Lots of Stuff Is Brewing On The Local Business Scene

There could soon be more tenants to announce for the Village at Hunter’s Lake development currently under construction on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., across from the main entrance to the Hunter’s Green community.

Regency Centers senior leasing agent Marc Elias, who already has signed a dozen occupants for the retail/restaurant portion of the project, will be the guest speaker at the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Briefing at Hunter’s Green Country Club on Thursday, June 20. 

While Sprouts, the first green grocer to enter the New Tampa market, is the anchor of the retail strip, other occupants currently listed on the Regency Centers website are Banfield Pet Hospital, The Coder School, Grain & Berry, Hair Cuttery, Heartland Dental, Nationwide Vision Center, Pink & White Nails, Poke Island Plus, Pure Beauty Salon, Starbucks, T-Mobile and Via Italia Woodfired Pizza & Bar.

There are, however, still six spaces available.

The Village at Hunter’s Lake will have 71,397 sq. ft. of commercial space. The project also will include a 30,000-sq.-ft. New Tampa Cultural Center, a dog park and a four-story, 241-unit multi-family complex to be called The Haven at Hunter’s Lake.

Addio, Chefs of Napoli?

Chefs of Napoli, an Italian restaurant that had been expected to open in the next few months at the old Beef O’Brady’s location in the Cross Creek Commons plaza off Morris Bridge Rd., is now unlikely to do so, after its owner was arrested last month and faces charges of conspiracy to commit human trafficking and lewd and lascivious battery.

While the primary trafficker was not named to avoid identifying the teenage victim, Luigi Barile, who founded the Chefs of Napoli restaurants in Spring Hill and Ocala, was one of nine men arrested on May 17 by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office after a two-year investigation.

Hernando Sheriff Al Nienhuis said at a press conference that the victim had been sexually abused by the men for six months. He said Barile brought three of his friends to sexually assault the teenager.

“Not only did he use the services of our young victim, he also brought, at least one time, at least three of his friends with him,” Nienhuis said. “And, all four of these men exchanged money for sex.”

According to the Villages-News.com, Barile was released on a $25,000 bond — $10,000 each on two counts of kidnapping/human trafficking and $5,000 on a count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device.

The Villages-News.com also reported that a number of special conditions had been placed on Barile, such as surrendering his passport, being placed on a GPS monitor and that he have no intentional contact with any child under 18. He also is not permitted to leave Hernando County.

Barile has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Time To Study…New Tampa

Students from the University of South Florida’s School of Public Affairs will meet for the first time on Tuesday, July 16, as they begin a study to determine the reasons for the outmigration of a number of local businesses from the New Tampa area and to find a potential solution, if there is one.

The meeting will be held at either the New Tampa Regional Library or Compton Park in Tampa Palms. The group is comprised of graduate students working towards their Master’s degrees in Urban and Regional Planning at USF. They will conduct a listening tour with local focus groups and businesses, as well as a field study. 

USF School of Public Affairs director Ron Sanders told the Neighborhood News in April that if the study produces something concrete, it could lead to the city conducting something “more extensive and sophisticated.”

District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera also will attend the first meeting.

“I think this has a lot of promise,” Viera says. “If there is a problem, hopefully we can figure that out. But, it’s definitely something we should look at now, sooner than later.”

Brew Bus Coming!

Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., the company behind Florida Avenue Brewing Co. and Brew Bus Brewing, has officially announced that it has purchased the former Sports + Field location on S.R. 56. The new owners will convert Sports + Field into a brewery with a beer garden, full-service restaurant and event space.

The 34,000-sq.-ft., two-floor facility in Wesley Chapel originally opened in 2005 as a $10.5-million multi-purpose fitness center that trained professional athletes while also offering fitness programs for local residents. It closed in 2015.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Brew Bus Brewing Inc., Anthony Derby, told the Neighborhood News last month that his company was taking a close look at the property, located at 2029 Arrowgrass Dr., and saw a craft brewery as a missing part of the local Wesley Chapel/New Tampa bar/dining scene.

“We are excited to expand our operations into Pasco County to provide the community with a family-friendly brewery, event and restaurant destination,” Derby said in a statement. “By this time next year, Pasco residents will not only be working in our expanded operation, but also enjoying our products a bit closer to home.”

The completed deal is expected to create 46 new local jobs and more than $8.7 million in new capital investment in Pasco County. 

“It’s great to reactivate a dormant property with high-paying manufacturing jobs in a unique industry,” Bill Cronin, the president/CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council, said in a press release. “A company like Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., is a win for the whole community, as they embody the ‘live, work, play’ notion so important to our community’s future economic growth.”

Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., created in 2011, currently operates both a brewery on N. Florida Ave. and buses that travel to breweries throughout the Tampa Bay area. In addition to brewing its own Brew Bus beer, the brand expanded in 2015, with the acquisition of Florida Avenue Brewing Co., in an effort to revive one of the area’s most historic breweries.  Both Brew Bus and Florida Avenue brands are distributed throughout the entire state of Florida.

“We are happy to welcome Brew Bus Brewing, Inc., to Pasco,” said District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore. “Not only are they creating jobs, but their new tasting room and restaurant will be a great destination for residents and tourists alike. Breweries are a huge part of the tourism market.”

For more information about Brew Bus Brewing, visit BrewBusUSA.com.

The Villages at Hunter’s Lake Takes Another Step Forward

The project, approved 6-0 by the Council, will include 241 multi-family units, the long-awaited New Tampa Cultural Center and a strip shopping center.

The Village at Hunter’s Lake project, which is seeking to have the property located directly across the street from the main entrance to Hunter’s Green on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. rezoned from community commercial (CC) to mixed use (PD), passed its first hearing before the Tampa City Council.

The City Council approved a number of waiver requests by the developers, including the most important one — adding both a second and third access point from BBD into the development.

The second reading is scheduled for Thursday, June 1, 9:30 a.m., at the Old City Hall on Kennedy Blvd. in downtown Tampa.

If the project is approved, that will pave the way for developers Harrison Bennett Properties and Regency Centers to begin work.

The developers requested the rezoning change for multi-use on the 14 acres of developable land on the 80-acre parcel to accommodate a 30,000-sq.-ft. Cultural Center; a four-story, 241-unit multi-family project called The Haven at Hunter’s Lake; a green grocer; a retail shopping strip center; a restaurant (with a drive-in window) and a community park with a dog park.

At the May 11 meeting before the City Council, the Hunter’s Lake developers requested a waiver to reduce the number of loading zones and parking spots and some slight wetlands reduction, which didn’t spark any debate.

City of Tampa senior planning engineer Melanie Calloway, however, did object to the request for additional access points.

City Council member and Hunter’s Green resident Luis Viera voted to pass the Village at Hunter’s Lake project onto a second reading.

The main entrance into the Village at Hunter’s Lake will be directly across BBD from Hunter’s Green Dr. However, developers want additional access points south of the proposed main entrance (where there is currently a maintenance road) and to the north at Hunter’s Lake Dr., which already leads to Suntrust Bank and LifePoint Church on the east side of BBD.

Calloway pointed out that for the last 20 years, the City of Tampa has been very deliberate and consistent about granting access points on BBD to preserve capacity limits and limit anything detrimental to the roadway.

“We have spent a lot of money (on BBD),’’ she said.

Calloway also noted that other areas in New Tampa along BBD have been developed with fewer access points, like Tampa Palms Area 4 — which has 701 development units, 484 single family units, 400 hotel rooms, 85,000-sq.ft. of commercial and business office — and only three access points along BBD.

“This proposed property has 250 multi-family, 72,000-sq.-ft. of commercial, a cultural center and a dog park,’’ Calloway said. “And they want three access points. We find that being a little bit excessive.”

If an access point at Hunter’s Lake Dr. is approved, the left turn lane at that intersection would be lengthened to reduce traffic backing up. Without that access point, lawyers for the developers argued, drivers who miss the main entrance would have to make a U-turn and traffic would likely back up on northbound BBD. The other concern was that the existing HART bus stop on the southbound side of BBD would create a public safety issue.

“It (the bus stop) would be safer with the access we are proposing,’’ said Steve Henry, a transportation and civil engineer and president of Lincks & Associates. Henry pointed out that Walmart and other smaller locations already have two access points along BBD.

Jeff Cobb, the vice president of the Hunter’s Green Community Association, voiced support for the project, calling it a “Hyde Park-esque effort that will serve, support and enhance New Tampa.”

But, with 5,000 residents and 1,000 visitors a day (according to Cobb), he voiced concern that without a second access point, and the likelihood of traffic backing up at the only left turn into the project, would create problems.

Patrons, he said, would make the decision to turn right at the light at Hunter’s Green, and once inside, make a U-turn to enter the Village at Hunter’s Lake from Hunter’s Green.

“It’s a safety issue,’’ he said. “We think it’s critical you support this second left turn.”

Despite the city’s concerns about additional access points, the City Council ultimately voted 6-0 to approve them (and the rest of the project) and send it to a final reading and public hearing next month.

According to the New Tampa Commercial Overlay District Development Standards, a proposed new access point to BBD, “shall constitute a substantial change to the approved zoning site plan, as well as an amendment to the DRI, where applicable, both of which shall require approval by City Council.”

District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist, a Hunter’s Green resident,  has long championed the project, the jewel of which is the Cultural Center that will be home to the New Tampa Players (NTP), a local theatre troupe. In December, he told NTP that he hoped the Cultural Center could be open by 2019, and was working hard to secure funding.

NTP has been lobbying the county and city of Tampa governments for a Cultural Center since 2000.

The Harrison Bennett Properties proposal was initially approved by the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners by a 7-0 vote in December 2014.

“This has taken a lot of effort over three years,’’ said David Freeman, the president of Harrison Bennett Properties, which also developed The Walk at Highwoods Preserve.

Freeman sees this Village at Hunter’s Lake project as New Tampa’s downtown.

“We’ve got these communities, like Hunter’s Green and Tampa Palms, which individually are great master-planned communities but don’t really work together as a whole. We see this project really as the linchpin to bring everything together.”