Nibbles & Bytes

So Much Building In Wesley Chapel!

In the past few weeks alone in Wesley Chapel — New Tampa’s neighbor just north of the Pasco County line — we have seen the opening of Florida Hospital Center Ice, the groundbreaking ceremony for the first Crystal Lagoon to be built in the U.S. and the green light given by Pasco County’s Board of County Commissioners for the 7,800-acre “Connected City”.

A couple of weeks before those big events, the Williams Automotive Group (which also owns Wesley Chapel Toyota, Wesley Chapel Honda and Tampa Honda on N. Florida Ave.) broke ground on its newest dealership — the 60,000-sq.-ft. Lexus of Wesley Chapel, located just south of Wesley Chapel Toyota, adjacent to I-75.

Brothers David and John Williams, honored as the WCCC’s Business Leaders of the Year for 2015, held a private groundbreaking ceremony for the Lexus dealership, which is being built quickly. We hope to have more information about when the dealership is expected to open in time for our next issue.

Very close to the Lexus dealership, Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen was hiring its staff at our press time and could be open around the same time this issue reaches your mailbox. We also got word that a second Wesley Chapel Chick-fil-A was being built near the Walgreens on S.R. 54 at BBD. The land next to the pharmacy has been cleared for some time; we’ll let you know when it goes vertical.

Meanwhile, the pace of new businesses popping up is even faster and more furious along S.R. 56 — especially around the Tampa Premium Outlets — than it is on S.R. 54. The first buildings on the north side of 56 across from the outlet mall are getting very close, as Pollo Tropical is nearly as close to opening as is Popeye’s, Ford’s Garage is likely a few weeks behind those two and Panda Express  is at least 1-2 months behind those three.

Further east on S.R. 56, the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, next to FHCI, is now taking reservations and another hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, has gone vertical on Silver Maple Pkwy. off 56, next to the TD Bank near Texas Roadhouse.