The mystery about what grocery store might be coming to The Grove at Wesley Chapel has brewed for more than a year, since it was first teased on social media, but the answer finally may be close to being unveiled.
According to records filed with Pasco County, potential unnamed developers will meet with county planners Oct. 18 in a pre-application meeting.
The preliminary plan filed with the county reveals a 147,000-sq.-ft. retail building, with nearly 500 parking spots located on the parcel of land just south of The Groveâs main property, right across Pink Flamingo Ln. from Cost Plus World Market.
The bad news â if that is the size of the building, you can likely rule out any of the trendy and hip grocery store ideas bandied about online. The square footage of the proposed building is more than twice what you would find at any Publix, Sprouts, Whole Foods or Trader Joeâs.
If The Grove still plans on adding a grocery store component to its massive redevelopment, then we are conjecturing that all signs seem to point to a Super Target, a combo of a regular Target store that sells the usual clothing and other household items, combined with a full-size grocery store.Â
Neighborhood News graphic with conceptual plans overlayed on a Google map.
According to Target.com, the average Target is roughly 130,000 square feet, with some ranging to over 200,000 square feet.
However, there already is another Super Target in Wesley Chapel, located at the corner of County Line Rd. and Bruce B. Downs Blvd., although proximity to their other stores doesnât stop big names like Publix, Walmart or Starbucks. And, with the S.R. 54 corridor the future home of thousands of new homes and apartments, there would be still be enough of a second Super Target to go around.
According to The Grove, nothing has been signed with any grocer, so weâll have to wait and see.
If the grocery store plans have been scrapped entirely â we donât think they have â than your guess to what the large retail building might be is as good as ours.
Dusted off, cleaned up and renovated by developer Mark Gold after landing on the bankruptcy heap due to coronavirus in 2020, The Grove Theater, Bistro & Entertainment has been turned over to B&B Theatres, which will take over operations of the complex.
The 16-screen theater will be renamed B&B Theatres The Grove 16 at Wesley Chapel. According to a press release, the new company plans on spending $1.5 million in upgrades, which will include replacing the seating in the downstairs theaters with reclining chairs similar to the ones used upstairs. Other renovations and amenities will be announced in the future.
Founded in 1924, B&B Theatres is a family-owned and operated theater chain based in Liberty, Mo. It is the fifth-largest theater chain in North America, with 517 screens at 56 locations in Kansas, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Washington, and Georgia. The Grove will be the fifth Florida location.
SideSplitters Comedy Club will continue to offer comedy shows and Cycle Cinema, featuring spin bikes inside the theater, still plans to open.
We will have more information in our upcoming Wesley Chapel edition on Oct. 26.
Thereâs already a taproom, dueling piano bar and mini-golf, and a unique movie theater and a container park are on the way to The Grove. But, if you think developer Mark Gold of Mishorim Gold is done, it looks like the joke might be on you!
Side Splitters Comedy Club will be bringing the same nationally-known comics. like America’s Got Talent finalist Preacher Lawson, to its Wesley Chapel location that it regularly schedules in Tampa.
Two guys walk into a bar.
One guy says, âHey, how would you like to bring your comedy club to The Grove theater in Wesley Chapel?â
The other guy says, âHey yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Letâs do it!â
Okay, so thatâs not much of a joke â weâll leave that to the pros, who will be headed to Wesley Chapel in a few months, when the renowned Side Splitters Comedy Club opens a its second location in The Grove on S.R. 54.
Developer Mark Gold, who is redeveloping The Grove into an entertainment space unrivaled in the area, says he has forged a deal with Brian Thompson, the owner of Side Splitters in Carrollwood, to bring a full-fledged stand-up comedy club to the area before the end of 2020.
As part of the former Cobb theaterâs dramatic makeover â which already is set to include a huge video game area, a high-tech spin room, theaters that cater to kids and moviegoers and two new restaurants â Side Splitters Comedy Club will take over one of the theaters for its stand-up shows.
âWe have gotten a ton of requests to get another location and Wesley Chapel is one of the areas with the most requests,â says Thompson. âWe know itâs a growing area and, when the opportunity came up to get in there, we took it. We see it as a win-win for both of us.â
And, for the record, Gold and Thompson didnât forge the deal at a bar. Instead, Thompson, who says he has been unofficially scouting the Wesley Chapel area for years, came across a 3-D video online showing the new things happening at The Grove and inquired about any vacancies.
He was told one unit was available, but it was smaller than what he was looking for, so he declined.
However, five minutes later, after Gold found out a comedy club had called â just what he had been looking for â the developer arranged to meet with Thompson that same day.
âHe said he was one of the top comedy clubs in the U.S.,â Gold says. âI had a theater available in what will be an entertainment complex. Itâs perfect. Itâs a good fit.â
April Macie has performed at Side Splitters Comedy Club, as well as on Netflix.
While the original Side Splitters is a 5,500-sq.-ft. location and seats 250 patrons at tables and chairs below the stage, the comedy theater at The Grove will seat roughly 170 above the stage, with food and drink service.
âIt will be a little different, but it will be the same intimate feel of Side Splitters that people dig,â says Thompson met with Goldâs management company this past week to hammer out the details.
Thompson, who was the general manager at Side Splitters since 2007 before buying the club in 2019, says it draws 70,000-80,000 people a year while mostly holding shows Thursdays through Sundays. That built-in audience is likely to translate nicely to the Wesley Chapel location, which also happens to be the home of some of Side Splittersâ more popular comics, like Rahn Hortman and JB Ball.
Side Splitters Carrollwood has hosted a number of nationally-known comics, and Thompson says some of those big names also will come to Wesley Chapel.
âWeâll definitely get comedians with some strong TV credits â some late night appearances, âAmericaâs Got Talent,â âLast Comic Standingâ â people like that,â Thompson says.
Open mic nights also are popular at the club and will carry over to The Grove.
âItâs a nice partnership,â Thompson says. âMarkâs vision is having a one-stop shop, where people can walk around, grab dinner, play a round of golf and see a comedy show, without having to get in their cars to drive to each place. Weâre very very excited to be part of that.â
Each passing year seems to be the biggest one yet for Wesley Chapel.
The areaâs major growth began at the start of the last decade, and Wesley Chapelâs continued expansion and evolution have proceeded unabated to what we have now: a bustling mini âcityâ whose flowering has been astounding.
But, even with an eventful 2019 in the books, there is a chance we literally havenât seen anything yet.
Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore (right) and CEO of the North Tampa Chamber of Commerce Hope Allen.
âI think 2019 was our biggest year yet, but there is going to be a lot of exciting things coming along in 2020,â says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Chamber of Commerce (formerly the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce).
More than 1,000 commercial permits have been filed in Wesley Chapelâs three zip codes over the last three years, including 498 in 2019. Those that get approved typically come to fruition within 18 months. So, much of what we saw open in 2019 was news in 2017 and â18.
Wesley Chapel got its first green grocer in 2019, as Earth Fare opened in February. Allen thinks this was one of 2019âs more significant entries into the Wesley Chapel market, because a green grocer was so desperately desired by so many local residents. For Allen, itâs not a matter of quantity when it comes adding to Wesley Chapelâs growing landscape, but rather filling a need, or a desire.
âI think that Earth Fare had a big impact, because it filled a void,â she says.
But, Earth Fare was just the beginning of a busy 2019 for Wesley Chapel. A number of new restaurants and bars, including Walk-Onâs Bistreaux & Bar on S.R. 56 and Glory Days Grill on S.R. 54, opened, and there are plans for dozens more coming in 2020 and beyond.
âThe economy is still strong,â says Pasco County District 2 Commissioner Mike Moore. âTypically, youâll see the builders slow down when they see a changeâŠbut they arenât slowing down.â
With all that growth, traffic remained an important issue for local residents.
S.R. 56 extension
The county did begin work on widening S.R. 54, and also moved forward with the construction of the much-anticipated Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) at the intersection of S.R. 56 and I-75. And, the S.R. 56 extension which was finally finished in 2019 â and has been well received by local commuters desiring another east-west road â will soon have something other than open pasture land along its length.
Yes, there will be more homes. And lots of them. According to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Taylor Morrison Homes recently closed on 750 acres of land for $23.5-million at the northwest and southwest corners of the S.R. 56/Morris Bridge Rd. intersection, land that is already entitled for roughly 1,600-1,700 homes.
Wesley Chapel saw its fair share of new homes go up in 2019, and thousands of housing permits are in the system for the coming years. Last year, 4,335 single residential permits were filed with the county. In the last three years, 11,448 have been filed.
The Connected City in northern Wesley Chapel has hundreds of homes under construction, including another 713 waiting on approval for Metro Development Groupâs Mirada development, which will soon be home to our areaâs second Crystal LagoonsÂź by Metro LagoonsÂź amenity. Avalon Park West has plans for more than 1,300 homes off S.R. 54, and Winding Ridge in the Wyndfields MPUD is seeking approval for 469 homes, just to name a few.
This formerly rural area is filling up fast, good news for those who prefer a suburban lifestyle but much to the chagrin of many others.
âWe hear about it from some residents, typically from people who have been here a long time and moved out here for a quiet, peaceful life,â Allen says. âIf thatâs what you are looking for, this is not the place to be. This is going to be an active suburban core.â
Emphasis on the word âactive.â The county rebranded its tourism efforts as the Florida Sports Coast, a move heavily influenced by Wesley Chapelâs growth in the sports market. Although Pascoâs hiking and biking trails, Gulf coast fishing and outdoor attractions like Treehoppers in Dade City also are important aspects of the new push, the success of AdventHealth Center Ice and the soon-to-open Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County in the fastest growing area of Pasco likely sparked the rebranding.
Looking ahead to 2020, Allen personally lists the Wiregrass Sports Campus opening, likely in July, as the most anticipated opening of 2020 (and she is hopeful that Raymond James Financial breaks ground), but there is stiff competition.
The Blue Heron assisted living facility in Seven Oaks and the AdventHealth-Moffitt Cancer Center building on the AdventHealth Wesley Chapel campus will be completed by the end of the year and will provide much-needed services for local residents.
The Main Event entertainment center and the Florida Avenue Brewing Company on S.R. 56 will help spark the local nightlife scene, and a much-anticipated Aldi grocery store, as well as a host of additional new restaurants, will keep folks in the area buzzing.
And, letâs not forget the massive and speedy transformation of The Grove (see story, pg. 6), which after being left for dead by many will have, by this time next year, itâs own craft brewery, a dueling piano bar, an axe-throwing hangout, new restaurants and a one-of-a-kind shipping container park that, if developer Mark Gold is correct, will become Wesley Chapelâs downtown.
As Commissioner Moore says, âThe whole county, but especially Wesley Chapel, is growing. Itâs the fastest-growing area in the state and I donât see an end in sight. Do you?â
When it came to opening a new business in Wesley Chapel, Michael and Alicia Esenwein (photo) could have taken a nice, safe route.
Maybe a nice little coffee shop, a cozy family restaurant, or even a charming retail hot spot.
But no.
They choseâŠaxe throwing?
âItâs kind of a weird story,â Mike says. âIt wasnât ever really a long-range planâŠIâm not sure anyone ever plans (something like this).â
Once you talk to Seven Oaks residents Mike and Alecia, though, the story of The Kilted Axe â which will be a combination of a hip bar and hangout for axe-throwing enthusiasts when it opens on Saturday, January 18, 5 p.m., in The Grove â actually makes perfect sense.
After all, this is a couple that three years ago sold everything they owned â except for a Christmas tree Alicia says she couldnât get rid of â and, with three young kids in tow, traveled the world for 18 months, with stops in Indonesia, Thailand, Italy and Costa Rica.
So naturally, the Esenweinsâ adventurous spirit would lead to owning an axe-throwing business.
âWe were living in North Carolina temporarily, and were looking for something to do and there were like 10 locations on the east coast there that had axe throwing,â Mike says. âMost of it was in barns, or a rugged setting, but there was one place in Wilmington that was upscale and had a bar and a restaurant. We just loved it. It was a cool place to hang out.â
It wasnât until a few years after returning from North Carolina, after running some successful Under Armour flag football leagues as well as doing a little teaching â Mike was an online computer science professor for the University of Virginia and American Public University â that Alicia became restless.
âI want to do something,â she told Mike, and soon the idea for The Kilted Axe had flowered. It had been, after all, the one thing she had been asked about most by friends when they returned from North Carolina, thanks to some of her Facebook pictures.
They passively started looking at barns and warehouses for a site, but were also looking to buy a house, so they decided to put the business idea on hold until 2020.
A trip to The Grove, however, changed everything. Remembering it as a moribund center lacking zip, they drove by when they heard developer Mark Gold had bought it.
Gold, the high-charged developer with a big vision for his property, happened to be standing outside. They chatted. And Gold, who has axe-throwing places at some of his other properties, insisted they start their business as soon as possible.
âMost people wouldnât rent a space like this for axe throwing,â Mike says. âThey want restaurants. Mark knows, though. He loved the idea.â
After meeting some of the other business owners who had already signed leases with Gold, they were sold.
Axe throwing is a trendy, growing sport. The International Axe Throwing Federation (IATF) says there are more than 6,000 league members in more than 100 cities and six countries. It is a staple in lumberjack competitions and has been televised on ESPN.
Mike and Alicia compare it to throwing darts; itâs just a matter of getting the technique down.
The Kilted Axe will have three throwing lanes, all safely fenced in and manned by âAxepertsâ there to help.
There also will be a lounge and balcony to hang out and have a few drinks or host an event. âKind of like an old school pool hall feel,â Mike says.
And, because you have to be wondering â yes, mixing beer, wine and axe throwing can be safe.
âIf you show up intoxicated and ready to throw axes, well, guess what? Itâs not going to happen,â Mike says.
There will be menâs and womenâs leagues, co-ed leagues, and even events for kids. Mike and Alicia have three kids â Jason, 14; Hailey, 12, and Hannah, who is 4. They all think axe throwing is pretty cool.
Alicia says she canât wait for The Kilted Axe to open. Any fear that they were rushing into a crazy idea dissolved when they posted the news on Facebook, which lit up with enthusiasm.
More than 3,700 people say they are interested in attending opening night. Almost 300 say they are going for sure. A dozen or so people have signed up for leagues, a few nights are already booked for corporate events, and itâs one of the more buzzworthy new places set to open in Wesley Chapel.
âIt was a crazy response,â Alicia says. âWeâre anxious. Believe me, weâre anxious!â
For more information, visit TheKiltedAxe.com, or search for âKilted Axeâ on Facebook.
