Blue Heron Senior Living To Host Open House Apr. 28!

The apartments at the new Blue Heron Senior Living in Wesley Chapel are cozy and comfortable. Come check out the facility’s Open House on Apr. 28. (Photos by Charmaine George)

Whether you’re a senior citizen considering assisted living yourself or you need memory care for an aging parent, I hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity to check out the Blue Heron Senior Living & Memory Care getting ready to open off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. south of S.R. 54 in Wesley Chapel, which will be the first in our area that also will provide on-site skilled nursing and rehabilitation services in either of our distribution areas.

Blue Heron, which is being developed by TLC Management, is hosting an incredible Open House celebration on Wednesday, April 28, 1 p.m.-3 p.m., so if you or someone you love is considering moving to an assisted living facility, you should definitely visit that event (or call the number at the end of this story to arrange a tour if you can’t make it that day).

The Open House event will include a variety of foods prepared by Blue Heron’s in-house chef, refreshments, live music and tours of this beautiful new addition to the Wesley Chapel community.

Blue Heron’s community relations director Sarah Dymond and executive director Kimberly Lehigh took the Neighborhood News on a recent sneak preview tour of the 159,000-sq.-ft. facility and we definitely came away impressed.

The place, which is visible from I-75, looks huge from the outside (see drone photo), but actually is laid out so that it still feels cozy, comfortable and homey.   

The entrance lobby is warm and inviting, with comfortable seating and a gas-fired fireplace where residents and visitors can sit and enjoy each other’s company. Directly behind the lobby is the equally attractive main dining area, while to your right is an open kitchen area called The Bistro, where residents can enjoy grab-and-go snacks, coffee drinks and other beverages (there’s even wine on tap) and watch TV as they enjoy their snacks and beverages.

Behind the main dining room is a beautiful outdoor patio, complete with a gas grill, a putting green and plenty of umbrella-covered seating, all overlooking a sizable pond. The outdoor area also will feature live music events for residents.

The first floor also features a great workout facility/wellness center, as well as an art studio/gallery, spa/salon and a life enrichment center.

The separate and secure Memory Care area, which has its own lobby, its own dining room and 22 studio apartments featuring a front-porch-cottage theme, also is on the first floor.

The upper floors are home to Blue Heron’s 73 one- and two-bedroom assisted living apartments, all of which are beautifully designed, with their own kitchens, washer and dryers and easy-access showers. 

And, perhaps best of all, Blue Heron is a true rental community, with no buy-in required. “Our residents are free from long-term financial commitments,” Sarah says, “and have the flexibility to manage their own assets and investments.”

Skilled Nursing & Rehab, Too 

As mentioned earlier, Blue Heron is the only assisted living facility in either of our distribution areas that also offers both short-term rehabilitation services and skilled nursing care on-site.

For residents who require 24-hour nursing care, Blue Heron has private suites in its health & rehabilitation center, where each resident will enjoy consistent care delivered by a dedicated team of professional, licensed specialists.

Offering short-term rehab in Florida’s newest state-of-the-art therapy center, Blue Heron’s health and rehabilitation blends the comforts of a luxury hotel with advanced therapies and facilities in a unique “Return to Home” program that includes private suites, advanced therapy equipment, physical, occupational and speech therapies, virtual reality workouts and neighborhood amenities.

“There’s really nothing like us in this community,” Lehigh says. “Our leadership team is super-excited. I believe we’ve hired the best of the best.”

For more information about the Apr. 28 Open House at Blue Heron Senior Living (5085 Eagleston Blvd.) or to arrange a private tour, call (813) 454-0513 or visit SeniorLivingatBlueHeron.com.    

AllergyTampa.com Provides Old-Fashioned Care & Cutting-Edge Research

The doctors of AllergyTampa.com include (left to right) Dr. Amber Pepper, Dr. Richard Lockey, Dr. Mark Glaum and Dr. Seong Cho. In addition to seeing patients, all four also participate in clinical research and teach at the University of South Florida.

When Richard Lockey, M.D., founded his allergy and immunology practice in 1984, he brought in and trained Roger Fox, M.D., and Dennis Ledford, M.D.

While Dr. Fox and Dr. Ledford have both recently retired, Dr. Lockey has no plans to slow down. He has always struck a balance between old-fashioned good practices and cutting-edge technology.

“I have no plans to retire,” Dr. Lockey says. “I like medicine, and I like what I do.”

And, while a new generation of doctors comes up behind him, his practice continues to move forward and grow, with Drs. Glaum, Cho and Pepper, all of whom have been part of the practice for several years.

The doctors are a team of Board-certified allergists and immunologists found online at AllergyTampa.com. They treat patients in private practice and also conduct research at the University of South Florida (USF) Division of Allergy & Immunology Clinical Research Unit (CRU). The private practice office and CRU make up the top floor of a medical building near the corner of Fletcher Ave. and Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd, just south of New Tampa.

“We all want to be in academics to push the window forward,” says Dr. Lockey, who says he has written 800 papers and 50 books. “We want to be innovative and learn, and participate in studies.”

He says that there’s nothing wrong with a doctor who chooses only to focus on seeing patients, but that physicians join his team because they want more than that.

“We also want to do academic research and teaching,” he says. “All of the doctors here are fantastically excellent at that.”

Drs. Lockey, Glaum, Cho and Pepper manage a variety of disorders related to allergies, asthma and immunology, including food allergies, rhinitis (inflammation and swelling of the mucous membrane of the nose, often referred to as hay fever), cough, laryngitis, headaches and immune disorders. These specialists also treat allergic reactions and immune responses resulting in rashes and dermatitis.

As members of the USF Division of Allergy & Immunology, they meet weekly via conference call with about 30 members of the division, all of whom are experts in their field.

“We all have our areas of specialty and interest,” Dr. Lockey explains. “That’s what makes us so powerful.”

For example, he says, Amber Pepper, M.D., is an expert on food allergies. All the physicians within the division know to call on her when they have questions about their patients struggling with food allergies. 

“It’s shared knowledge,” Dr. Lockey says, “Know what you know, know what you don’t know, and know who to know. That’s the secret to being a good doctor.”

Decades Of Quality Care

Dr. Lockey says that the practice of medicine has changed over the past several decades, and that’s not always a good thing. While the doctors in his practice are committed to research that keeps them on the cutting edge of advancement in their field, they also adhere to some old-fashioned techniques that are forgotten at some other practices.

“I always take a new patient’s history and do a physical,” explains Dr. Lockey. He gets frustrated to hear that patients are shuffled from doctor to doctor, being given a test and then referred to the next doctor.

Dr. Richard Lockey, shown here with patient Sadie Hurley & her mother Belinda, has been one of the top allergy specialists in the Tampa Bay area for more than two decades, by caring for the whole person, not just the allergy symptoms of his patients, at his office in Tampa. (Photos: Charmaine George)

He says that there are some conditions that can only be diagnosed through spending time talking with a patient.

He says it’s a problem within his specialty that physicians aren’t paid for their time, but for procedures they perform. As a result, they often order a test and move on, when what a patient really needs is someone to listen to them.

When Dr. Lockey trains physicians, he says he always tells them to treat patients like they are their own next of kin. 

“If it was your mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter,” he says, “what would you do?”

Covid Repercussions

He also says that there have been repercussions of Covid-19 that many people don’t realize. 

“Covid has caused so much anxiety and upheaval,” he says. “There’s been a lot of weight gain, and patients delaying seeing their doctors.”

In fact, some of Dr. Lockey’s patients were so fearful, they wouldn’t come in to see him. One had pneumonia and died from that, rather than from Covid.

Dr. Lockey says he protects himself by wearing a mask, but never considered not working, even though many people told him he was at-risk and shouldn’t see patients. 

“I was more scared in the 1980s when we were dealing with HIV patients,” he says. “As immunologists, we set up a clinic. We were afraid because we didn’t know how (HIV) was transmitted and it was universally deadly. If you survived during the first 10 years, it was an enigma. We thought it was viral, and knew it was sexually transmitted, but we didn’t know if it was transmitted other ways, too.”

Dr. Lockey

He says he treated patients and worked to advance medicine through research despite the risks, and will continue to do so.

“As long as I am physically and mentally capable, I will practice medicine,” he says. “We’re doctors. That’s what we do.”

About The Doctors…

Richard Lockey, M.D., founded the practice in 1984 as Academic Associates in Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. He earned his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from the Temple University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Lockey served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War, then subsequently joined the faculty of the USF (now the Morsani) College of Medicine as a Professor of Medicine. He currently is the director of USF’s Division of Allergy & Immunology. He also volunteers at the James A. Haley Veterans (VA) Hospital, where he was previously Chief of Allergy & Immunology. Dr. Lockey also has served as president of the World Allergy Organization and is a past president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI), of which all of the practice’s specialists are members.

Mark Glaum, M.D., Ph.D., earned his M.D. at Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. He completed a fellowship in allergy and clinical immunology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, also in Philadelphia. His areas of interest include how the body responds to substances that cause allergic reactions and advancing diagnostic techniques, such as rhinoscopies (examining nasal passages with specialized instruments).

Seong Cho, M.D., received his M.D. degree as an otolaryngologist — an ear, nose and throat doctor — from Kyung Hee University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea. His allergy and immunology training was completed at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL.

Amber Pepper, M.D., joined the practice in 2018. Dr. Pepper earned her M.D. from USF in 2013, then completed her residency in internal medicine in 2016 also at USF, where she was in a once-weekly rotation at the practice. She then completed a fellowship at the practice through USF’s Division of Allergy & Immunology. 

To learn more about Drs. Lockey, Glaum, Cho and Pepper, visit AllergyTampa.com or call (813) 971-9743. The office is located at 13801 BBD Blvd., Ste. 502, Tampa 33613.

Wesley Chapel Rotary Stays Busy With ‘Grease,’ Eggs & Golf!

Despite the still-looming spectre of Covid-19, the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel (which meets Wednesdays at noon at Omari’s Grill at Lexington Oaks Golf Club) is still hosting special events for the community in our area.

On Mar. 13, the club put on an awesome “Pasco 911 Grease is the Word” singalong event that featured Pasco Firefighters and Sheriff’s Deputies singing songs from the Broadway hit (and hit movie of the same name) “Grease” for a $5,000 Grand Prize, donated by T-Mobile, at Land O’Lakes Heritage Park. The event, which also featured an Elvis impersonator, a Classic Car Show and at least 200 socially-distanced spectators, was a tremendous success, with Pasco Dep. Christina Demas named the winner of the $5,000 Grand Prize. The firefighters and deputies in attendance announced that the money would be donated to the families of fallen law enforcement officers Michael Magli (Pinellas Sheriff’s Office) and Jesse Madsen (Tampa Police Dept.). 

Two weeks later, on Mar. 27, the Wesley Chapel Rotary held a unique Drive-Through Egg Hunt event at the Wesley Chapel District Park, with more than 250 vehicles driving past decorated vendor vehicle booths, where they were given brightly colored eggs with candy and other kids’ treats. There were even gift baskets with prizes like gift cards and scratch-off Florida Lottery tickets for adults won by many of the attendees. Club president Jodie Sullivan was excited about the turnout and the event itself.

Rather than rest on those laurels, the Wesley Chapel Rotary also will host a Charity Golf Open (to benefit the Pasco Sheriff’s Office Charities & WC Rotary community projects) on Friday, April 30, at Lexington Oaks Golf Club (26133 Lexington Oaks Blvd.). The event will feature lots of great prizes, including a car courtesy of Parks Ford, a Sandals vacation, trophies and more. The cost to enter the 4-person scramble is $100 per player.

For more information, visit WCRotary.com.— GN

Plans Ongoing For The Median South Of BBD/54 Intersection

Drivers pulling out of Hollybrook Plaza need to be cautious.

Residents were assured during a sparsely attended virtual public hearing hosted by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) in February that the plans to redesign and modify part of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. south of its intersection with S.R. 54 are ongoing.

Construction on the median project is expected to begin in early 2022.

The project centers around the northbound and southbound median just south of the actual intersection.

The median currently has an opening allowing motorists to cross from exits between the Sonny’s BBQ and Sun Trust Bank adjacent to the Publix-anchored Hollybrook Plaza to southbound BBD or straight across to the west, to the Village Market shopping center, and from the Village Market to northbound BBD or across eastbound to the Hollybrook Plaza.

The plan is basically to extend the median and eliminate any cutting across BBD from either side.

The medians along this stretch will be combined into one.

It is not an uncommon sight to see an accident at the northbound side in front of the Sonny’s BBQ or Taco Bell.

According to FDOT, the median project was initiated by an intersection study that showed 233 “crashes” had been reported in that area from 2011-15.

A Neighborhood News Reader Survey in 2017 voted the BBD/54 intersection as the second-worst in Wesley Chapel, behind the I-75 and S.R. 56 intersection (which will have a new Diverging Diamond Interchange by the end of 2021).

The plan to make the location safer centers around closing what is now a split median and constructing one long median from Eagleston Blvd. to the south all the way north to S.R. 54.

Under the current set up, the northbound far left turn lane, when filled during busy traffic hours, extends beyond the median opening and blocks those trying to cross BBD. 

Now, with a single, longer median, that left turn lane will be extended to accommodate more vehicles, which will reduce congestion.

There also will be a new traffic signal installed at Eagleston, and new roadway lighting added to the northbound lanes, as well as some resurfacing.

At the southbound end of the new median where the light will be installed, a dedicated U-turn lane will be built for motorists wanting to get to Hollybrook Plaza (this also can be achieved by merely driving east through the BBD/54 intersection and entering via two entrance points off S.R. 54).

FDOT says it plans to let the project out to bid in October, with construction beginning a few months later.

Ascend At Grove West Coming

Rendering of Grove West

DHI Communities has closed on 34 acres of land it plans on developing as a multi-family residential community just west of I-75 and S.R. 54.

The multifamily division of national homebuilder D.R. Horton says the DHI Communities development is located between Old Pasco Rd, and Oakley Blvd., north of Wesley Chapel Blvd. and adjacent to The Grove.

DHI paid $9.5 million for the parcel, which is zoned for 330 apartments and 82 for-sale townhomes. The $80-million development will be called Ascend at Grove West, and is DHI Communities’ first multifamily project in the Tampa Bay area. It will be within walking distance from The Grove entertainment complex, which will soon include dozens of new restaurants and businesses at the under-construction KRATE container park. 

“Developers are taking every opportunity to develop along the State Road 54 corridor,” says Mark Eilers, executive managing director of land services at Colliers International, which represented DHI Communities in the sale. “This is a great location for DHI Communities to enter the Tampa Bay market due to its superior access to State Road 54 and Interstate 75, proximity to major employment centers and walkability to nearby retail and restaurants.”

Construction is expected to begin this month, with completion by early 2022. ­— JCC