Nibbles & Bytes

So Much Building Inย Wesley Chapel!

In the past few weeks alone in Wesley Chapel โ€” New Tampaโ€™s neighbor just north of the Pasco County line โ€” 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 Countyโ€™s Board of County Commissioners for the 7,800-acre โ€œConnected 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 โ€” 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 WCCCโ€™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, Popeyeโ€™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; weโ€™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 โ€” especially around the Tampa Premium Outlets โ€” than it is on S.R. 54. The first buildings on the north side of 56 across from the outlet mall are getting veryย close, as Pollo Tropicalย is nearly as close to opening as is Popeyeโ€™s, Fordโ€™s Garage is likely a few weeks behind those two and Panda Express ย 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.

K-Bar Ranch Driving Growth In New Tampa

HomebuilderMap_NC webBy Gary Nager

When youโ€™ve been doing the same job for more than 21 years, youโ€™re likely to see a lot of things change.ย Well, in my capacity as the publisher and editor of the Neighborhood News for New Tampa and Wesley Chapel since 1994, Iโ€™ve seen housing booms and housing busts come and go โ€” with the biggest boom hitting New Tampa in 2004-06, followed by the bursting of the local housing bubble in 2007-08 โ€” and the slow, but inevitable resurgence of resales and new homes being built in our area ever since.Continue reading

Bruce B. Downs Blvd. โ€˜Segment Aโ€™ Project Out For Bids Soon

Construction continues along the stretch of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. beneath I-75.
Construction continues along the stretch of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. beneath I-75.

As construction continues along Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. underneath I-75, Hillsborough County is preparing to begin the bidding process for the next segment of BBD widening between Palm Springs Blvd. in Tampa Palms, south to Bearss Ave., also known as โ€œSegment A.โ€Continue reading