Category: News

Will A New Craft Brewery Bring New Life To The Grove?

(left to right) Sam Guyer, Ryan Clarke, Cody Guyer and Shashank Mishra hope to open Wesley Chapel’s first craft brewery, Double Branch Artisanal Ales, in December.

Friends and Wesley Chapel residents Ryan Clarke and Shashank Mishra, M.D., had both dabbled in making their own home brews, so it was only natural that when the two would hang out, craft beer was often not only the drink of choice, but also the topic of conversation.

One night, the conversation turned to the obvious – why not start our own brewery?

“We talked about it several times,” said Clarke, “We had the same thoughts and philosophy. Eventually the talks began getting more progressive.”

Those talks progressed to the point where, on June 6, 2018, the two founded Double Branch Artisanal Ales (DBAA), and in December Clarke and Mishra’s first craft brewery is expected to open at The Grove at Wesley Chapel.

The craft brewery will be Wesley Chapel’s first, and will operate in the “main street” area of The Grove. The 8,400-sq-ft. space will boast a 2,100-sq.-ft. production brewery, a 1,900-sq-ft. tap room, a 550-sq.-ft. outdoor patio and 1,850 sq. ft. of private event space.

It will offer a full spectrum of beers, from lagers to stouts to sours, but it’s first flagship beer will be called Chappie’s Lager.

“This will not only be a craft brewery, but something that offers the local culture of Tampa without having to drive 30 minutes,” says Clarke. “We have a large amount of nationally-syndicated restaurant concepts out here in Wesley Chapel, but not too many locally owned places. Wesley Chapel needs these type of things.”

Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., the company behind Florida Avenue Brewing Co. and Brew Bus Brewing, purchased the old Sports + Field site on S.R. 56 in May, with plans to transform the former sports training facility into a brewery and restaurant before opening in 2020.

Clarke and Mishra also think they could be part of something big, as The Grove at Wesley Chapel — hardly a bustling hotspot in recent years with all the expansion on S.R. 56 — was sold for $62.7 million to developers that they expect will reinvigorate the area by building additional homes and retail/restaurant.

Clarke and Mishra, who met at AdventHealth Wesley Chapel where Clarke is a nurse practitioner and Mishra is a Doctor of Internal Medicine, already had launched their plans. They actually announced DBAA on the brewery’s Facebook page months ago, but had to quickly take it down because The Grove wasn’t ready for the announcement.

Clarke takes pride in DBAA being Wesley Chapel’s first locally owned and operated craft brewery. He looked into the idea back in 2008, but couldn’t find the right situation. After finding the right financial backing, location and availability, he and Mishra were ready.

Because Clarke wanted a place that would become part of the community’s fabric, he chose Double Branch because it “related to the heritage of the area.”

The Wesley Chapel area was often referred to as “Double Branch” for the twin creeks that flowed through the property owned by the Boyettes, one of the area’s founding families. The Double Branch Church (now the First Baptist Church of Wesley Chapel) was the center of the community.

The area also became an area known for its share of moonshine stills and homebrews in the 1920s, which Clarke says the Double Branch brewery pays homage to.

DBAA, which is still waiting on a permit or two but hopes to begin construction on Monday, could be a major player in the transformation of The Grove, which is rumored to be readying for a number of significant changes.

DBAA will offer beer and wine on tap, a food truck-style kitchen (6-8 items), games and potentially, an outdoor beer garden.

Clarke and Mishra have hired head brewer Cody Guyer and his wife Sam, who will be the tap room manager. The couple just moved here from Iowa last week, and both also will be part owners of the endeavor.

Cody Guyer started his brewing career with a home kit he received from his sister for his 26th birthday, and since has worked as an assistant brewer in Iowa for Millstream Brewing Co. (located in Amana) and Barn Town Brewing in West Des Moines.

Cody says while DBAA will offer a few flagship styles, he is the experimental type and plans of brewing an assortment of revolving “fun-type” beers. “Whatever I feel like brewing at the time,” he says.

Cody will also pursue collaborations with other breweries, where ideas are exchanged via emails and implemented in a team process. While in Iowa, he worked on “collabs” with Mikerphone Brewing in Chicago, Wren House Brewing in Phoenix, Watermark Brewing in Stevensville, MI, and Pulpit Rock Brewing in Decorah, IA.

“It’s a great way to learn what other breweries around the country are doing,” he says.

As for what DBAA will be doing, Cody says just wait.

“It’s going to exciting,” he says. “I can’t wait to get started.”

DBAA The Grove

Firm Picked To Design New Tampa Performing Arts Center!

In one of the more significant steps in the long, sometimes-tortured history of a proposed cultural arts center in New Tampa, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has approved the hiring of a firm to design the facility.

Last month, the BOCC awarded a $598,413 contract to Fleischman Garcia Architects to draw a plan for the long-awaited facility, which is now officially being called the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC), after years of being referred to as a “cultural center.”

“It’s an extremely significant and critical step in the process,’’ said District 2 county commissioner Ken Hagan, who represents New Tampa and has been involved in the project in various forms since it first sprouted in 2001. “It’s an important move.”

The design of the center — which will be located directly across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the main entrance to Hunter’s Green, in the new Village at Hunter’s Lake development — is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with bidding for the construction services tentatively scheduled for May of 2020.

It is hoped that the $6-million construction of the NTPAC will begin sometime by November 1, 2020, and is expected to open by Jan. 1, 2022.

The facility — long-heralded to be the centerpiece of the New Tampa community — will be 20,000 square feet on its first floor, with the capability to have a 10,000-sq.-ft. second floor added later.

The building will include a 350-400-seat theater/multi-purpose room and stage to be used for community theater performances. It will be the home of the New Tampa Players (NTP) acting troupe, which currently stages its performances at the University Area Cultural Development Center (UACDC) on N. 22nd St., just south of Bearss Ave.

The stage area at the NTPAC will be more than 2,000 square feet, and Hagan said it will include an orchestra pit that he helped add after meeting with the NTP and addressing some of their requests.

The center also will host cultural/arts education classes, as well as meetings, banquets and other events.

There will be 1,040 square feet dedicated to NTPAC operations and education programs employees, including an office for the NTP.

The education wing will feature two studios with ballet and dance floors, mirrors and movable walls.

Hagan made note that the NTPAC also will be sustainable, incorporating solar power and electric vehicle stations.

Plans for the NTPAC date back to 2001, when a Connecticut firm was paid $27,000 by the City of Tampa for a study that determined New Tampa could support a small cultural center of its own.

A nonprofit group, called the New Tampa Cultural Arts Center, was offered the six acres of land it requested for the project, but the city requested the group come up with a $10-million endowment to pay for it, which killed the effort back in 2005.

Doug Wall, who was involved with those initial efforts, revived it again in 2007. But Wall, the New Tampa Players president and founding artistic director, could not secure the funding and he passed away in 2017.

Former county commissioner and Tampa Palms resident Victor Crist helped keep the project alive as he worked on finding funding. In 2014, the larger Village at Hunter’s Lake project, of which the NTPAC is a central part, was approved.

In a 2016 meeting at Hunter’s Green, Crist told the NTP he had secured partner-ships with the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, the Patel Conservatory and the Prodigy Cultural Arts Program to bring gravitas to the project and elevate it to a high-level arts center.

Run/Walk To Kick Off 9/11 Memorial Saturday at TPO

Every year when the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel is handing out miniature American Flags on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, current club president Chris Casella is moved to tears.

People who lost a brother, sister, loved one or a friend thank Casella and his fellow Rotarians, and share their heartbreaking stories.

“It never fails,” says Casella, who, due to an injury, was on limited duty as a sworn officer with the New York Police Department (NYPD) when the World Trade Center towers crumbled to the ground.

The latest project hatched by Casella and his fellow Board member Troy Stevenson and the Rotary Club is Pasco County’s first permanent 9/11 Memorial, which will be dedicated at the Tampa Premium Outlets on Saturday, September 7, at 8:46 a.m., the time the north tower was struck in 2001.

Stevenson is a 13-year first responder with the National Disaster Medical System and U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services. Casella and Stevenson have received a lot of help from not only their fellow Board members, but especially from Wesley Chapel resident Stephen Spelman, a retired Fire Department of New York (FDNY) emergency medical technician who was at the foot of the north tower when it collapsed.

The dedication of the new memorial will follow a one-mile Memorial Run/Walk at TPO — which will begin at 7:30 a.m.. The run/walk is open to all ages and is $10 per person to participate. All net proceeds will go to fund local scholarships for graduating high school students in Pasco County who intend to pursue careers as first responders.

The centerpiece of the 9/11 Memorial will be a 2-foot piece of the ladder from FDNY Ladder Truck 18 (photo), which will be framed and hung on a 25-foot stretch of wall at TPO’s food court. The wall will have a vinyl wrap depicting images from that day, as well as the names of everyone who perished.

According to Casella, FDNY Ladder Truck 18 was destroyed by falling debris, but the firefighters on the truck were all spared.

“Everybody on that truck survived by jumping under the ladder,” Casella says.

The ladder segment belongs to Spelman, who received it for being a scheduled guest speaker at a ceremony on 9/11/17 at the Motts Military Museum in Ohio, which he was unable to attend, due to Hurricane Irma.

For the past two years, Spelman and Casella have discussed what to do with the piece of ladder. Ideas ranged from donating it to a library or local firehouse to building a memorial, which wasn’t financially feasible.

While organizing the Memorial Run/Walk with TPO, one of the mall’s executives mentioned that he had been approached by a guy looking for help with a possible memorial. Casella asked if the guy’s name happened to be Steve…and it was.

Once TPO agreed to host the 9/11 Memorial by donating the space, plans took off and eventually came to fruition.

Casella also has been active in organizing events to benefit first responders, such as having Rotary Club members serve breakfast at all of the Fire Rescue Stations in Wesley Chapel and the Pasco Sheriff’s District 2 office in Dade City each year on 9/11.

The 9/11 Memorial and run/walk, however, may be his proudest achievement. “It’s emotional for me, and I know it is for Steve as well,” Casella says, his voice cracking. “Memorializing it is a big deal for, I think, everybody. It’s something we’ll never forget.”

Casella says the response to the Memorial Run and 9/11 Memorial has already been “incredible.”

Spelman has been in contact with two women who lost their husbands on that terrible day who also will share their stories at the dedication. Surviving first responder John Berrang also recently emailed Casella to applaud the Rotary Club’s efforts and said he’d like to participate in the one-mile run, despite currently undergoing treatment for stage 3 cancer contracted at the World Trade Center site. It was an email that Casella says was both inspiring and difficult to read, but a reminder that Sept. 11 remains a terrible day with a lot of meaning to many people.

“Thanks again,” Berrang wrote to Casella, “for remembering the heroes we lost on 9/11.”

For more information or to sponsor the Walk/Run, visit WCRotary.com/911-Memorial-Mile, or email Casella at Cdcasella@me.com or Stevenson at Troynyc65@aol.com.

9/11 NYPD tampa premium outlets

Will A Winter Wonderland Be Just A Snowball’s Throw Away?

It’s no secret that a large portion of our population is here because they were eager to trade the frosty inconvenience of snow for the year-round warmth of the Florida sun.

Be honest, though. You miss it sometimes, don’t you?

Well, for at least part of the year, you may be able to relive some of the winter’s better moments, as a proposed snow park in Pasco County recently got the green light from Pasco’s Board of County Commissioners (BOC).

The park will be located at the corner of St. Joe Rd. and Bellamy Brothers Blvd., roughly 15 miles north of the Shops at Wiregrass, adjoining Treehoppers Aerial Adventure Park and Scream-A-Geddon Horror Park.

The BOC unanimously approved a conditional use permit on Aug. 6, allowing Point Summit, Inc., which runs Treehoppers and Scream-A-Geddon, to build Florida’s first snow park on 58 acres in Dade City it purchased last year.

The park will have a snow tubing hill, a snow play area and other winter-related activities, and is expected to be another feather in the area’s ever-growing tourism cap.

The snow park is permitted to operate 120 days a year, from 2 to 7 days a week, depending on the weather. Clarke Hobby, the lawyer for Point Summit, Inc., said based on recent winters and the temperature needing to be under 80 degrees for the snow concept to work, “something tells me it’s going to be (open for) more like 45 days (a year).”

The proposed park will not operate on the same day as Scream-A-Geddon (or the fall festival the “horror park” operates in unison with), which has a temporary-use permit to run 56 days (this year, it opens Sept. 13 and runs through the first week in November).

Denise Hernandez of Pasco’s planning and development department said a neighborhood meeting was held in May, with 32 residents in attendance, and only one letter of objection was filed.

“We have worked with the neighbors in coming up with a series of conditions that almost everybody is happy with,” Hobby said.

Some of those conditions include not allowing access to the park off Bellamy Brothers Blvd., planting more than 1,000 six-foot red cedar trees to, according to Hobby, “create an evergreen condition that will be a great noise and visual buffer for our neighbors” and creating a 400-foot setback for all structures.

Some residents, however, weren’t quite satisfied, expressing concern that the county was sacrificing more of its rural areas.

During public comment on Aug. 6, Judy Geiger submitted a stack of red manilla folders that she said included 33 letters of objection, among other documents, and yielded her remaining time to Bob Hunter, a former Hillsborough County planning commissioner.

According to Hunter, the conditional use sought by Point Summit was not consistent with Pasco’s land development code, which protects against rural decline.

“A snow mountain and a haunted house are certainly not consistent with the surrounding area,” Smith said.

Two other residents also spoke, but District 2 commissioner Mike Moore noted that some of the complaints were coming from people who lived a good distance away from the proposed park, and seemed satisfied with the efforts of Hobby and the park owners to appease the concerns of the local residents.

“What I’m seeing are not rejections from people living right across the street,” Moore said. “And, I like the 400-foot buffer (plan).”

District 5 commissioner Jack Mariano agreed.

“This will be a nice amenity, as well as helping tourism,” Commissioner Mariano said before voting yes.

snow park tube Winter

The North Tampa Bay Chamber’s 20 Years Celebrated At Breakfast!

I have known North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) president & CEO Hope Allen since the day she took over the leadership of the former Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce in 2013.

I and the Neighborhood News also have been strong supporters of the Chamber since it first formed back in 1998, so I have seen all of the changes the Chamber has gone through during its 20-year history.

Therefore, the Chamber’s monthly Business Breakfast at Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch on August 6 was a great trip down memory lane for me, as Hope was the featured speaker and she definitely hit the highlights of the still-growing Chamber’s incredible 20-year journey.

Fresh off her first major vacation away from the Chamber she leads and loves, Hope’s Power Point presentation at the breakfast told the tale of a fledgling Chamber that first met in one of its then-65 members’ garages in July 1998.

The old Wesley Chapel Chamber unveiled its first logo in January 1999, and held its first awards banquet and hired its first part-time employee later that year. In January of 2000, the Chamber unveiled its first website and held its first Community Festival in March 2001.

And, even though there was a 12-year gap in her presentation between 2001 and 2013 (when Hope took over as executive director), as someone who attended most of the Chamber’s ribbon cuttings and events prior to 2013, I can assure you that things didn’t really start to take off for the old Wesley Chapel Chamber until Hope arrived on the scene.

“The Chamber evolved over time, as it has to, in order to serve the needs of the businesses in the community where it is situated, and we certainly have,” Hope said at the breakfast. “In 2013 (when the Chamber had about 300 members), the Board decided that we were going to switch our focus from being into parties, pageants and parades, to being the connector, convener and catalyst for businesses. We wanted to be the best, the go-to organization, for local businesses.”

In February of 2014, the Chamber unveiled its official Facebook page and in 2015, it acquired the faltering New Tampa Chamber and its primary asset — the Taste of New Tampa, which wasn’t held for several years because of that defunct Chamber’s issues.

“That’s when we really started to grow,” Hope said of the merger with New Tampa. “More businesses started to reach out to us on both sides of the county line.”

Hope also told those in attendance that she was particularly proud of the fact that the Wesley Chapel Chamber earned the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals (FACP) Certified-Plus designation and that she has earned her Florida Chamber Certified Professional (FCCP) certification.

“Of more than 300 Chambers of Commerce throughout Florida, only 18 have earned certification and only seven are Certified-Plus Chambers with a CEO who also is certified,” she says, adding that it takes five years of consecutive senior leadership to become FCCP-certified. “And you have to have three peer reviews and submit a dissertation.” Hope’s dissertation was on the fiduciary responsibilities of a Chamber.

And Still More Changes…

During her presentation at the breakfast meeting, Hope also talked about her Chamber’s 2017 asset acquisition of/joining forces with the former Greater Pasco Chamber, which helped the NTBC increase its membership by more than 200 businesses, although it also brought with it a fresh set of new challenges for Hope and her small staff.

The Greater Pasco Chamber’s membership was mostly on the west side of Pasco County (it also had some western Pinellas members). One of the challenges was trying to host networking and other business events on both sides of the Suncoast Pkwy.

But, perhaps the biggest challenge was to come up with a new name for the Chamber, which now had members in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Many Wesley Chapel Chamber members, including yours truly, were concerned that unless Wesley Chapel was still in the Chamber’s name, some members might defect and the Chamber could lose its identity altogether.

The North Tampa Bay Chamber name was officially adopted in January 2018 and neither Hope nor her staff has taken a backwards step since then.

In fact, the Chamber moved its office from The Grove in Wesley Chapel to just off S.R. 54 in Lutz and has grown to 730 members and four full-time employees.

Although I personally haven’t attended many events on the west side, my understanding is that they also are well-attended, and the ribbon cuttings, breakfasts, Final Friday and coffee events continue to attract new faces in our area.

Hope and the NTBC also have continued their advocacy efforts regarding transportation in our area, including the Diverging Diamond Interchange at I-75 and S.R. 56, the S.R. 56 expansion to U.S. Hwy. 301 in Zephyrhills, the planned Overpass Rd. exit off I-75 and others.

“Our Vision is to be the trusted leader and driving force for the growth and success of our business community,” she said. “And our Mission is to provide valuable services to our members, advocate for a positive business community and sustain and further develop a thriving economy for the North Tampa Bay Region.

All I can say is mission accomplished…so far…and keep it going!

For membership & other information, visit the NTBC at 1868 Highland Oaks Blvd., Lutz, or at NorthTampaBayChamber.com, or call (813) 994-8534.

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