Southern Living 'Showcase Home' Complete In Brookside

By Matt Wiley

The Southern Living magazine “Showcase Home” in Brookside (located next to Saddlebrook Resort & Spa on S.R. 54) is complete, and soon will be featured in the glossy, national magazine.

During a Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) Expo on March 21 to commemorate the opening of the home (which was built by Tampa-based Javic Homes), more than 200 people came out to tour the fully furnished and decorated abode, including 30 WCCC member businesses. “Showcase Homes” are custom  built, open to the public and showcase the latest products, design trends and decorating ideas featured in Southern Living, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016. 

“This is one of my favorite homes both architecturally and because of its traditional nature, but also because of the interior design and artwork,” says Javic Homes president Jon Solomon. “This year’s team of designers and artists is certainly one of our most talented.”

Work began last July on the four-bedroom, 4,000-sq.-ft., “traditional-style,” high-end luxury home in Brookside, the second “Showcase Home” that Javic has built. Last year, Javic built a home in the Beach Park community of South Tampa. The Brookside home currently is listed at $895,000 (and that price includes a membership to Saddlebrook Resort). Although no offers had yet been made on the home at our press time, Solomon says he doesn’t expect the home to stay on the market long, as the South Tampa home sold in less than one week of being on the market last year.

“One reason I love this year’s ‘Showcase Home’ is because of the community, itself,” Solomon says. “Brookside always makes me feel like I’m in a Norman Rockwell painting, so the location is dramatically different than our other homes.”

For four weekends (the last was as we went to press with this issue), Javic Homes was offering the public tours of the home that featured refreshments and live music.

Attendees were charged a $10 admission fee, and all proceeds were donated to Operation Finally Home (a non-profit that group that builds homes for severely injured combat veterans of the U.S. armed forces) and Shriners Hospitals For Children. The final numbers weren’t in when we went to press, but Solomon said that he expected to raise and donate between $5,000-$10,000.

“The Southern Living Showcase home is a beautiful addition to Wesley Chapel,” says WCCC executive director Hope Allen. “The Chamber has been involved with the project since almost the beginning, and (Javic Homes) did an amazing job of bringing to life the conceptual drawings we saw last year.” 

For more information, please visit JavicHomes.com.