After being removed from the Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) during the economic downturn in 2008, the widening of Old Pasco Rd. will be getting a fresh look.
The countyâs Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) voted unanimously last month to put the idea of widening the two-lane road back on Pascoâs LRTP.
While still a long way from any concrete design and plans, transportation projects can only be funded if they are on the LRTP, so itâs a start.
âNow, we can figure out how to get it funded, what it might cost and look at a newer study of the road,â said Pasco Commissioner Mike Moore, who represents District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel.
Moore says he has been pushing for an examination of Old Pasco Rd. for the past two years.
Old Pasco Rd. is no longer simply a minor roadway that winds through a sleepy part of Wesley Chapel from S.R. 54, past Overpass Rd., into San Antonio, and all the way to S.R. 52. Instead, it is evolving into is a main arterial roadway that goes by the new Cypress Creek High Middle/High School and future performing arts center, new housing developments and a soon-to-be-built business park.
âI personally feel itâs a priority to get it done,â Moore says. âItâs a pretty skinny road the way it is, and with a new school and additional homes, I have concerns about the traffic and the safety of those who live and drive in that area.â
It was during the summer of 2018 that Moore and District 1 Commissioner Ron Oakley ignited the debate, following the re-zoning request that cleared the way for 2,250,000 sq. ft. of office and light industrial entitlements to be built on roughly 91 acres of land on the east side of Old Pasco Rd., just south of Overpass Rd., near Cypress Creek Middle/High.
With plans already underway to widen Overpass Rd. and the addition of a new intersection with I-75, more traffic on Old Pasco Rd. â including big trucks coming to and from the Overpass Business Park, as it will be called â is a certainty.
Coming Soon: More Traffic
While portions of Old Pasco Rd. will be widened during the construction of the soon-to-be-built Overpass Rd./I-75 intersection, Moore would like to see a plan to widen Old Pasco Rd. all the way from S.R. 52 to S.R. 54.
He says he knows it will be expensive, but adds that the area is quickly growing. In addition to the school, there are 400 new homes approved for construction in Quail Hollow, and a 264-unit Arbours at Saddle Oaks residential development at the intersection of Old Pasco Rd. and Country Club Rd.
Commissioner Moore says he has met with local residents on a number of occasions over the past two years, and says a large majority of the people heâs spoken with want to see the road widened. But they want it done right â with a median and sidewalks and bike paths, all things that make it safer for pedestrians and vehicles.
âThey want it done right,â Moore says, âand I agree.â
HDR Engineering, Inc., is currently conducting a road safety audit (RSA) and study for Old Pasco Rd., to determine if there is a need for the widening. That study is looking at the Old Pasco Rd. intersections with S.R. 54, Post Oak Blvd., Foamflower Blvd., Dayflower Blvd., Country Club Rd., Bonnie Blue Dr., Deedra Dr., Sonny Dr., Lindenhurst Dr., and Overpass Rd.
It will be years before the project comes to fruition, and the amount of right-of-way land that would need to be purchased will make it an expensive endeavor.
âIt wonât be easy,â Moore admits, âbut I really think it needs to get done.â
A mock-up of a proposed indoor athletic facility for Wesley Chapel District Park from 2004.
Plans to build a $3-million indoor athletic facility at the Wesley Chapel District Park (WCDP) are moving forward, following some heated debate at the Jan. 22 Pasco Board of County Commissioners (BOC) meeting about whether or not the commissioners should delay it.
At the BOC meeting, where commissioners were expected to approve the choice of the construction company tabbed by county staff to build the facility, District 4 commissioner Mike Wells seemed put off by the lack of notes by evaluation committee members in the committeeâs final recommendation of Wannemacher Jensen Architects.
Comm. Wells said he wanted to see the notes the staffers took to make their final decision, which was unanimous. And, because those notes werenât available, he suggested, âthat all of the proposals be rejected and that the project be re-solicited.â
Requiring that every company that submitted bids and presentations do so again would delay the project by as much as six months.
The Consent Agenda is usually a list of items that the county staff has recommended for BOC approval. Sometimes, but rarely, items are pulled from the Agenda to correct a mistake, or to be debated. Wells pulled the Wesley Chapel facility item from the Consent Agenda, something he said he has done only one other time in his career as a commissioner.
âItâd be nice to be able to go back and look at the notes,â Wells said.
County purchasing director Stacy Ziegler told the BOC that proper procedure was followed during the selection process, and that tapes of those meetings are public.
âWe followed a process that we have been following for the last six months, since we updated our purchasing manual,â Ziegler said. âWe feel weâve done our due diligence and our recommendation should stand.â
Wells, as well as District 5 Commissioner Jack Mariano â who originally seconded Wellsâ motion to reject the selection â seemed miffed that Spring Engineering, Inc., wasnât chosen.
Spring Engineering and its CEO, Richard Bekesh, each donated $1,000 to Wellsâ reelection campaign in 2017.
Located in Holiday, FL, Spring Engineering was ranked as the seventh choice out of nine by the countyâs evaluation committee, which was made up of assistant county administrator Erik Breitenbach, director of facilities management Andrew Baxter, chief project manager of the facilities management department TJ Pyche, director of parks, recreation & natural resources Keith Wiley and Brian Taylor, the manager of parks, recreation and natural resources.
Comm. Mariano said the county should be pushing local companies, and he had a problem with Spring Engineering, a local company, not making the top two, even though he did not attend any of the evaluation meetings. In fact, he and Wells both hinted at including county commissioners on the evaluation committees in the future, and later Mariano even suggested the companies should re-present to the commission.
Mike Moore, the commissioner for District 2, which includes most of Wesley Chapel, was visibly frustrated by Wellsâ maneuverings, and argued that redoing the entire process would be a waste of time, and unfair to the companies bidding â as well as to the Wesley Chapel residents awaiting the new facility.
âIf you go through the whole process and they write comments down and the results are exactly the same, then what?,â Moore asked.
Moore has been a proponent of building the indoor facility at WCDP, where the Wesley Chapel Athletic Association runs youth leagues in a variety of sports. The WCAAâs basketball leagues are currently held on outdoor courts, a less-than-ideal setting considering Floridaâs hot and often rainy climate.
An indoor gymnasium would allow the basketball leagues to be played indoors. It also would create an opportunity for gymnastics and volleyball leagues to be played, as well as adult recreation sports like pickleball.
The 13,000-sq.-ft. recreation center would also have meeting rooms and offer local residents a place to gather for meetings, exercise classes and parties.
Moore said he thinks more than 1,000 local athletes and residents will be impacted by the facility.
âThere are a lot of people waiting for this to be done,â Moore told his fellow commissioners. âThey need this to happen on the timeline we said it was going to happen.â
The idea for an indoor facility at the WCDP, which is currently just a collection of lacrosse, soccer, baseball and softball fields, with outdoor basketball courts and three tennis courts, has been bandied about since 2005, but the money hasnât been available to build it.
The county has allocated $2.5-million towards the project, which comes from developer impact fees, Moore said, and could be completed by summer 2020.
Last October, the county officially solicited bids for the project, reaching out to 551 vendors via email, including 34 from Pasco County. Nine responses were received, and Spring Engineering was the lone bidder from the county.
On Nov. 29, the evaluation committee independently scored the proposals, settling on a final four of two firms from St. Petersburg and two from Tampa. On Jan. 3, the remaining firms gave presentations to the committee, and all five members ranked Wannemacher Jensen Architects, Inc., of St. Petersburg, No. 1.
Harvard Jolly, Inc., also based in St. Petersburg, was named No. 2 by four of the five committee members.
Wells seemed perturbed that there was a wide difference in rating points between some of the firms during the process, seeming to suggest that those results somehow made the process flawed. Mariano hinted at some sort of bias. Spring Engineering, for example, was scored an 82 by one committee member, but only 46 by two others.
âThis is about picking the most qualified person, and I donât think we did that,â Wells said.
Following the debate, Wells again motioned for the recommendation to be rejected, but Mariano declined to second it and it passed 4-1.
Running a textile business in Baroda, India (500 kilometers south of Bombay), Dinesh Patel never considered a career in early childhood education. He loved children, their smiles and their laughter. But, aside from the joys of raising his own children, the possibility hadnât crossed his mind.
He moved to the U.S. in 1987, by way of Fort Pierce, FL, and got into the retail business, running a convenience store and later a motel. Then, a close family friend invited him out to Houston to look at a franchise heâd just obtained â The Goddard School.
The rest, as they say, is history, as he now owns The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel, located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. across the street from the AdventHealth Wesley Chapel hospital.
Patel says his business experience and his love of kids made him a natural fit for a Goddard School, which uses a dual management system, incorporating both a business manager and an education manager at each school.
Also to Patelâs liking was the schoolâs track record â The Goddard School is a 30-year old national franchise with 500 schools in 37 states (and in Washington, D.C.).
â(Goddard) gives you knowledge and all directors have to go through the training,â Patel says. âGoddard (corporate) even assigns someone to your school for support.â
The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel opened in May of 2017. Patel brought on his second education director, Christie Lemar, in August of 2018.
Lemar was the Director of Youth Development at Brandon Sports & Aquatic Centerâs child care center, where she ran a Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) and after school programs, which consisted of roughly 180 children. The skill set lined up perfectly with the direction Patel was already taking the school.
The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel added VPK classes in 2018, and recently acquired a small bus in order to expand into after-school care.
âThis spring, we hope to have three VPK classes,â Patel says. âVPK is important to prepare a child for kindergarten. It helps make for a soft transition. They go (into kindergarten) with computer time, sight words and math (knowledge) already.â
VPK is a free program for any family in Florida. All parents need to do is fill out an application with the Department of Stateâs Office of Early Learning. Patel also has applications at the school.
âThe classes are for three hours, Monday through Friday, and the state pays tuition for anyone,â Patel says. âNormally, middle class people donât qualify for any benefit, so this is a great opportunity.â
The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel offers three different times for VPK classes to accommodate parentsâ schedules. Thereâs also a wraparound program that offers hours beyond the VPK time.
There are even full-day options, that go from 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. The school also is open during many public school holidays.
Patel says the summer camps, which were offered for the first time by The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel in 2018, will be expanded in 2019.
The Education Side
âI believed in the quality of the instruction and I saw the activities that were planned,â says homeroom mom Faye Adams. âI saw how well organized they were. They had fun things for the kids to do. Itâs not just child care; you know that theyâre learning.â
Adamsâ son Christian, who is 5, took VPK at The Goddard School last fall. Even as a third-grade teacher with more than a decade of experience and teacher ambassador & spokesperson for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, Adams was impressed with what Christian got out of his experience at Goddard.
Now, Adams is the local Goddard Schoolâs education specialist.
âI help teachers with their lesson planning, and help make sure they are hitting their standards,â Faye says. âThere are seven domains, including science, math, motor skills, art, music and movement and our task is to find engaging activities, books and resources that will help target those skills and meet state standards.â
There are 14 teachers at The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel, and every lead teacher must have a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, and oversight from the The Goddard Schoolâs Quality Assurance program can be rigorous. The program stays in contact with the school on a weekly basis, assisting in every aspect, from the building to staffing to curriculum.
Goddard representatives also stop by to ensure corporate standards are being met and to offer hands-on assistance.
âAt any level, if we have a problem or need guidance, they (Goddard) can always help us get through it,â Patel says.
Additionally, there are bi-annual assessments from the state for the VPK program. Three months ago, Patel joined the Accredited Professional Preschool Learning Environment (APPLE) program, a national early learning program accreditation. In Florida, APPLE is accepted as one of Floridaâs Gold Seal Quality Programs.
âAPPLE has monthly training for teachers, helps with restructuring classrooms and also strengthens academics,â Patel says.
Having Fun With It
Enrichment programs specific to Goddard include Spanish, sign language, yoga and B.A.S.E. (Balance, Agility, Strength and Endurance) for Fitness, which is specifically designed for preschool children with those four curricular goals, all of which address physical fitness.
Lemar and the teachers come up with fun ways to teach the programs.
âYou wouldnât even know weâre working on it,â Lemar says. âFor instance, in our 12-to-18-month-old class, we use the word, âaguaâ instead of âwater.â We use signs for, âmore foodâ or âIâve had enough.â This works particularly well for those who are non-verbal.â
It works well for those in between verbal and non-verbal, as well, she adds.
âFour months into the program and Iâve already noticed the progression,â Goddard Wesley Chapel mom Brittany Williams says. âShe (daughter Savannah) was pretty much non-verbal when she got here. Now she knows all her colors and numbers.â
The FLEX Program, a Goddard standard, stands for Fun Learning EXperience. In the program, teachers are given the freedom to create their own lesson plans.
âThey can create fun activities to achieve those goals,â Patel said.
Extras…
The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel also uses the Tadpole app, an application parents can download to their computer or smartphone that shows lesson plans, snapshots of what their child did during the day, even on down to what they ate for lunch.
âThe parent can still ask how the childâs day was but now they can actually look at the report,â Patel says.
For additional costs, Mr. Tommyâs Mobile Music Bus comes to the school every Tuesday.
Soccer Shots, a soccer program that is, according to its website, consistently recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as the top Childrenâs Fitness Franchise in the U.S., also comes in once per week.
And, this past December, the school hosted its first Angel Tree Program, providing gifts for nearly 20 needy children.
The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel is located at 2539 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. The schoolâs hours are Mon.-Fri., 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. and prospective parents are welcome any time during business hours to schedule a tour of the school. For more information, call (813) 603-6100, or visit http://www.goddardschool.com/Tampa/Wesley-Chapel-Bruce-B-Downs-Boulevard-Fl. Or, see the ad on pg. 28.
(L.-r.) Angela Wild, Patty Pinson, Dr. Andrew Weitzman & Erin Jones can help you keep your New Yearâs resolutions when you sign up for a program at the Medi-Weightloss Clinic on S.R. 54 in Lutz.
According to a survey done by Statista, the top three New Yearâs resolutions for Americans in 2019 were: diet or eat healthier, exercise more, and lose weight.
An earlier survey, conducted in Dec. of 2018, said that just 16 percent of respondents stuck to some of their 2018 resolutions, while 13 percent said they kept none of them. While those three resolutions are obviously intertwined, in order to make lasting changes to oneâs health via weight loss and diet, one must adopt lifestyle changes.
Those changes can be easier to make and keep when you have the help of professionals.
Since 2006, Medi-Weightloss of Lutz, one of more than 100 locations nationwide, has helped clients make lifestyle changes that stick. To date, the office located on S.R. 54, two miles west of S.R. 56, has helped patients lose 107,877 pounds.
âI started going to Medi because I couldnât stick with a diet longer than a week,â client Danielle Crowley says. âI have now been going to Medi for two months, and have lost 20 pounds and nine inches from my waist.â
The professionals at Medi-Weightloss focus on three phases.
The first is the acute phase, also known as the weight loss phase.
The initial visit is a 60-90 minute consultation. Professionals will take weight measurements, do blood work, take an electrocardiogram (EKG), present informational handouts that go into a binder and start a detailed journal where the client will log eating, drinking and sleeping data.
During the acute phase, clients come in once a week until they hit their target weight. Medi-Weightloss has many ways to help during this difficult phase. Youâll get two injections, one called a Methionine Inositol Choline or MIC Combo injection that puts B12 vitamins and amino acids right into your bloodstream. The lipotropic substances help with fat metabolism, liver function and fat excretion.
âThe MIC injections are good for everyone and we never charge for them if youâre on the program,â Lutz Medi-Weightloss owner Gerri Willett says. âWhile youâre on the program, you can come in twice a week and get the MIC Combo for free.â
The second shot is a Vitamin B6 and B1 injection that helps reduce water retention and helps your keep energy up while battling food cravings. In the first phase, clients also will have help with vitamin supplements, a good multi-vitamin as well as calcium and Omega 3 supplements. Youâll also receive a food scale to help with portion control and ketone sticks to detect your level of ketosis.
âKetosis is a state where your body burns fat faster,â Willett said. âThe ketone stick will reveal what level of ketosis you are in. Some donât get there but itâs okay if they just get close.â
Once you reach your target weight, youâll move on to Phase 2: the maintenance phase. Clients meet with Andrew Weitzman, M.D., who is Board-certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Weitzman will try to slowly take you off any medications you may be taking.
âOne of my favorite things is getting someone off of blood pressure medications,â Dr. Weitzman says. âYou lose 20 pounds and all of a sudden, your blood pressure goes down.â
Phase 3 is the wellness phase. At this phase, clients need only come in once a month.
Shannon Terkoski says she came to the Lutz Medi-Weightloss weighing 250 pounds on Jan. 16, 2018. She now weighs 143.2 pounds, for a loss of 106.8 pounds.
âWeek-to-week, they were encouraging but also made real suggestions on what I could do to improve things like the way I go grocery shopping and not just pushing their own products, even though I still take some of their proprietary products,â Terkoski says. âI stopped going on a weekly basis, but I continue to maintain what they have shown and taught me about making better lifestyle choicesâ
And, itâs okay to come back later. Medi-Weightloss has clients return after completing the program, sometimes 10 years later, sometimes to share their success, sometimes because they are in need of additional help.
âThey can always come back,â Willett says. âIf itâs 10 years or 13 years later, I want them to be able to come back in. I want success for my patients. They shouldnât feel guilty about coming back in. Losing weight is a lifestyle change. If it was easy or just a pill you could take, no one would be overweight.â
A Staff Thatâs There for You
Some clients are so happy with their results, they join the Medi-Weightloss team, like Erin Jones.
âI lost 25 pounds in the first month-and-a-half and ended up losing 50 pounds overall,â she says. âI liked the program.â
Jones, who affectionately goes by âTheâ Erin Jones in the office, lost her husband in 2010 and then, âI ate for a yearâ she said.
She started coming to Medi-Weightloss in late 2011. By April of 2012, not only had she met her goals but she took a job interview at the clinic after her weight loss appointment. She started off working 10 to 12 hours per week and is now a full-time medical assistant and the office manager at Medi-Weightloss of Lutz.
âPatients can take comfort in knowing that weâve been down their road before and that we can truly say we know what theyâre going through,â Jones said.
Medical assistant Patty Pinson has been with Medi-Weightloss for a decade and is a retired Registered Nurse (RN).
âThis is a good place to work,â Pinson says. âEveryone gets along, we get to know the patients and it makes us feel good when weâre able to help them â itâs a win-win all the way around.â
Medical assistant Angela Wild is the newest member of the staff, but comes with 14 years of experience in the radiology field.
âThis is definitely a happier field than radiology,â Wild said. âPeople come here because they want to be here and I donât dread coming to work. I really enjoy it.â
Dr. Weitzman earned his Doctor of Medicine Degree from Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel, and completed his residency in Long Island, NY. He operated a primary care practice in New York for three years and ran one out of Manatee County prior to coming on board at Medi-Weightloss two-and-a-half years ago.
âThere arenât as many dissimilarities as youâd think (between primary care and weight loss clinics),â Dr. Weitzman says. âThe main difference is with primary care, youâre already treating a patientâs disease. Here, weâre working strictly with prevention.â
He stresses the three legs to the weight-loss process: diet, exercise and appetite suppression.
âThe diet we choose for you is sensible,â Weitzman said. âItâs not some newfangled diet. It should be possible for you to eat this way for the rest of your life.â
Dr. Weitzman and the staff at Medi- Weightloss also will help develop an exercise program that fits your capabilities, and he has a lot of experience prescribing appetite suppressants.
âYou must do all three in order to succeed,â Weitzman said. âJournaling helps a lot with diet. We also have supplements to help you.â
In the office and also in the startup bag clients receive is a menu of different supplements. From flavored powders for shakes, to snacks and vitamins, youâll have all the tools for success at your fingertips.
While not at the Lutz location, Medi-Weightloss also employs a full-time dietitian who works at the corporate office in Brandon.
Jeff Cervero is available for consultation and has added valuable information to the company website, like recipes, exercise tips and information. Cervero even went through most corporate restaurantsâ menus in the area and came up with a list of options that fit with the Medi-Weightloss program.
âWe have no competition that does all the things we do and we do them very well,â Willett says.
From the research and development coming out of the corporate office, to the experienced and well-trained staff, to the emerging technology in the field like a step counter called the Fit-Stik that comes in your initial bag of goodies, all of the tools you need to reach your weight loss goals are available at Medi-Weightloss of Lutz.
âI have done lots of other diets before and none of them worked for me,â Terkoski says. âIt has been exciting to follow a plan that actually works. They helped me get over the physical symptoms early in the process and were proactive in dealing with issues. It was all very smoothâ
New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents are invited to stop in at the Lutz Medi-Weightloss Clinic at 24420 S.R. 54. The office is open five days a week: 6:30 a.m.-noon on Monday; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. on Tuesday, 6:30 a.m.-2 p.m. on Wednesday; 1 p.m.-7 p.m. on Thursday; 6:30 a.m.-1 p.m on Friday. For more info, call (813) 909-1700 or visit online at MediWeightloss.com/locations/lutz/
The Pebble Creek Golf Club has been a part of the landscape in New Tampa for more than 50 years, but it appears that the golf course will be sold and replaced with more residential units. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
The rumored sale of the Pebble Creek Golf Club (PCGC) is, to use golfing vernacular, like a perfect approach to the green that stops a few inches short of the cup.
Now, interested developers are deciding whether or not they want to tap the ball into the cup.
Bill Place, the owner of PCGC since 2005, has confirmed that a purchaser for his 149-acre property has been identified, but says that there has been no sale yet.
âCompletely wrong,â Place says of the rumors that the club had been sold.
But, it now appears the sale of New Tampaâs first golf course (it opened in 1967) may be just a matter of time.
The interested party, who offered the highest price among what Place says were eight interested developers, is currently going through a 90-day inspection process to help evaluate whether or not it wants to finalize its purchase.
That included meeting with Pebble Creek residents last week, as well as studying zoning issues and exactly how many units â whether apartments, condos or homes â can be built on the property.
âAs I understand it, the company we chose has done this in a lot of places and works with the community,â Place says. âItâs not a company that comes in and just blasts away.â
Even if the sale is finalized, Place says that the rezoning process and securing government approval and permits likely will be an 18- to 24-month process.
âItâs safe to say we wonât be going away before then,â says Place, who along with wife Su Lee, owns the company, Ace Golf, that owns PCGC and three other Tampa Bay-area golf courses.
Place did not identify the potential buyers, or how much the offer was on the property.
As For The Community…
Mike Jacobson, the president of the Pebble Creek Homeowners Association, says he has been fielding questions about the potential sale since the rumors began swirling late last year.Â
âI put something on our web page that basically says Bill Place told me he has multiple bids and is actively planning on selling it,â he says. âRight now, we donât know who the company is.â
Jacobson says not a single resident he has talked to is happy about the impending sale. He expected residents to make their voices heard when the rezoning comes before the Hillsborough County Commission.
âThereâs so many great lakes on that property, thereâs no way weâre going to allow those to go away,â Jacobson said. âThe other thing Iâm concerned about is lacking the infrastructure to handle more homes. Nobody is really looking at this as a positive.â
According to Place, the property already has underlying zoning permitting 600 new units, but he adds that, âthere is no way they are going to put that many units on it.â
In September, the PCGC property was listed on the website of land brokers Cushman & Wakefield. The listing boosted the property by heralding its 12 existing lakes, homes in Pebble Creek that are selling âin the mid-$200,000s to upper-$300,000s,â an average household income within a three-mile radius of $106,179 and the 3,189,266 square feet of retail within a three-mile radius of the semi-private golf course.
The detailed listing, which Place denied ever approving, included a marketing flyer, water and sewage map, a zoning site plan, Pebble Creekâs declaration of covenants and restrictions (dated Sept. 2, 1986) and a unit count calculation that said 840 apartment and townhome units were potentially feasible to replace the golf course.
Thatâs about when Jacobson began hearing from residents, and he called Place for an explanation.
âWhat he told me was that someone reached out to him about selling it,â Jacobson says. âBut, if bids come in and offers come in, he said, âIâm going to take it.â I guess the company took that as an initiative to (list).â
Place has acknowledged that business has not been good at the golf course, which was designed by Bill Amick and offers 6,436 yards of play from the blue tees. He said revenues at the club were down in 2018 by a third, and profits were down by 50 percent.
The construction on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. certainly didnât help, but many golf courses in general are in an economic slump.
Pebble Creek Golf Club owner Bill Place says that Mulligans Irish Pub inside the golf courseâs recently renovated clubhouse is the clubâs only money-maker.
Place also said that although Pebble Creek boasts more than 1,000 homes, there are only 20 Pebble Creek homeowners who currently are members of the golf club. Place says the club has tried various specials to lure new members, with cheaper membership dues, to no avail.
Mulligans Irish Pub, the clubhouse restaurant and bar, continues to be successful, however. âSad to say, but Mulligans is really the only area where we make money,â Place says.
For now, he is letting the transaction unfold as the golf course remains open for business as usual.
âWeâre prepared for it to go either way,â Place says of the possible sale. âIf it happens, it happens. If it doesnât, weâll continue to operate as long as itâs feasible. Unfortunately, thatâs why weâre here in the first place (because it may not be feasible).â
