It’s not every day that we cover the Grand Opening of a business located on N. Dale Mabry Hwy. in Tampa. But, when North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) president & CEO Hope Kennedy tells me “This is one you shouldn’t miss,” I generally take her at her word.
And, oh boy! The Grand Opening and NTBC ribbon-cutting event for The Performance Lab (TPL) not only included Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper, (as the Lightning have a partnership with TPL), it also unveiled a state-of-the-art, 25,000-sq.-ft. facility “uniting world-class medical care, advanced diagnostics, and progressive rehabilitation under one roof.”
As described by founder Bahir Manios during the Grand Opening event attended by more than 200 people, TPL features top-of-the-line imaging (MRI, X-ray, ultrasound & C-arms) technology, including wide-bore MRIs, more than 25 exam/treatment rooms (including handicapped-friendly rooms and exam tables), multiple procedure rooms for interventional pain management, a dedicated brain health suite equipped with multiple modalities to assess and treat patients, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy (bottom photo), a rehabilitation suite equipped to allow patients of all abilities to progress to complete recovery in a comfortable environment and a unique performance center.
“In other words,” said Manios, “TPL is much more than a medical center. It’s a destination for recovery, performance and total wellness. Whether you’re a first responder, an athlete, a veteran, or just an ordinary person simply seeking strength, clarity and recovery from an ailment, TPL was built for you, and it’s all under one roof. We’ve put together physical medicine and rehabilitation, interventional pain management, brain health and neuro recovery, advanced imaging and diagnostics, sports performance and recovery, and life care planning for long term support.”
The event was as spectacular as the place itself, with a catered lunch outside, the ribbon cutting with (l.-r., top photo) Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, Coach Cooper, Manios and TPL chief revenue & legal officer Shant Melkonian. Once inside, Manios played a short video showing the remarkable technology patients can expect to be treated with, and there was an informative panel discussion featuring (right, l.-r.) executive director of brain & strategic partnerships Marissa McCarthy, MD, executive medical director Michael Lorenz, MD, and chief medical officer Hadi Shah, MD, plus tours of the former (but completely gutted and recreated) Harley-Davidson dealership.
In other words, if you missed it, you really did miss something special.
For more info about TPL (6920 N. Dale Mabry Hwy.), visit TPLTampa.com or call (844) TPL-TAMPA. — GN, photos by Charmaine George
(L.-r.) Justin Olsen & Dr. Joseph Perno of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Teresa Campbell of HKS Architects & Bryan Durkin of Robins & Morton, with NTBC president & CEO Hope Kennedy, discuss the process of building Wesley Chapel’s pediatric hospital at the NW corner of Overpass Rd. & McKendree Rd.
The North Tampa Bay Chamber’s quarterly Economic Development Briefing on Sept. 24 brought four of the principals involved in the design, construction and staffing of the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital of Wesley Chapel, which is being built just off the Overpass Rd. exit of I-75. The event was held at Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.
NTBC president and CEO Hope Kennedy led the panel discussion that included Justin Olsen, the chief operating officer and Dr. Joseph Perno, the VP of Medical Affairs of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, as well as HKS Architects partner Teresa Campbell, and Bryan Durkin, the operations manager from Robins & Morton, which is building the 230,000-sq.- ft., 56-bed hospital at the northwest corner of Overpass Rd. and McKendree Rd.
Wesley Chapel’s first and only pediatric hospital is expected to be completed in late 2027, but this was the first real opportunity for the local business community to get an update on the progress of the hospital since the groundbreaking ceremony for it back in April of this year.
“The overall land purchase was about 112 total acres, and the hospital will be on about 30 acres, which is actually the same size as our St. Petersburg campus,” Olsen said. “The facility itself will have a full-service pediatric ED (Emergency Department) and will offer perioperative and surgical services and also will have our first inpatient rehab program for physical rehab. I will tell you that in St. Pete, we have a need for that service, so this project is going to become a center of excellence for us, to be able to provide rehab following traumatic injury. It’ll have med-surg beds, or general admission beds, and it’ll also be ready for a pediatric intensive care unit. We may not launch with that, but the facility will be designed so that, if we need to turn that on right away, we can. Lastly, it will have a really extensive outpatient footprint, with approximately 30,000 sq. ft. for kids coming in for ambulatory visits. And, we’ve already started recruiting a host of subspecialists to join the staff and live in Wesley Chapel to provide that care.”
Dr. Perno added, “It’s more than just a building. It’s moving our culture and our attitude about how we care for children, and replicating that from what we do in St. Pete to provide that same high-quality care. I’m really excited about finding the physicians that want to be part of this community and provide that care to our local pediatric patients.”
He added, “I’m probably not telling anybody in this room something they don’t already know, but this is a growing area. There’s a lot of young people here and there’s a dearth of pediatric care in this area. I’ve seen a lot of patients from this area coming to the emergency department in St. Pete and I know they’re commuting all the way down there to see our caregivers. And, I knew that we could bring the care we deliver in St. Pete closer to home for our patients in Pasco County, so we feel we’re fulfilling a big need for the community and really helping children, which is what we’re all about.”
Campbell said, “We love designing pediatric facilities. Just because a patient is having a stressful health situation doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in an environment that’s elevating and inspiring and playful. We also think about the patient’s family, and we need to be really thoughtful about the design We work with the Patient Family Advisory Council, to really ask them, ‘What do they need? What do they want? What do they like? What do they dislike?’ We work with real patients with real parents, who provide feedback and input that really helped influence the design aspect of this project.”
As for the construction process, Durkin said, “As important as the doctors and nurses are to a hospital, subconratctors and trade partners are the folks who get the job done on the construction side. We’re getting our door knocked on consistently by high-quality contractors who want to work in a health care facility and understand the unique challenges of building health care and hospitals.”
He added, “And, what’s unique about this arrangement is that Johns Hopkins hired the construction manager at the same time as they hired the architect design team, so there was a collaboration right from the get-go of budget, design and purpose. I’m happy to continue to extend our invitation out to additional trade partners throughout the area, but our outreach started almost two years ago, when we were awarded the project . We’ll have 400-500 people on the site on any given day and 1,200-1,300 different folks come in throughout the course of the overall project. It’s important that we engage folks in Pasco County, specifically — it’s one of our contractual requirements.”
And, speaking of that workforce, Olsen said, “Yes, we’re bringing 500 jobs to the community, which is good news, but it’s also anxiety-provoking. We all know health care team members are in short supply, so making sure we can find people is going to be a challenge. We will hire a myriad of different types of roles, from administrators through nursing, and all those areas that go into a hospital and make it work. So we’re gonna have a lot of hiring to do here, and it is gonna be certainly a challenge as we look at some of our in-demand specialty areas.”
He added, “I didn’t appreciate how many of our current team members actually drive to St. Pete from this community. So, a lot of them have already started sending emails almost every week. ‘When do I get to apply for it?’ I love that people who are currently part of that culture and our team are going to join the facility here, and they will help make it the exact same in terms of always putting the kid first. It is going to be a big lift, to bring 500 new, really well-paying jobs to this community.”
Dr. Perno also noted that, “We’re looking for physicians who want to care for kids and be embedded in this community. And I’m already hearing interest on that. And, you know, we, already have people asking, ‘When is it opening? When can I start working there?’ I’m like, well, we’ve just got dirt right now, but we’re working on it.”
He added, “We have a clinic in this area now that’s bursting at the seams (on Allegra Way, off Wesley Chapel Blvd.) with physicians and practitioners working there, seeing patients. So, we’re looking at more opportunities up in this area and the physicians are fighting to go there and be part of it.”
Campbell also talked about how the building itself is being designed to be as hurricane-proof as possible, with multiple backup systems for power and water, high-wind-rated windows and more. And, Durkin talked about the challenges of dealing with two more hurricane seasons while the hospital is being constructed.
Olsen noted that this $300-million project, “is not Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital of St. Pete coming to Wesley Chapel. We are building Wesley Chapel’s children’s hospital. We will provide the departments and services this community asks for. This is a partnership. We’ve already been accepted amazingly by this community and will do what the community asks to improve kids’ health.”
Congratulations go out to Jade and Duran Thompson (with scissors in photo above), the owners of the new Ivybrook Academy in the Tampa Palms Professional Center at 5392 Primrose Lake Cir., who hosted a North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) ribbon-cutting event on Sept. 10.
Neither Jade, who is a Doctor of Pharmacy, nor Duran, an Army veteran who has a Master’s degree in Finance, had any experience in education when they started their journey “about two years ago,” Jade said at the ribbon-cutting event, “with our son Jaden After looking at every preschool from Wesley Chapel to Lutz for him, we finally found one we liked, but there was a rift between the ownership and the local administration and the entire administration left overnight. I remember I said to Duran, ‘I think I can do this better.’”
So, Jade went back to school to earn her teaching credentials and they started looking to buy an existing school that was already profitable. “But, we just couldn’t find the right school to renovate or location, until this school, which was owned by another family, but got taken over by the Ivybrook franchise, which was looking for local ownership and listed it for sale — nine months before it had ever opened.
“So, even after our bad experience with that other franchised school, this was so similar to what I had in my business plan I said, ‘Let’s do it!,’ even though it was just dirt at the time.”
Jade also liked that Ivybrook combines two popular curricula — Montessori and Reggio Emilia. “We have Montessori, which stresses individualized, independent learning groups, for our reading and math curricula, and Reggio Emilia, which promotes collaborative, project-based learning, for a more creative aspect.
Not a lot of pre-schools combine them.”
There are about 50 Ivybrook Academies currently open in six states. Tampa Palms is number five in Florida, with the closest other Ivybrook being in Sarasota. “but there are about 150 more in development,” Jade said.
She added, “It’s been really heartwarming to open the doors for the first time two weeks ago and actually see families that had agreed to trust me with their child when I didn’t even have a building for their child to attend. It’s been really exciting.”
We also congratulate business coach Jacqueline Nelms (at far right in left photo) of Mindful Elevation, which is located in the former location of this publication, at 2604 Cypress Ridge Blvd., Suite 102D. Jacqueline, who hosted her NTBC ribbon-cutting event on Sept. 11, has had a 25-year professional career in the health care field, but has been an executive for the past 12 years, “where I’ve led large teams, built operational strategies, and focused on organizational growth and resilience. She has a Doctorate in Health Sciences with a concentration in Leadership & Organizational Behavior, as well as a Master’s degree in Strategic Leadership. She also is a certified professional life coach and mental health first aider.
“This combination informs my coaching of academic research, practical leadership experience and a deep commitment to helping individuals and organizations grow in purposeful, ethical and sustainable ways,” she said.
During her ribbon-cutting event, Jacqueline thanked her husband Ross, “who has been absolutely amazing and supported me through every crazy idea I’ve had over the years,” as well as her kids, Dominick and Nicholas, and all of the Chamber members on hand to support her.
For more info about how Jacqueline and Mindful Elevation can help you, call (813) 943-4560 or visit MindfulElevate.com. — GN
Wednesday, September 24, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. – North Tampa Bay Chamber Economic Development Briefing. At Pasco Hernando State College, Porter Campus (2727 Mansfield Blvd., Conference Center, 3rd Floor). Tampa’s Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital has been providing care to the children of the greater Tampa Bay area for almost 100 years. In order to bring expert care closer to home for many children, for the first time, a brand new pediatric acute care hospital will open in Wesley Chapel. Join the Chamber for an intriguing discussion about a myriad of topics with our panel members: Justin Olsen, COO & Joseph Perno, M.D., VP of Medical Affairs – at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital; Teresa Campbell, architect & principal in charge, HKS Architects; and Bryan Durkin, operations manager, Robins & Morton. The cost to attend this event is $25.
Retired land use & zoning attorney Ron Weaver (with mic in above photo), formerly with the Tampa-based firm of Stearns Weaver Miller, was the featured speaker at the Aug. 5 North Tampa Bay Chamber Business Breakfast held at Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch.
Weaver, showed off his encyclopedic knowledge of how both Hillsborough and Pasco counties developed. He began his presentation with an attention-grabbing look at some of the famous Tampa Bay-area “nudists,” because, he said, “Since 1941, we have been the nudist capital of the world.” He mentioned actress Lauren Hutton, actor Channing Tatum and pro wrestler/ actor John Cena, all of whom have done nude scenes on film, as among our area’s nudists.
Weaver also talked about how both Hillsborough and Pasco counties were named for British citizens. Wills Hill, the 1st Earl of (or “Lord”) Hillsborough, who was the Secretary of State for the Colonies prior to the American Revolution, which Weaver said Lord Hillsborough caused by ignoring the protests of the Colonists.
More than 100 years later, Samuel Pasco, who also was born in London but attended Harvard University across the pond, was recruited to help expand education opportunities in north Florida and ended up having a county spun off from Hernando County named for him after he served as Florida’s Speaker of the House. — GN
