This store is located in Rockville, MD, and is the first Lotte Plaza Market. The small chain is now expanding into Florida with an Orlando store, and likely a second location in New Tampa
The long dormant Sweetbay Supermarket property, which has been empty since 2013, has a new owner.
And, it appears that New Tampa may soon be home to a new Lotte Plaza Mart, a small-chain Maryland-based ethnic grocery store focusing on Asian groceries and goods.
John Neukamm, the attorney for the sellers, KNK Tampa, Ltd., confirmed that the sale was completed on Feb. 1, but would not say what the plans were for the site.
He said a “different type of concept” was likely heading to the space, one that has not been seen locally.
Neukamm said that he had spoken with the North Palms Village Master Association and that they were “very excited” that the sale of the former Sweetbay had been completed.
According to city records, the property, located right across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the AMC movie theater and next to Home Depot, was purchased by SW Tampa, LLC, for $7-million.
According to Sunbiz.org, the Florida Division of Corporations’ online directory of companies in Florida, the owner of SW Tampa, LLC is Sang Min Lee, who also owns Sungwon Orlando, LLC.
Lotte Plaza Market in Orlando. (lotteplaza.com)
The only other Lotte Plaza Mart in Florida is located in Orlando.
Both SW Tampa, LLC (the SW is likely short for Sungwon), and Sungwon Orlando, LLC are registered at the same address in Jessup, MD, as Sungwon Distributors, LLC, which serves as the headquarters of Lotte Plaza Mart.
Marc Bergoffen, the lawyer representing SW Tampa, did not respond to messages. Ross Waters of Atlantic Retail, one of the brokers involved in the sale, declined comment.
If a new Lotte Plaza Mart does materialize at the old Sweetbay site, it will be the second large ethnic grocery store to open in New Tampa since 2019, joining Taaza Mart, a roughly 17,000-sq.-ft., predominantly Indian grocer located in Tampa Palms.
The potential Lotte Plaza Mart location would be more than three times as large as Taaza Mart — at roughly 55,000 square feet.
Founded in 1976, Lotte Plaza Mart is considered to be one of the premier Asian groceries in Maryland and Virginia, where it has 12 locations. The mini-chain also has one location in New Jersey, and opened the Orlando location on W. Colonial Dr. in February 2019.
Like all Lotte Plaza Marts, the location in Orlando — which moved into a 60,000-sq.-ft. space formerly occupied by a Winn-Dixie — has a wide choice of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese food items and ingredients, an impressive selection of meats and fresh fish and a huge variety of fruits and vegetables not found at your regular American grocery stores.
The store has received online praise for its variety and prices.
Although there are no exact plans available for what a New Tampa location might feature, the Orlando store also has a hair salon, bakery and food court, featuring a handful of Asian restaurants, including Taglish, a Filipino-American concept run by Chef Michael Collantes, who has worked with such notable chefs as Wolfgang Puck.
The nearest location for buying Asian groceries currently is the MD Oriental Market located on E. Fowler Ave., or the A-Green Oriental Market on E. Fletcher, both in the USF area.
If S.R. 56 is now the Restaurant Row of the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel areas, the BBD corridor from Cross Creek Blvd. to Tampa Palms Blvd. might be its supermarket counterpart.
Sprouts Farmers Market, which opened last year, and Aldi, which is under construction and will likely open sometime this year, are within walking distance from the potential Lotte Plaza Mart location, and just south of the I-75 interchange, Taaza is located in Market Square at Tampa Palms.
That stretch of stores is bookended by Publix Super Markets in the City Plaza at Tampa Palms and at the New Tampa Center, giving shoppers of all ethnicities five supermarkets within five miles.
The likelihood of a transformation at the old Sweetbay isn’t the only new thing coming to New Tampa.
In fact, The Walk at Highwoods Preserve area located right across the street Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the former Sweetbay may be a busy corner in the coming new year.
The busy area already has added three new restaurants — Oronzo Honest Italian (see story on pages 26-27), Michi Ramen and Gu Wei — and an F45 Fitness center this year. It also has seen big box electronics giant Best Buy and home furnishings chain Pier 1 Imports close up shop, potentially giving way to future new tenants.
And, additional Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. businesses — the former Starbucks and Jimmy John’s sub shop — are being prepped for new tenants.
And yes, construction has finally begun on the new Aldi grocery store on the southwest corner of Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and BBD.
On Nov. 23, crews began tearing down the old Ruby Tuesday restaurant. By Thanksgiving, the 2.36-acre lot, purchased by Leon Capital Group in 2018 for $2.82 million, was mainly home to a mangled mess of metal and concrete.
The Aldi was approved back in January. It will be 19,160 square feet — almost four times the size of Ruby Tuesday — with 106 parking spaces.
Developers of the popular German discount chain also are adding a sidewalk for pedestrians and those who use the bus stop at the same corner.
There is still no word about when, or if, the once-planned $5-million renovation of the AMC Theater at Highwoods Preserve is happening.
Unfortunately, the movie industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. In October, AMC warned investors that it could run out of cash by the end of the year. Around the same time, Regal Cinemas shut down all its theaters.
FOR WHOM THE (TACO)BELL TOLLS: Well, it’s official — according to City of Tampa permitting records, the Circle K at the corner of Doña Michelle Dr. and BBD is expanding, and that expansion will eliminate the Taco Bell and Shell-branded gas station currently attached to it.
Circle K Stores, Inc., which had a pre-application consultation in August looking to redevelop the existing Shell gas station to become a larger Circle K gas station, is going ahead with those plans.
A site plan submitted Nov. 24 shows the current convenience store expanding to a 5,187-sq.-ft. store.
The Taco Bell is being replaced in by five parking spots and a sitting area, as well as a second proposed entrance/ exit behind the convenience store. The canopy over the gas pumps also will bear the Circle K logo.
The AMC Theater, which had to postpone a major renovation project after being been hit hard by Covid-19, and the former Ruby Tuesday restaurant, which will be replaced by Aldi, also are on the east side on BBD.
We’re happy to tell you that the one-time Sweetbay Supermarket in New Tampa, closed and abandoned for nearly eight years, is finally on the brink of a much-needed transformation.
Located right across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from the AMC movie theater and next to Home Depot, the property the building sits on is currently under contract and, if things proceed as planned, a new tenant will begin the process of moving in by early 2021.
Who that new tenant will be, and what kind of business might be headed for the long-empty building, however, was still a mystery at our press time.
“I can tell you it has been under contract, but I can’t tell you who,” says John Neukamm, the attorney for KNK Tampa, Ltd., the California-based owners of the building. “Hopefully, within the next few months, you will see some changes up there.”
Neukamm wouldn’t give any hints about what kind of business might be filling the vacant building, which has more than 30,000 square feet of space.
It won’t be a bowling alley, which he confirmed after we jokingly took a wild guess, and Neukamm says it is unlikely to be another grocery-type store, considering that Sprouts just opened a little north of the location and an Aldi has begun construction directly across the street.
“I think the neighborhood will be happy,” he says.
Neukamm also says he is confident the buyer will be putting some “major renovations” into the project.
It will definitely need it.
The Sweetbay building closed in 2013 and since then, has been unoccupied while its parking lot has gone through various stages of disrepair, overflowing at times with tractor-trailers and parked storage trucks while also serving as a dumping ground for people getting rid of old furniture and appliances.
Tampa District 7 City Council member Luis Viera and his predecessor Lisa Montelione sicked code enforcement on the property’s lease-holder multiple times over the years.
“It has been a long road for New Tampa with this property,” Viera says. “Its inactive status has caused many challenges for New Tampa and I am happy that it is under contract and look forward to seeing what comes in here. The fact that this is under contract by itself is a good step for our New Tampa community, as this has been a problem site.”
The property currently is worth $1.5 million, according to Hillsborough County property records. KNK Tampa, Ltd. bought it in 2001 and leased it to Kash n’ Karry for a 20-year term beginning in November of that year.
Kash n’ Karry operated under the lease until June 14, 2006, when its Belgian parent company Delhaize America, Inc., converted it into a Sweetbay.
But, despite its rebranding, Sweetbay could not compete with nearby Publix or Walmart. When Delhaize announced it would be closing 22 stores in the Tampa Bay area, its New Tampa location was part of that group.
In October of 2013, Jacksonville-based Bi-Lo Holdings, the parent company of Winn-Dixie, paid $265 million for 72 Sweetbay stores, plus the leases to 10 other underperforming Sweetbay supermarkets that had already been closed. One of those leases belonged to the New Tampa location, which had six years remaining on it, but Bi-Lo Holdings declined to do anything with the property other than pay the rent.
Finally, it’s time for something new.
“Probably, by early next year, it will all be coming out; it will be obvious what is going on,” Neukamm says. “It is going to be an asset for the neighborhood.”
We asked our readers on our Neighborhood News Facebook page what they would like to see in the space currently occupied by the old Sweetbay, and they responded.
Some responded jokingly (we assume), by suggesting New Tampa could really use a giant Starbucks (hardy har har, Brandon Maldonado) or a combination pizza, burger, and self-storage facility (also real funny, Richard W. King).
Others were emphatic, with ALL CAPS!!!! (We get it, Chris King, you want a Trader Joe’s and as you said) “NOTHING ELSE IS ACCEPTABLE!!”
King, however, spoke for the most of those who responded. In fact, our readers really, really, really want a Trader Joe’s, even with Publix, Sprouts and soon-to-be Aldi all within walking distance. And, how much do people love their trendy grocery stores? Lucky’s Market, Fresh Market and Whole Foods also all received some votes.
Those other markets didn’t receive as much love, however, as Total Wine & More, which wasn’t too far behind Trader Joe’s when it came to our readers.
You want food and drink, clearly — although a good many folks also want something to do — and we concur! A bowling alley, roller skating rink and indoor go-kart place all received votes, although we were disappointed to see no one suggest a Dave & Busters (JCC) or a live music venue (GN).
Kevin Waters: I would love a Wright’s Deli somewhere in New Tampa/WC. Driving to S. Tampa is too far.
Pam Smith: Go carts, Fresh Market, Armature Works-like venue, Indoor small business venue
Diane Kelly Payne: Quaker Steak & Lube, outdoor music stage, car shows, etc…a fun place to go
Tara Fritsch Schmidt: Luekens Liquors or Trader Joe’s.
Donna Billie: A regular skating rink…not ice.
Lucy Meyer: Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market or Total Wine!
Dannieal Cooper: Indoor go-carts and arcade. Well kept with food and beverages
Kim Channels: A bowling alley or Spaghetti Warehouse
Geraldine Gomez: Kohl’s, Total Wine, PF Chang’s or Trader Joe’s!!! No more storage units!
Armando Rivera: Is a Medieval Brothel a possibility…asking for a friend.
Christie Frederick: A really good seafood restaurant. (There are) none around New Tampa
Doug Smith: A micro brewery!
Nagesh Nayak: Raquetball Court.
Barry Doupnik: Anything!! It’s a dump and an eyesore.
Tim N Catia Notarpietro: Planet Fitness! We need one up here!
Gina Arkell Tim Stokes: Just not another gym.
Richard Spencer: Bowling & arcade. Or trampoline park.
Nicolette Marie: Lucky’s Market!
Ivant Liberty: Cabela’s
Here are some of the other suggestions we received:
Tyriq Outen honed his hockey skills while living in New Tampa, and is riding high after an MVP performance in a major invitational tournament this summer has him a little closer to his dream of playing goalie in the NHL. (Photo courtesy of the Outen family).
The first time Tyriq Outen skated on ice at the Brandon’s Ice Sports Forum, he was 4 years old and decided immediately he wanted to be a goalie.
A few weeks later, during his first lesson, his promising ice hockey career began…with his pads on backwards.
“Then, he fell behind the net and got his helmet caught in the net,” recalls his father, Ronnie. “It was a comedy of errors.”
That imperfect start, however, soon gave way to success at nearly every level at which “Ty,” as his family calls him, has played since. He went from being entangled in the nets to starring in them, and from being a junior standout to a legitimate NHL draft prospect with a bright future ahead of him.
“I feel like this is where I belong,” he says. “I fell in love with it right away.”
Tyriq grew up in New Tampa, and attended Turner Bartels Middle School. While his friends played Little League baseball and basketball and soccer at the New Tampa YMCA, Tyriq was part of a small but budding hockey community.
He played for one of the best youth hockey teams in Florida, comprised of players from all over the state, but that meant lots of travel. He traveled by plane 2-3 times a month for big tournaments in the northeast and Canada, but mostly spent lots of time in the car with Ronnie driving all over the southeast.
Ronnie, the basketball director at the new Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, understood the lifestyle and demands for a high-caliber youth athlete. A former college basketball player who played professionally overseas, Ronnie understood it was all about exposure and training. When it was time to choose a high school, Ronnie and Tyriq moved to hockey-hotbed Boston and lived in an apartment.
“When we were in Boston, he was literally on the ice 5-6 days a week,” he says. “No knock on Florida, but there was a rink in every neighborhood. Imagine if Hunter’s Green had one, and Arbor Greene and Live Oak had one, if you had 5-6 rinks in this area, think of the pool of talent you’d have to draw from. That’s how it is up there. That is why the competition was so good.”
First Stop – Foxboro
Tyriq hooked up with the South Shore Kings in Foxboro, MA, and began to take off as a player. He had a 3.08 goals-against average (GAA) and a 90% save percentage in his two seasons.
At the age of 17, Tyriq made it onto the coveted NHL Central Scouting list as No. 19 among all North American goalie prospects. His athleticism, Ronnie says, is off the charts — he can roll out of bed and dunk a basketball — and his skating and stick skills are exceptional. Tyriq’s vision and game management continue to improve.
Toronto Maple Leafs development camp, June 30, 2018. Mark Blinch/Toronto Maple Leafs
Once a growth spurt got him to 6-feet, 3-inches, it completed the package, making him an enticing prospect at a position where taller, athletic goaltenders — like the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andre Vasilevskiy, who also is 6’-3” —seem to be the future.
In Boston, NHL scouts were watching every game. “It definitely got the heart pumping,” Tyriq says.
Although Ronnie had spent most of his life playing and coaching basketball, he had married Heather, a native Canadian, who came from a family of goalies.
Tyriq was born in Miramichi, New Brunswick, where his grandfather Hugh Moar — Tyriq called him Grampy — was in the town’s Hall of Fame and his uncles were accomplished junior goaltenders.
Ronnie jokes that basketball never had a chance. Which, he adds, was fine by him.
“It wasn’t a disappointment at all,” he says. “I didn’t want him growing up with anyone comparing him to me or anything like that. I was just happy that every time he came off the ice, whether after practice or a game, he had a smile, and five minutes into the drive home, he wanted to talk about the game.”
Dealing With Adversity
After graduating high school in Boston, Tyriq had to choose between pursuing a Division I college career, or signing with a major junior hockey team, which would end his amateur status.
Tyriq with “Grampy”, Hugh Moar.
With a chance to sign with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the former team of NHL stars like Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Roberto Luongo, and just an hour north from his birthplace, where his goalkeeping family had built a following, how could he resist?
It turned out to be the first speed bump in Tyriq’s career.
The QMJHL is one of three major junior ice hockey leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League, along with the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL). Acadie-Bathurst had loaded up the previous season to win the QMJHL President’s Cup, and they captured the Memorial Cup against the winners from the OHL and WHL.
Tyriq says many of the players acquired to win the title in 2017-18 departed after that season. His new team won just eight games in 2018-19, and he finished with an 0-20 record, a 5.89 goals against average and faced nearly 1,000 shots in only 1,364 minutes. After a coaching change, Tyriq was released.
“The fact that it was (so close to Miramichi) made it even worse,” Ronnie says. “The whole town was hurrah hurrah, the hometown boy is coming, everybody was happy for that to happen. So, it made it double the monkey on his back.”
Ronnie worried about how Tyriq would handle his first-ever adversity. “I would be lying and he wouldn’t be human if I said it didn’t get him down.”
Ronnie says he reached out to Tampa Bay Lightning goalkeeping coach Frantz Jean for some guidance, concerned his son might retire his pads. Jean, however, reassured Ronnie that Tyriq was still highly regarded, and that NHL scouts will be watching to see how he reacted to his adversity.
“The ones that are successful come out the other side stronger,” Ronnie remembers being told.
Getting Back In The Pads
Tyriq got back to work. Determined to come back even stronger, rather than give up, he doubled down on his efforts. When he was tired, he thought about Bathurst. When he didn’t want to work out, he thought about Bathurst.
“I’m already up,” Tyriq would say as his dad walked into his room to wake him up early in the morning.
“That showed me just how tough he really is,” Ronnie says.
The Outen family — (l.-r) Tyriq, Kiana, Heather and Ronnie — has lived in Live Oak Preserve in New Tampa since 2006.
Tyriq’s bounceback started in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, in the Maritime Hockey League, a league below major junior. If playing near his hometown made the Bathurst experience more painful, then his first appearance at the Miramichi Civic Centre, against the hometown Timberwolves, offered some redemption — he stopped 34 of 35 shots in a 6-1 win.
He went on to beat the Timberwolves two more times at the Civic Centre, and stopped 145 of 156 shots the hometown team fired at him over five games.
Covid-19 ended the 2019-20 season early, so Tyriq returned to New Tampa. He worked out with the Lightning before the team entered the bubble en route to the Stanley Cup. Tyriq continued to grind, ready for his next challenge, which came when he was chosen to play at the prestigious invite-only Beantown Summer Classic in August in Exeter, NH, where NHL scouts handle the coaching duties.
“He was so proud of having some of the Lightning players’ phone numbers in his phone,” Ronnie says. “That was pretty cool for him.”
The NextGen MVP!
Tyriq was the only goalie invited to play for an all-minority team — NextGen AAA Foundation, a nonprofit that offers mentoring to hockey programs in underserved communities.
NextGen, which is coached by NHL players Bryce Salvador and Mike Grier, steamrolled the competition at the annual Beantown Classic in Boston, and went undefeated to win the title. Tyriq was 4-0, and even added five assists — a shockingly high number for a goalie but a tribute to his stick skills — and was named the tournament’s MVP.
“That was a big deal for me,” Tyriq says. “I feel like I’m ready to do bigger things. It was a great experience.”
Tyriq can’t return to Canada right now due to Covid, but was approached by a Calgary Flames scout at the Beantown Classic, who hooked him up the Maine Nordiques of the North American Hockey League. He left New Tampa last month to begin training, and the season began earlier this month.
In three games so far with Maine, Tyriq is 2-1 with a 2.94 goals-against-average and a .924 percent save percentage.
“He was in a bad situation before, but he’s recalibrated now,” Ronnie says. “This is a good situation for him. It’s going to be a good year. He is totally happy — you can hear it in his voice. And, that’s the best thing.”
The New Tampa Sensory & Autism Friendly Park, which originally was earmarked to be built on five acres of land behind the BJ’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms., is headed to a new site.
Now, the park will be constructed in the nearby New Tampa Community Park (NTCP).
After concerns were raised by members of the Stafford Place community about parking and noise, Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who represents New Tampa as part of District 7, began the search for a new site.
The sensory-friendly park has been one of Viera’s pet projects since he was elected to the council in 2015.
Viera, whose older brother Juan has autism, successfully fought to get $90,000 included in former Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s 2018 Tampa city budget for Phase 1 of the project, which was allocated for a study and design of the park.
Now, that design will be used at the NTCP.
Viera said he will make a budget request to finally have the park constructed.
He estimates the cost at $1-1.4 million, less than he had originally anticipated.
“There are sites located in the New Tampa Community Park that not only get the job done, but due to the presently available parking and other infrastructure, reduce the cost of this effort substantially,” Viera says. — JCC
