CITY Furniture has been making big moves in the Tampa Bay area, building a roughly 1.3-million-sq.-ft. distribution center off I-4 near Plant City and putting new showrooms in Tampa and Wesley Chapel.
Although S.R. 56 between the Tampa Premium Outlets and the Cypress Creek Center has often been referred to as Restaurant Row due to its large array of dining options, it also has become something of a Decorator Destination, with another major furniture store on the way.
CITY Furniture re-submitted plans to Pasco County planners on March 8 for a 120,000-sq.-ft. showroom on a parcel of land north of Bahama Breeze restaurant.
If approved, which is likely, CITY Furniture will be built on a 400,000-sq.-ft. parcel just east of Badcock Home Furniture & More, and north of La-Z-Boy.
Planning to be located between Marsh Bend Way and Garden Village Way, the two-level showroom will include 400 parking spots, including 40 for electric cars.
If you include the recently opened El Dorado Furniture to the west of the Cypress Creek Town Center, and the Ashley (which is owned by CITY) and Haverty’s Furniture stores barely a mile to the east just past the I-75 interchange, as well as home furnishing stores like At Home, Home Goods and Floor & Decor, that’s a lot of options for current homeowners and the thousands of new homes and apartments already in the county’s plans.
CITY Furniture originally began as a Waterbed City back in the 1970s, according to its website, but has evolved into 23 furniture and home accents showrooms. It’s exclusive brand is Kevin Charles, but its tagline “Everyone Can Live Like This” promises style and affordable prices.
FIRST IN!: The North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce (NTBC), which serves businesses in Wesley Chapel, Trinity, Odessa and northern Hillsborough County, is moving from its Lutz location back to Wesley Chapel.
The NTBC will be the first company taking advantage of the soon-to-open Signature Workplace, located in the old Forever 21 space at the Shops at Wiregrass.
Signature Workplace is a two-floor co-working business that offers workplaces for individuals and small businesses that want to save on overhead or need more flexibility. It offers team suites, fully furnished private offices and luxury conference rooms.
It also has room to host events, and offers perks like WiFi, coffee and snacks.
“We think it’s a great idea in a great location,” said NTBC CEO Hope Kennedy. “We were the first ones to sign up so we’re happy to support a new business.”
The NTBC will be moving out of its current office on Highland Oaks Blvd. on March 24, and into Signature Workplace, which is expected to open in July.
OTHER NOTES: Rodizio Grill, the Brazilian Steakhouse we told you last July was coming to Wesley Chapel, has officially filed plans with the county for its 9,560-sq.-ft. restaurant, which will be located on Sun Vista Dr. south of the Costco and next to At Home.
According to Businesswire.com, Middleburg Communities closed on two land parcels (49 acres total) in Avalon Park Wesley Chapel, off S.R. 54. Middleburg plans to develop two residential communities – Mosby Avalon Park, a 338-unit traditional apartment community, and Hamlet Avalon Park, a build-to-rent community with 260 single-family homes, duplexes and townhomes. Construction will begin immediately on Mosby, with Hamlet to start during a future phase.
A few finishing touches are being applied to Grove Mini Golf (above), which features working volcanoes, waterfalls and plenty of water throughout, and promises a truly family-friendly experience. (Photos by Charmaine George)
The long-awaited and often-teased miniature golf course at The Grove is, dare we say, just about ready to open.
Ryan Mortti, the owner of the putt-putt course, says that after a number of supply chain issues, permitting obstacles and other delays — not to mention a few premature announcements of an impending opening on Facebook — the course is now expected to open on Saturday, April 15.
Owner Ryan Mortti is excited to finally be opening Grove Mini Golf near the B&B Theatres Wesley Chapel at The Grove.
“We definitely stressed ourselves to get here,” Mortti says, “but, you know, we’re making it to the finish line. Obviously, we always wish it could have been a little faster. Nobody wishes it would have been faster more than we do.”
The 18-hole mini golf course is located near the B&B Theatres Wesley Chapel, which at one point was called The Grove Theater, and in tandem with the golf course was going to be the centerpiece of The Grove reclamation project.
Back when Mortti first came up with the concept, the mini golf course project had no competition. It was going to fill a hole in Wesley Chapel.
But then, the Covid pandemic created a host of issues, and two years later, PopStroke, the new Tiger Woods-owned miniature golf course, announced it was coming to town.
PopStroke, which is corporate-owned, opened last month to rave reviews and large crowds. But, Grove Mini Golf is a family owned, more family-friendly venture.
“We’ve definitely changed a lot of things once we knew we were competing with Tiger Woods,” Mortti says. “That’s not your typical competitor.”
But, while PopStroke promises two 18-hole courses that are intended to simulate putting on a real golf course, Grove Mini Golf is a much more traditional putt-putt course, and has gone through a number of design changes since Mortti first heard the Woods-designed PopStroke was coming.
Not only do the waterfalls at Grove Mini Golf look cool, Mortti says they will keep the temperature on the putt-putt course nice and cool.
On the hole above, you can putt your ball into the rushing river, which will carry your ball towards the hole.
Some of those changes including adding larger visual features, including volcanoes and large waterfalls and plenty of water features throughout the course. Mortti says the planned waterfall became more prominent in the design, and more water in general was added. The course, which Mortti says is designed to have a “tropical feel,” even has a few rivers running around and through some of the holes. On one hole, you can putt your ball into one of the running rivers, which actually will carry the ball towards the hole.
And, Mortti says, nine of the 18 holes are required to be Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant, but he went ahead and designed all 18 holes to be ADA compliant.
Like PopStroke, which is free of all the trappings of your traditional miniature golf course, Grove Mini Golf also offers no windmills, although there are plenty of bridges and many more family-friendly design elements. There are few moving parts — large boulders and wooden posts are the only obstacles keeping your ball from the hole. The large fire-shooting volcano and waterfalls are all there only to add to the atmosphere.
There are plenty of tiki-hut-style places to grab some shade, there are numerous mister fans and the course will likely have drink and snack stations set up at certain holes as well. “All of the moving water also helps keep the course a lot cooler,” Mortti says. “We want you to stay comfortable.”
Mortti is especially excited about the lighting, which he says had to have special ordered. Each hole is outlined by LED strips which can be programmed for a number of different effects, like colors chasing each other or fading in and out.
“The typical LED lighting is like 60, 80 or 100 LED lights per three feet,” Mortti says. “The lights we have 720 (lights) per three feet….And you can do a lot of cool features with that lighting at nighttime. The playability is going to be pretty cool.”
While PopStroke was designed by TGR, Woods’ golf course design firm, Mortti says that Grove Mini Golf may appeal more to families and younger players.
“I worked with a mini-golf guy that’s built courses for 30 years,” Mortti said. “I had him send me a list of like 100 courses he built. And I just picked some of the best holes from each of those courses and then made ours kind of off of the history of all his courses. And obviously, we changed and tweaked it all a little bit.”
When it comes to food, Grove Mini Golf is definitely simpler and more old school. PopStroke offers an actual restaurant and sports bar with full liquor, while Mortti chose more scaled-down gastronomic options like burgers, chicken sandwiches, personal pizzas and nachos, plus ice cream and snow cones, to name a few, that can be eaten on benches outside or taken on the course.
“We’re perfect for kids’ birthday parties,” Mortti says.
Grove Mini Golf also will offer beer and wine for adults.
Mortti and his crew are hustling to put the final touches on Grove Mini Golf. The greens are already playable, but the lights are being carefully placed along the holes and some electrical fine-tuning remains.
“I’m excited,” he says. “We’re definitely more geared towards that family experience, and I think everybody will have fun coming here.”
Grove Mini Golf is located at 6201 Wesley Grove Blvd. For more information, call (813) 815-7888 or visit GroveMiniGolf.com.
Straight from the “How to Grow Something Special Out of Nearly Nothing” handbook, our congratulations go out to CEO Blair Valentine of The Market Culture, who organized and put on her first “Market Elaine” First Friday event at The Village at The Grove in October 2021 with little more than 20 crafters and vendors and an idea.
Less than a year and a half later, The Market Elaine, named for Blair’s paternal grandmother Dolaura Elaine, features more than 150 vendors, plus entertainment for kids and adults. The event held the First Friday of each month now attracts thousands of visitors to well beyond The Village area of The Grove. In fact, the vendors now reach south from The Village to The KRATE container park.
“This is so much fun,” a visitor walking her golden doodle named Janice told me. “I’ve found delicious baked goods for me, dog treats and toys for her and some great gifts for my family.”
And, even the existing brick-and-mortar businesses at The Grove say they now get a nice bounce from the Market Elaine.
Steve Falabella, who owns both the Falabella Family Bistro and 900º New York Pizza in The VIllage, says “We’re already packed every weekend at the Bistro,” Falabella says. “But, the Market Elaine has definitely attracted a lot of new faces and kept the pizza place hopping, too.”
The next Market Elaine will be held Friday, April 7, 5 p.m.-9 p.m.. For more info, visit TheMarketCulture.com.
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A new Harley Davidson dealership will be one of the new business highlights of the growth along the soon-to-be-widened road. (Photos by Charmaine George)
Pasco County finally has the land it needs to widen Wesley Chapel Blvd. from a two-lane to a six-lane road. Now all the county needs is a final plan.
The county completed the needed right-of-way acquisition for the long-planned project in January, and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is working on the final reviews of the design plans, according to county spokeswoman Tambrey Laine.
“As soon as those reviews are complete (likely by the end of March), we’ll be able to move forward with the bidding process,” Laine told the Neighborhood News.
Construction could begin as soon as this fall, and will take approximately three years to complete.
When the widening project has been completed, Wesley Chapel Blvd. (also known as C.R. 54) will be a six-lane roadway from north of S.R. 56 (near the Cypress Creek Town Center) to I-75, near The Grove.
The widening of Wesley Chapel Blvd. (the roadway portion in red, north of S.R. 56) should begin soon. Many of the major projects along the roadway are either under construction or already open. Please note that the locations of these projects are approximate & not to scale
Of course, the name Wesley Chapel Blvd. — which has been known as much more of a country road connecting Land O’Lakes to the fledgling Wesley Chapel and ultimately, to Zephyrhills prior to the opening of S.R. 56 — is something of a misnomer, as most of the developments on both sides of the road that actually travels north and south, even though it is labeled as an east-west road, are actually located within either Lutz or Land O’Lakes zip codes.
Also located off of Wesley Chapel Blvd. is the North Tampa Aero Park, the small (one-runway) private airport that used to host a popular annual air show. The more popular the air show became, the worse the traffic snarled throughout the Lutz/Wesley Chapel area. The last year the air show was held, people were stranded on Wesley Chapel Blvd. for several hours.
At a Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) meeting on May 23, 2017, meeting, the commissioners approved a County Incentive Grant Program Agreement with FDOT for the right-of-way acquisition for the project. The estimated right of way costs were $11,718,400, with FDOT contributing half, or $5,859,200.
The construction phase of the Wesley Chapel Blvd. project is estimated to cost $36,392,250, with FDOT agreeing to fund $5,733,308 of that. Including the design costs and right-of-way acquisitions, the total estimated cost of the project is $50.8 million.
The widening will include a six-lane “urban typical section,” with a sidewalk, bicycle lanes, a multi-use path, lighting, and new signals at the intersections at Stagecoach Village Blvd. (the entrance to the Stagecoach Village subdivision, which become an active traffic signal a few months ago), at Compark Dr. and Grand Oaks Blvd. (the latter of which has been in existence for several years).
The project will be constructed in two parts. One part will widen Wesley Chapel Blvd. from north of S.R. 56 to Magnolia Blvd., which is just south of Amici’s Pizza (see map above).
The second phase will widen from just north of Magnolia Blvd. to north of Old Pasco Rd. That portion will include the addition of two new lanes in a 48” median to tie into the existing six lanes to the east and proposed six lanes to the south.
A Look Back…
The idea of widening Wesley Chapel Blvd. was considered as far back as 2003, when there was an initial study to widen it to four lanes. But, later studies showed that would not be enough to accommodate the growth in the area on both side of the road.
There are three major multi-family projects already under construction on WC Blvd., including the Maeva apartments, located just north of PopStroke.
Business on both ends of Wesley Chapel Blvd. has exploded in recent years, with the development of the Cypress Creek Town Center to the south and The Grove to the north. But, in between, new businesses and apartment and townhome communities continue to sprout.
There continues to be additional expansion at the Cypress Creek Town Center development north of S.R. 56. PopStroke opened last month, Academy Sports + Outdoors is being built next to PopStroke and a 260-unit luxury apartment complex, Maeva, is under construction just north of those two large businesses, as well as Total Wine & More. Maeva is expected to open around September.
On the west side of Wesley Chapel Blvd. north of S.R. 56, a 42,000-sq.-ft. Harley-Davidson dealership is nearing completion,and there also are plans for a 5,000-sq.-ft. restaurant on the same site.
North of Harley-Davidson, the Cypress Bend Professional Park also is under construction. While none of the tenants have been named, the complex is being built on nine acres and will include 23 buildings ranging in size from 2,612 sq. ft. to 5,868 sq. ft. The entire Cypress Bend Prof. Park project will be 74,172 sq. ft.
Other projects — including a storage unit, Valvoline oil change facility, small businesses in the plazas that dot the boulevard on the drive from I-75 to S.R. 56 – continue to pop up.
And, if Wesley Chapel has proven anything over the last few years, development along Wesley Chapel Blvd. isn’t likely to slow down.
Dr. Kelly Pearce Baez of Tampa Bay Physical Therapy in the nearby Tampa Telecom Park off E. Fletcher Ave. can treat most any type of pain. (Photos: Charmaine George).
Rebecca Johnson is like many of the patients at Tampa Bay Physical Therapy.
She had a shoulder problem, tried other places with minimal success, wondered if she would ever find a solution, and then found Dr. Kelly Pearce Baez, PT, DPT.
“When I met with her the first time, it clicked,” Johnson says. “She went over everything with me — it was a very thorough first consultation, she used a skeleton, which she named ‘Fred,’ to point out areas where my injury was. Then, we went over a treatment plan.”
Johnson was suffering from frozen shoulder, or adhesive capsulitis, a condition where the shoulder bone is difficult to move, producing pain and swelling in the shoulder joint and inhibiting range of motion.
However, Dr. Kelly’s physical treatment, Johnson says, soon returned her to a pain-free life and a shoulder that she says is roughly 95% healed.
Dr. Kelly and her Tampa Bay Physical Therapy office in the Tampa Telecom Park off E. Fletcher Ave. have experienced the same kind of results for dozens of other patients since opening in October 2021 — for everything from shoulder, back and joint pain to injury and surgery rehabilitation to neurological-related issues.
In fact, Dr. Kelly says she can treat just about any type of ache or pain.
“I’m not your typical physical therapist who only focuses on one thing,” she says. “That’s the benefit of my practice. If you come to me, you have at least a 90% chance of me being able to resolve (your pain). Most often that is the case. It is extremely rare I need to tell a patient that they should go to see this other person, or a surgeon.”
At Tampa Bay Physical Therapy, new patients receive a consultation and a risk-free screening, where their mobility and strength are tested as Dr. Kelly searches for the root cause of any pain. She will then present a treatment plan to the patient, with the plan’s length depending upon the severity of the injury, as well as a home routine to help the process.
Dr. Kelly offers personalized, one-on-one service to help bring relief to all of her patients.
“We deal with everything from head to toe,” Dr. Kelly says.
She offers services for weekend warriors and athletes and those who have some kind of impaired joint movement and may be facing or are recovering from surgery. Dr. Kelly also takes on patients who are recovering from strokes, as well as those battling Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and other neuro-type disorders.
Dr. Kelly says that those suffering from neurological problems, including balance issues, concussion symptoms and vertigo, are at a high risk for dangerous falls.
The Tampa Bay Physical Therapy office has the latest exercise machines, as well as the Vectra Neo (electrotherapy) and Richmar HydraTherm (heat therapy) units to provide strength and relief. There also is a special room to treat those with neurological disorders involving issues like a stroke, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis and PD.
Dr. Kelly also offers the LSVR BIG program, an intensive 1-on-1 treatment created for PD and other neurological conditions.
PT Massage, Too
Tampa Bay Physical Therapy also currently offers a physical therapy massage package, where you can get single sessions or purchase a membership that allows you two massages a month and a stretching program designed specifically for you.
“It’s really, really good,” she says. “We’ve had a lot of people sign up for it who are very satisfied.”
If a stretching program isn’t for you, Dr. Kelly can do joint mobilization and alignments as well — which, she says, are options most other physical therapists can’t or don’t offer.
Tampa Bay Physical Therapy, which accepts most major health insurance plans including Medicare (but not Medicaid), also has a wellness program, or personal training. Dr. Kelly describes it as a weight loss and maintenance program — and includes a nutritionist offering dietary advice — designed for patients who want to stay with her after their physical therapy concludes.
“It continues to develop their skills, and some of them just feel like I’m the one that helps them remain compliant,” Dr. Kelly says.
Johnson doesn’t take part in that program, but she understands why others do. When she finally went to see an orthopaedic surgeon to discuss other options, he offered to direct her to another physical therapist. But, Johnson declined, saying she wanted to stay with Dr. Kelly.
“She just listens,” Johnson says. “You can do exercises every day, but if your doctor isn’t listening to you about what is still hurting, then they aren’t going to be able to help you.”
Even though she no longer visits the visit the office for her physical therapy, Johnson is diligent about following the at-home plan designed by Dr. Kelly, and says she continues to improve. And, when she has a question, she says Dr. Kelly is always there to pick up the phone and help with an answer.
Dr. Kelly originally went to school to be a teacher, but changed course and got her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in health science (with a concentration in biology) from USF and her Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) degree from Nova Southeastern University: Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences in Tampa.
After working for a hospital, she decided to open her own practice.
Dr. Kelly’s husband Joel Baez runs the business and marketing side of the practice.
It is Dr. Kelly’s attention to detail that continues to draw in new patients. While most of the bigger physical therapy and orthopaedic businesses can make it feel like you are sharing your appointment with multiple patients, Dr. Kelly prides herself on 1-on-1 care, and she says she is a strong patient advocate, often going above and beyond to help.
Sometimes, that includes finding medical equipment or a wheelchair for a patient. “We don’t just stop when you leave the office,” she says.
That personal care is what attracted Johnson to Tampa Bay Physical Therapy in the first place. She had been to other physical therapists, but felt she was just being rotated between therapists.
“Here you get 1-on-1 attention,” Dr. Kelly says. “You start with me and you stay with me. You don’t get passed off.”
Dr. Kelly says fixing injuries is an important part of her craft, but she also is a firm believer in maintaining wellness. She is hosting the first Tampa Bay Physical Therapy 5K run on June 7, aka Global Running Day, at a site to be determined. She will provide free 15-minute massages and wellness testing for those who attend the event, which she says will be a family fun day with food trucks and other vendors on hand. More information will be posted soon at TampaBayPT.health.
“It’s just our way of giving back to and doing something for the community,” she says. “That’s something we like to do.”
Tampa Bay Physical Therapy is located at 13328 Telecom Dr., and is open Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-6 p.m., and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sat. For more info, visit TampaBayPT.health, call (813) 771-0777.
