along that south side of S.R. 56.

LEXINGTON OAKS NEWS: The Learning Experience, a franchise childcare/preschool founded in 1980, is nearing completion at the northeast corner of Lexington Oaks Blvd. and Post Oak Blvd., just off Wesley Chapel Blvd. (S.R. 54).

The nearest Learning Experience location, in New Tampa just south of County Line Rd., was recently chosen as the company’s top new franchise, receiving the Rising Star Award.

MORE APARTMENTS ON THE WAY: East of The Learning Experience, on Post Oak Blvd., Parc at Wesley Chapel, a 248-unit Class-A apartment community offering one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes with elevator access, received approval Feb. 25 to begin building; the apartments are expected to be open by sometime this fall.

A Parc at Wesley Chapel spokesperson says its community will feature Smart Home technology, granite countertops, a resort-style pool, a pet park and Electric Vehicle charging stations.

Coming on line a little sooner is the new Tapestry Cypress Creek apartments (above), which could have its first building open later this month or in early May. 

According to its website, Tapestry Cypress Creek (by Arlington Properties)is a luxury apartment community that will offer brand new 1-, 2- and 3- bedroom apartments. Each home will feature chef-inspired kitchens with 42” modern flat panel cabinetry, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, plank flooring, walk-in closets, 9-foot ceilings, and screened patio/balconies. Full-sized washers and dryers are included. The community is smoke-free.

Tapestry Cypress Creek’s resident clubhouse features a fitness center, Yoga studio with Fitness on Demand, and a sports lounge.  Adjacent to the clubhouse is the saltwater pool with an outdoor pavilion and fireplace. Tapestry Cypress Creek is a pet-friendly community that offers our furry friends a leash-free pet park.

Tapestry Cypress Creek (2300 Tapestry Park Dr., Land O’Lakes) is now renting. For more info, stop in, call (813) 949-9199 or visit TapestryCypressCreekApartments.com.

Genshaft, Sink Cap Off Women’s History Month

North Tampa Bay Chamber chair Karen Tillman-Gosselin and president & CEO  Hope Allen, give outgoing USF president Judy Genshaft a Distinguished Woman’s Leadership Award at PHSC’s Porter Campus on March 27.

When it came to celebrating Women’s History Month, the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce (NTBC) not only wanted to create an event centered around a discussion about women’s issues, but wanted to honor a woman leader who has made a significant impact in the community.

It didn’t need to look any further than the University of South Florida campus.

On March 27, at the NTBC’S inaugural Women Making Strides breakfast at the Pasco Hernando State College Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, outgoing USF president Judy Genshaft was presented the Distinguished Women’s Leadership Award. That was followed by a discussion between Alex Sink — the former president of Bank of America (1993-2000) and Florida’s first Chief Financial Officer (2007-11), who also ran for governor in 2010 – and Poynter Institute President Emeritus (and part-time PHSC professor) Karen Dunlap on topics like women in technology, balancing work and family and the rise in powerful female leadership across the country in politics.

Genshaft was honored, according to NTBC president and CEO Hope Allen, for her impact on and leadership of USF during her 19 years as the university’s president. She announced late last year she would be stepping down in July of this year.

“Leave when you’re on top, I mean that,” Genshaft told the crowd, drawing laughter. “Don’t wait until years from now, after people start asking, “will she ever step down?’” I did go through some emotional trauma trying to decide what to do, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Genshaft, 70, replaced Betty Castor in 2000 and has helped raise USF’s stature significantly in areas such as research, innovation and fundraising, where she spearheaded a $1 billion fund-raising campaign.

Last year, USF earned the designation of “Preeminent State Research University” from the Florida Board of Governors, joining the University of Florida and Florida State University.

“I always felt the minute I stepped foot on the campus of the University of South Florida that it really could become something very, very, very special,” Genshaft said.

Genshaft gave a nod to girl power when describing her leadership style, to the delight of the sold-out audience of a mostly-female crowd of roughly 100, which included more than a dozen PHSC students. 

“When things are really rough, they call women in to help,” Genshaft said. “We work as a team. I believe in collaboration, consensus, and if not…I’ll make the decision.”

While the Women Making Strides breakfast highlighted the achievements of women, there was an underlying theme about the work still to be done, something Genshaft touched on.

“When I started as president of the University of South Florida, there were only 20 percent of women leading research university institutions, out of the 4,000 institutions of higher learning in the country,” she said. “As I step down…there are still 20 percent. So, as we keep striving to move forward, for now, we’re still at a level we were before. But, we are making such a difference across America.”

USF recently announced that Steven Currall, the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, was selected to replace Genshaft, who says she plans to remain active in the community.

“I can promise you, I’m not going to be at home vacuuming,” she said.

Genshaft’s message was similar to the event’s tagline — “We Can Do It” —with an emphasis on continuing to move forward, which was stressed by Sink and Dunlap in their conversation.

Both accomplished women emphasized fighting for what you want, and once you get it, don’t shrink into the background. They focused on advancements made in almost every field, including politics, where a record number of women ran for governor, U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats, with the U.S. House of Representatives electing nearly 100 women.

“Is it the golden era of women in power?” Sink asked afterwards. “Not yet, but I think we are definitely at some tipping point. Surely, I think history will write about (this era) to the extent that women feel more empowered, not only about sexual aggression, but about anything. That’s my hope, that it means ‘I’m in this board room, and I might be outnumbered but I’m going to speak up because I have something of value to say.’ I don’t know whether that turns into a golden era, but it could.”

Our Exclusive Taste 2019 Preview — What’s New? A Lot!

Congratulations to the Rotary Club of New Tampa, which will host the annual Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel for the third year in a row, again at what is now being called AdventHealth Center Ice (AHCI) on Sunday, March 24, 2019, noon-4 p.m.

The club (which meets Fridays at 7 a.m at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club) did an excellent job of rounding up not only many of your returning favorite eateries from the last two years, but also some outstanding newcomers among the 29 restaurants and eleven beverage purveyors that had signed up to participate in the Taste by our press time on March 15.

We caught up with Taste co-chairs Karen Frashier and Jennifer Cofini and asked them about what new and old favorites attendees will be enjoying at this year’s Taste:

NN: How excited is everyone about this year’s Taste of New Tampa event?

TONT: We’ve had the pleasure to give away Taste tickets at several North Tampa Bay Chamber and community events. We always ask the crowd if they know why we’re there and what’s coming up. A large percentage of the crowd shouts back “Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel.” Hearing that crowd response makes our day! 

The Rotary Club of New Tampa is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) hosting this event with the Chamber to support scholarships and our charities. Our committee has grown to 20 Rotarians and Chamber volunteers. We’re invested.

NN: What do you have planned?

TONT: We’ve got 40 food and beverage vendors that will start tummies grumbling the minute guests enter Rink C at AdventHealth Center Ice. 

The Freedom High Naval Junior ROTC flag corps will kick off the festivities, along with: Denyse Bales-Chubb, the CEO of AdventHealth Wesley Chapel; Dist. 7 Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera; and Mike Wells, the chairman of the Pasco County Board of Commissioners. 

Then, the Freedom High School drum corps will get the party started by marching throughout the venue. Attendees have told us they want tables spread throughout the venue so they can hang out with friends and neighbors. Done!

NN: So, what’s new at this year’s Taste?

TONT: We’ve added cookie decorating to the photo booth and kids painting/art booth located in the family fun area. A Dash of Salt ‘n Pepper, DCA Media Consulting and Pinot’s Palette Wesley Chapel are sponsoring the fun for kids. 

Our presenting sponsor is Advent Health Wesley Chapel. The Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel focuses on friends, family and food — three important building blocks to whole, healthy lives. Building blocks that inspire both the Rotary Club of New Tampa and AdventHealth Wesley Chapel to serve our North Tampa Bay neighbors.

NN: What restaurants are you particularly excited to see that you think the locals will be happy to see?

TONT: Taste attendees will be particularly interested to see how the chef showdown between past winners Ciccio’s Cali, Noble Crust and Nothing Bundt Cakes shakes out. Pincher’s, Vom Fass, Blondie’s Cookies, Fat Rabbit, Cinebistro, Chuy’s and Top Shelf Sports Lounge were crowd favorites, too.

Earth Fare, a green grocer which newly opened on S.R. 56 (across from Tampa Premium Outlets) and Bahama Breeze are bringing their chefs’ A games.

NN: What about any under the radar places? Maybe some eateries that aren’t located nearby or are new to the area that many will be getting a first taste of?

TONT: Taste foodies will be especially interested in locally owned food and beverage purveyors such as Ava’s Low Country Cuisine, Pomodoro Pizza and the Ice Dreammm Shop. They can have their cake and eat it too from the newly opened community venue called Canterbury Hall at Grace Church Tampa Palms. And, Batter & Dough is offering yummy filled mini-pancakes.

NN: Other than food samples, what else can people look forward to at the Taste?

TONT: There will be big competition in the beverage category this year with Coppertail Brewing competing with 81 Bay, Zephyrhills, Time for Wine. The Brass Tap and PRP Wine International. New beverage options include Blue Chair Bay Rum and Buttermilk Provisions sangria. Chamber chair Karen Tillman-Gosselin with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services is sponsoring the water again this year and we’ll have a booth for soft drinks.

NN: What do you expect or hope for in terms of attendees? Talk about the growth of the event over the past two years, and how Center Ice has proven to be an ideal facility.

TONT: The event has a 20-year history as one of North Tampa Bay’s premier events.

Last year we hosted 2,000 guests. Based on history and the growth we’ve seen over three years, we expect 3,000 guests this year. AdventHealth Center Ice is a perfect location because the event is indoors — no worries about the weather. The parking is free and plentiful in front and behind the building. We’ll have volunteers in the lots helping guests locate parking and directing people to open parking. Plus, Taste-goers who present a Taste ticket the day of the event can get free ice skate rental to glide off the calories after snacking their way through the restaurants and beverage purveyors.

NN: What charitable organizations receive the proceeds that are raised?

TONT: Proceeds support high school scholarships through the North Tampa Bay Chamber and charities supported by the Rotary Club of New Tampa. In 2018, the Rotary Club of New Tampa donated more than $46,000 to local and Rotary International Foundation signature projects, including End Polio Now, Feeding Tampa Bay and the Fisher House at the Haley VA Hospital.

Signature youth programs such as Interact, Rotaract and Seminar for Tomorrow’s Leaders help young people develop leadership skills. Find the complete list on TasteOfNewTampa.org/nonprofitsbenefit.html.

Interactive ‘Herstory’ Museum Opens At AdventHealth Center Ice!

Jeff Novotny shows hockey players Danielle DiPasquale (center) and Tristina Doyle how to access the information at the Herstory Museum at AdventHealth Center Ice. (Photos by John C. Cotey)

As Marnie McClain looked around the new Herstory Museum at AdventHealth Center Ice (AHCI) in Wesley Chapel, she was grinning broadly.

An eighth-grader from Fort Myers, McClain was at the facility competing with her Florida Alliance U-14 team in the Southeast Regional Girls Hockey Championships on March 9, but the Grand Opening of the interactive Herstory Museum on the same day was an added bonus.

“I saw it on Digit Murphy’s Instagram, that it was going to be here, and I was so happy to come and see something like this,” McClain said. “It is really cool.”

Margaret “Digit” Murphy is a women’s hockey pioneer and legend, as well as a champion for Title IX, the federal law prohibiting anyone, on the basis of sex, from being excluded from participating or denied the benefits of sports, or being discriminated against under any education program or activity that receives Federal financial assistance.

The interactive Herstory Museum is Murphy’s brainchild, inspired by a visit to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH, that left her disappointed over the lack of exhibits honoring women’s accomplishments in the NFL.

She and Wesley Chapel engineer Jeff Novotny created it for girls just like McClain, to bring to them the stories they would otherwise never get to hear. The walls are covered with portraits of the gold-medal winning 2018 U.S. Women’s Olympic ice hockey team that trained at Center Ice, as well as large vinyl displays for each featured female hockey pioneer. Visitors can access a QR Code, which takes you to a webpage featuring a biography and video, or you can send a text to a certain number to receive that pioneer’s website link. 

All of the information is available online at GetHerStory.org.

The museum is located on the second floor of AHCI, next to the skating facility’s Top Shelf Restaurant & Sports Bar. While only occupying about 100 square feet or so, plenty of women’s hockey history is crammed into the space, which also overlooks two of the ice rinks at the facility.

Parents and players lined up against the glass to watch the action in the ice, strolling over to the exhibits on the wall during breaks in the games.

“It’s pretty inspiring to see what women have accomplished in hockey,” said Tristina Doyle, a teammate of McClain’s on the Florida Alliance U-14 team. “Usually, it’s only the men you can read about, but really not much about women.” 

The first display features Murphy, a former Ivy League Player of the Year at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She also produced seven Olympians while becoming the all-time winningest women’s hockey coach in NCAA Division I history — with 318 wins at Brown (she is still currently 13th on that all-time wins list).

Everyone Has HerStory

New Tampa resident Marisa Martin, 55, thinks stories like Murphy’s should be shared with as many young female athletes as possible. 

“I think it’s very important,” Martin said. “The sad part is, a lot of times, these younger women don’t know the history and that’s a problem. I think it’s a shame, because they’ve been given so much privilege, they don’t realize what was required to get here. I think it’s important to remember the women who came before.”

Martin has her own story. When she was 9 years old, she had to take her 6-year-old brother Lonnie Jr. to sign him up for Little League because their mother was sick that day. With a check made out to Atlantic Little League (in Jacksonville), she and Lonne walked a half-mile to sign up. A woman sitting behind a table jotted down her brother’s name, and then looked up at Marisa and asked if she wanted to play, too.

“I was like, ‘Are you talking to me?,’” Marisa said. And, with a little help from the woman, Marisa signed up for Little League baseball for the first time.

“That woman changed my life,” she said. Marisa ended up playing Little League (and every other sport available to her) as a kid, and played basketball and softball in high school, where in 1981, she helped lead Fletcher High to the Class 4A state softball championship — 13 years before the sport converted from slow to past pitch, thanks in part to Title IX. As an adult, Marisa says she took up tennis and hockey as well.

How It Happened

After Novotny presented the idea to AHCI general manager Gordie Zimmermann, a three-year agreement was signed to bring the museum — which will be developed by Murphy’s Play It Forward Sport Foundation — to Wesley Chapel.

Murphy, a whirling dervish of energy and a fountain of hockey knowledge, was the star of the Grand Opening. But, she shared the space with interactive displays featuring Katey Stone, the winningest women’s coach in NCAA hockey history; gold medal winners Sara DeCosta-Hayes (1998; photo) and Amanda Pelkey (2018); and Kitty Guay, the first woman to ever officiate an NCAA Division I men’s game in 2015.

Another wall in the Herstory Museum will one day feature a local hero, which could be anyone, says Novotny, but will likely be someone with a relationship with hockey. That person hasn’t been selected yet, but visitors were allowed to nominate someone at the grand opening. Novotny says they will choose someone over the next few months.

Admission to the museum is free. For more information, visit GetHerStory.org and PlayItForwardSport.org.

Florida Executive Realty Celebrates The Opening Of Its Newly Expanded Office!

(L.-r.) Neighborhood News’ Gary Nager, with Doug Loyd and Kristy Darragh of Florida Executive Realty

When I first met Kristy Darragh in 1995, she was a relatively new agent with Florida Executive Realty (FER). Since 1992, or two years before I purchased the Neighborhood News with a former partner, FER has been operating out of what was once called the “Tampa Palms Information Center.”

At that time, Kristy bought one 1/8-page ad, sold the one house in the ad and called me to say she was buying a full-page ad with us. She’s been on our back cover of every New Tampa issue ever since.

“I’m also going to tell my boss, Doug Loyd, that he should buy a full-page ad, too,” she said. And, the rest of that story is history. Part of that history is that FER is the real estate office that we named, back in 2000, as our “Advertiser of the Millennium.”

Fast forward about a quarter of a century. FER has grown from just that one office and two people — Doug (who actually opened the office with former partner John Zielenbach) and his now-VP/general manager Michelle Weinhold (affectionately called “Red” by many in the office) — to six offices and 200 agents and staff. In addition to helping buyers and sellers of homes, FER today also offers full-service property management, mortgage and title services and even new construction services.

I sat down with Doug and Kristy recently to not only write this story, but also to do a WCNT-tv/NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net Video Business Feature about the expansion and tell more about FER and its rich history.

The building which is home to FER today — and which, rumor has it, was built in about 30 days — was one of the first two constructed in Tampa Palms back in 1986.

“This building was here before Tampa Palms Country Club, before Tampa Palms Elementary and definitely before any homes or shopping centers,” Doug says. “They were just starting to build the first subdivisions in Tampa Palms — Ashmont, Coventry and Canterbury.”

Through it all, the building has held up pretty well, but FER kept outgrowing it.

So, shortly before Kristy bought into FER as Doug’s partner 16 years ago, a second floor was added to the original 3,200-sq.-ft. building, but despite several interior re-dos since then to accommodate the office’s growing staff, Doug and Kristy have been talking about expanding and upgrading it.

Well, with Kristy and Doug, talk usually becomes action, and so today, the Tampa Palms office has been expanded by about 1,200 sq. ft. inside, and a beautiful patio and garden area (perfect for special events and even weddings that is dedicated to the memory of former FER Realtor Mark Stern) have been created outside. And, the entire building has received a wi-fi and wiring upgrade.

And, while Doug is thrilled to finally have a legitimate office, Kristy is proudest of the new “virtual agent” office that is adjacent to the new conference room.

“Because everything is online today,” she says, “agents don’t have to work 9-to-5 anymore. So, we created a space where agents from all six of our offices can stop in, plug in and then get going again.”

Doug adds, “It’s hard to believe we’ve been in business this long and haven’t had a proper conference room. But maybe, the most popular thing we’ve built is the patio. And, Phase 2 of the expansion will be to redo the rest of the existing office to match this new look.”

Still Truly Local…

Doug says that despite the fact that there are many real estate companies with offices in every U.S. state, “real estate, by definition, is still a truly local business.”

Kristy adds, “And, while Tampa Palms is still the mother ship for us, I have listings and have sold homes throughout New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and beyond. Doug has had a vision for this company and it’s working.”

Part of Doug’s vision has been to duplicate what he did in Tampa Palms, as FER’s Westchase and Fishhawk Ranch offices also are in the former community centers/information offices for those developments.

And, all six offices — Tampa Palms, Westchase, Fishhawk, South Tampa, Carrollwood and Brandon — participate in FER’s HOPE Foundation, a Florida 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organization established in 2015 (HOPE is an acronym for Housing, Opportunity, People and Education).

Doug says, “The HOPE Foundation is our way of giving back to those in need throughout the areas we serve.”

There currently are four nonprofit organizations receiving contributions from the Foundation — the Academy Prep Center of Tampa, A Kid’s Place of Tampa Bay in Brandon, Quantum Leap Farm of Odessa and former Tampa Bay Bucs WR Vincent Jackson’s Foundation — Jackson in Action.

“With contributions from all six offices, we’ll be donating about $40,000 to those charities (total) this year,” Doug says. “We’re pretty proud of that.” The Foundation also names a “Humanitarian of the Year” every year at FER’s “Awards of Excellence” ceremony. The 2018 Humanitarian of the Year was Sue Dei from FER’s Carrollwood office.

The Tampa Palms office of Florida Executive Realty is located at 15802 Amberly Dr. For more information, visit FloridaExectutiveRealty.com or call the office at (813) 972-3430, or Kristy Darragh at (813) 931-6700. And, please visit YouTube.com/WCNT-tv or search “Neighborhood News” on Facebook to view FER’s Featured Business video segment.