Little Italy’s Family Restaurant & Catering Gets A New Chef!

Photo: Gary Nager

So, how can one of my favorite local restaurants get even better when the husband-and-wife chefs who opened it — and still own it — hire a new chef?

That’s what has happened recently to my friends Jessica and Carl Meyers of Little Italy’s Family Restaurant & Catering on S.R. 54 in Lutz, less than two miles west of the Tampa Premium Outlets. Jessica and Carl have brought in an authentic Italian chef, born and raised in Napoli (not Naples, FL), who has honed his skills in not only his native country, but also in Germany, Australia, England, Tampa and, most recently, his own place, which was called Manzoni’s, even though neither the chef’s first nor last name is Manzoni.

“Manzoni is-a the street-a I grew up on in-a Napoli,” says Chef Simeone (pronounced “Sih-me-oh-nay”) Chiacchio, who opened Manzoni’s in Tarpon Springs a few years ago, after working at some of the better Italian restaurants in South Tampa. “Manzoni’s was-a the first-a time I ever owned a restaurant, and I found out that I’d-a rather cook for-a someone else and not-a have-a to be the boss.”

That worked out perfectly for Jessica and Carl, who brought in Chef Sam (“or Simon,” says Simeone. “Sam is just-a little easier for-a some people.”) a little over a month ago and have enjoyed not only his “autentico” Neapolitan cuisine, but also his accent, his sense of humor and his ability to multi-task.

“I told him you’re like an octopus,” says Jessica. “Carl and I really admire his skills. He can cook anything and he’s already adding amazing new specials and slowly making changes to our existing menu. We’ll be rolling out our new menu soon.”

Carl, who has been to Italy many times, says he can tell Chef Simeone is authentic because, “he doesn’t let anything go to waste. He cuts up the leftover penne and spaghetti for his pasta fagioli (one of his new specials) and he saves all of the scraps of cut produce, like onions, garlic and more and makes stock to keep his chicken dishes moist.”

Carl also mentioned something I forgot to write down about the beans used in Chef Sam’s pasta fagioli, but all I can tell you is that it is the best I’ve had in the Tampa Bay area. A bowl of it is so big and hearty, it’s a meal unto itself, but don’t get too full to try Sam’s outstanding faggotini pasta, which may not have an appetizing name, but it’s a flavor I’ve never tasted in Italian food before. Faggotini is a pasta “purse,” stuffed with pecorino Romano cheese and pear. Each bite of these filling purses has just a hint of sweetness from the pear, a perfect complement to the salty cheese. But, these faggotini are lightly covered with just the right amount of a creamy, but still light, pink tomato sauce that expertly finishes off this unique pasta dish.

“Just-a don’t-a call it a  ‘vodka sauce,’” Sam says. “There’s-a no vodka in it.”

New Entrée Specials, Too!

As soon as I saw the new specials board (both the pasta fagioli and faggotini are on it), I got really excited about what Sam’s bringing to the table (pun intended) at Little Italy’s, especially once Jessica and Carl also showed me Sam’s super-extensive menu from Manzoni’s.

Of the new entrées already sampled by yours truly, my surprise favorite was the chicken Vesuvio, which Sam can make for you with the chicken lightly breaded or unbreaded. The chicken surrounds ample, tender slices of eggplant and topped with fresh mozzarella and a light (but not pink), zesty tomato sauce.

My second favorite dish from the specials board was the Caprese chicken over pasta (I’m obviously a tomato/tomato sauce guy). Thick, tender (thanks to that homemade stock?) chicken breasts are topped with also-thick slices of delicious, fresh tomatoes, dense (but perfectly melted) slabs of fresh mozzarella in a thicker tomato sauce more reminiscent of Little Italy’s original sauce, topped with fresh basil. It was served over a helping of spaghetti that provided side dishes for two more meals for me after all that I left over during my visit.

The third new entrée I sampled was the chicken panna, which is served in a thinner-than-Alfredo creamy sauce with pancetta, peas and fresh mushrooms. Jessica said it was her favorite of the new specials and she almost didn’t let me steal even a bite from her (just kidding, Jess).

And of course, yes, you can still order anything from the restaurant’s existing menu, although you might want to ask your server to explain any tweaks Sam may have made to Little Italy’s locally famous lasagne, veal parmigiana (my personal favorite; more on that below), chicken piccata, calzones and huge, rectangular pizzas.

You might just recognize that server, by the way, as Jessica says that she is now going to sometimes work the floor as a server, especially on the weekends, because she really does want Little Italy’s thousands of loyal fans to have full explanations of every new dish and any tweaks Sam may have made to their favorite dishes when they visit.

“All I can say is that the guy is doing amazing things in that kitchen,” Jessica says, “so I want to explain to our customers what goes into making these dishes.”

Carl adds, “This restaurant and kitchen aren’t large enough to do true fine Italian dining. But, what we’re serving now is a step up from what we’ve been doing, without being a step up in price.”

Sam told me not to order the veal parmigiana until the next time I came in because Little Italy’s just started using a new meat purveyor, “and I-a want-a you to-a taste-a the good-a vitello (veal).” He says there will be osso buco (veal shanks on the bone) on the specials board soon and maybe even a steak special.

“Oh, and-a Gary, I know you’re-a not-a the only-a one who likes-a fresh veggies,” Sam says. “We’ll-a give you a choice-a of pasta or veggies with-a your (non-pasta) entrée, too.”

And of course, Sam can create just about anything you want for your next party. Catering has long been a big part of Little Italy’s success the past three years, and I don’t see that side of the business slowing down anytime soon. I guarantee you that a big tray of Little Italy’s lasagne would be the perfect addition to any 4th of July celebration.

And, of course, Little Italy’s still has a “Little Goombas” menu and recently added beer and wine. So, enjoy a delicious glass (or bottle) of delicious chianti, pino grigio or Grandma’s homemade sangria, or a Peroni or domestic beer and get to know the new Little Italy’s. It’ll be “molto delizioso.”

Little Italy’s (24436 S.R. 54, Lutz) is open for dinner only Tues.-Fri. and for lunch & dinner on Sat. & Sun. For info, call (813) 909-2122, or visit LittleItalyFamilyRestaurant.com.   

Traffic From New Developments Revives The Idea Of Widening Old Pasco Road

Old Pasco Rd. (above) might be getting a fresh look in the near future, as a new middle and high school, new home and apartment developments and a business park threaten to add significant cars to the two-land road. A study (map to the right) will soon take a look at safety improvements for Old Pasco Rd. (Photo: Giuliano Ferrara)

The two Pasco County commisioners who represent the largest portions of Wesley Chapel — Ron Oakley in District 1 and Mike Moore in District 2 — have had their fair share of complaints from residents about area roads, and the traffic on them.

So, as Moore, Oakley and their fellow commissioners took up the debate about a proposal clearing the way for a new business park on Old Pasco Rd., they both were in favor of taking a closer look at whether or not the two-lane road should be widened first.

That is not going to happen, however, as the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted to approve a re-zoning request that clears the way to allow 2,250,000 sq. ft. of office and light industrial entitlements on roughly 91 acres of land on the east side of Old Pasco Rd. about 290 feet south of Overpass Rd., near the new Cypress Creek Middle High School.

The BOC is hoping it attracts future businesses and brings more jobs to the county.

Moore was in favor of the re-zoning request, but considering there is a widening project already in the works for Overpass Rd., near where the new business park will be located, he said he was only suggesting, no pun intended, that the BCC look further down the road.

“I just asked why not do the whole (widening) thing at once instead of piecemeal,” said Moore. “It would be nice if it was widened all the way down to S.R. 54. You always want to be prepared for the future. Putting the infrastructure in place first is important to me.”

Oakley agreed. The Overpass Business Park, which was formerly known as the Vibrant SUN Business Park, is in his district and was approved by the Board of County Commissioners vote on May 22.

Moore’s concerns about Old Pasco Rd.’s ability to handle the additional traffic, especially from trucks, that a business park might add was assuaged by the assumption that many of the trucks and additional traffic will use the future Overpass Rd. interchange to get on and off I-75.

However, he still has concerns about the road, which will see increased traffic from the addition of middle school students to the Cypress Creek Middle/High School campus, a potential Performing Arts Center on that campus, 400 new homes in Quail Hollow, and the 264-unit Arbours at Saddle Oaks residential development at the intersection of Old Pasco Rd. and Country Club Rd.

Moore said plans to widen Old Pasco Rd. were at one time in the county’s Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) but were removed during the 2008 economic downturn. He said he was going to try to get the project put back into the LRTP.

He said the county is looking into applying for state infrastructure grants to pay for any potential widening project.

Pasco commissioners recently approved $89,788 for HDR Engineering, Inc. to conduct a road safety audit (RSA) and study for Old Pasco Rd. from S.R. 54 to north of Overpass Rd., a 3.32-mile stretch.

While the RSA is unrelated to the BCC’s approval of the business park, Moore said it could determine that such a need to widen Old Pasco Rd. exists.

However, the study, expected to take four months, is focued more on road safety issues and safety improvements than widening.

That study will take a look at the Old Pasco Rd. intersections with S.R. 54, Post Oak Blvd., Foamflower Blvd., Dayflower Blvd., Country Club Rd., Bonnie Blue Dr., Deedra Dr., Sonny Dr., Lindenhurst Dr., and Overpass Rd.

New Union Park Charter Academy Set To Open In August At  Full Enrollment!

Union Park Charter Academy is Wesley Chapel’s first charter school and is expected to open fully enrolled, with 615 students in grades K through 6. (Photo: Giuliano Ferrara)

Wesley Chapel’s first charter school will open this fall. Demand for the school is clearly high, as enrollment already is full and there’s a waiting list at every grade level.

Union Park Charter Academy — called “UPCA” and pronounced “UP-kuh” — has 615 students scheduled to start school in kindergarten through 6th grade when it opens for the first time on August 13.

One thing you won’t find is classrooms of kids filling notebooks that transcribe lectures. In fact, the rooms at the school aren’t even called “classrooms.”

“The design of the building allows us to really meet the personal needs of individual students,” says the school’s founding principal, Tracy Ware. “The design of the building is in communities. What’s exciting is that there are so many options.”

Instead of traditional classrooms, each grade level meets in a common area with all of the teachers for that grade level. Students then move into one of the spaces available to them. That might be a learning lab for larger groups of students and a teacher. Or, it could be an area with flexible seating where students sit on creative furniture, such as “wobble boards” (no worries about kids leaning back and toppling over a four-legged chair), or stand at a high-top table.

There also are areas for small group projects, where students can go inside a glassed-in room and work without distraction, but still in complete view of the teacher.

The school is responsible for teaching to state standards and testing using statewide standardized tests.

“What sets us apart is not what we teach — it’s how,” explains Ware. “We have opportunities to use more technology and divide children up based on learning style, with four teachers teaching the same curriculum at the same time, but bringing it to children in different ways.”

UPCA is the newest school by Charter Schools USA, which currently manages 84 schools in seven states, serving more than 70,000 students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

Charter schools are public schools that operate under a contract — called a charter — with the local school district. Each charter school is independently governed by its own board of directors, and employees do not work for the local school district. However, Pasco County Schools is responsible for some oversight, ensuring that the school is in compliance with its charter and local, state and federal regulations.

Charter schools are required to be non-profit organizations.

As a charter school, it is a tuition-free option for parents looking for an alternative to the public school to which their child is assigned. This fall, Pasco County is expected to have 5,513 students enrolled in a total of 12 charter schools, with UPCA the only one located within Wesley Chapel, although a second charter school, Pinecrest Academy, is expected to open in 2019 at a site to be determined.

Ware was previously an education cluster manager responsible for leading and coaching principals and senior leadership teams using international standards she practiced while serving as a principal in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). In Abu Dhabi, she opened a grades K-5 school, where she promoted clear collaborative relationships between staff members with various backgrounds from all over the world.

“Ms. Ware is the perfect fit for our new innovative school opening in Wesley Chapel,” said Charter Schools USA’s Michelle Thompson, the company’s regional director of education for Florida’s west coast. “We knew we needed someone who will approach educational solutions from an entirely new mindset as we open a brand-new school with such an open and collaborative environment.”

A Focus On Technology

In addition to the innovative building, another unique aspect of UPCA is its focus on technology.

“Technology gives us more opportunities to reach students,” says Ware, explaining that smart technology will be used throughout every learning community, including an iPad issued to every student in grade 3 and higher.

“Teachers can flip the classroom,” because of this technology, explains Ware. Instead of traditional homework — where Wade says that incorrect practices can actually hurt a student’s ability to learn something correctly — a teacher can use video or other means to introduce a lesson at home that will be experienced the next day at school.

In addition, Ware says she’s excited about the level of involvement she’s already seen from the parents of the students who plan to attend. Many students can walk or bike to school, she says, and more than 90 parents signed in to the school’s first Parent Teacher Co-Op meeting (similar to a PTA).

The school’s students have already voted to choose its mascot, which is the Comets.

“The things that really set this school apart are its design, our use of technology, parental support and community investment,” says Ware. “Students have an opportunity to be innovative and creative, and that’s what we’ll provide at Union Park.”

Ware says that although there is a waiting list, interested parents should not be discouraged from applying, because some students who are enrolled now may not attend due to relocations or other factors.

“Even if they’re on the waiting list,” Ware explains, “there’s a good chance they could be enrolled this fall.”

Union Park Charter Academy is under construction at 32775 Oldwoods Ave. in Wesley Chapel. For more information, stop by its temporary office at 3830 Turman Loop, #101, between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, call (813) 358-7306 or visit UnionParkAcademy.org.

Three New Hotels Add Heat To Wesley Chapel’s Business Climate

The six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy. will open this summer. 

For years, Pasco County has grappled with attracting tourists and giving them a place to stay.

Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) and a planned RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex, as well as the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), the Shops at Wiregrass mall, the massive “connected city” project and dozens of local restaurants will help take care of attracting visitors.

In a few months, a long-standing problem of finding beds for all of those visitors’ heads will be solved as well.

During the months of June and July, Wesley Chapel expects to see three new hotels open along the burgeoning S.R. 56 corridor, joining the Holiday Inn & Suites that opened last year next to FHCI (and the Hampton Inn & Suites, which has been open for many years).

“The two industries (tourism and hospitality) go hand in hand,” says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay (formerly Greater Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce. “It’s almost like you can’t have one without the other.”

Barring any weather delays, a six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy., across S.R. 56 from FHCI, is scheduled to open in June, a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is expected to open in June or July a few miles to the east (in the Wiregrass Ranch development), and the six-story, 132-room Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center will open in July at the Cypress Creek Town Center across from TPO.

The newest hotels have all been planned since late 2015.

The Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center

Impact Properties is building the Hyatt Place, and recently hosted a “topping off” event to show off its progress. Impact just began building the $24-million hotel last summer. The Hyatt Place will share the north side of S.R. 56 with a host of new restaurants and retailers (see story on page 6).

The conference center addition fills another area need, says District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore. “This is going to be a great development all around,” Moore said during the Hyatt Place event. “When you talk about a convention center, that has been something that has been a big need in Pasco County, especially on the east side. You won’t have a problem keeping it full.”

Impact president Dilip Kanji said he has had his eyes on the Cypress Creek location for years, patiently waiting for the right moment.

“I’ve been looking at Wesley Chapel since 2012,” Kanji says, citing the Cypress Creek Town Center’s permitting woes dating back to 2007. “If you remember, (our interest) goes back to the days when the mall was going to go there, the problems with the wetlands and the Army Corps of Engineers, all that stuff, so we just kept looking. But, Wesley Chapel has arrived, Pasco County has arrived, everyone wants to be here. We had an idea for what we wanted to do; we were just waiting for the right time.”

Kanji said his company also eyed the Shops at Wiregrass mall and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel areas in Wiregrass, as well as the area near FHCI (where the Holiday Inn Express is today).

“There’s been the potential (for a hotel) in the area, but the place we always wanted to be was on that (the west) side of the interstate,” he said.

A Little History…

Impact Properties was founded in 1981, two years after Kanji, a biochemist at the time, visited San Francisco and stayed at a family-run hotel that he fell in love with. He decided, without the benefit of any business schooling or real estate courses, to enter the business.

Impact Properties president Dilip Kanji

“I never stepped in a lab again, and never looked back,” said Kanji, who works closely with brother and VP Nash Kanji, whom he describes as a construction “whiz.” They started with a small motel in Gainesville that Kanji says his attorney at the time joked was known as a “no-tell motel.” Since then, Impact Properties has grown into an award-winning development company, owning and managing more than 25 hotels, and was awarded the key to the City of Tampa by then-Mayor Dick Greco for developing the Hilton Garden Inn in Ybor City, the first hotel to be built in the historic district in more than 100 years.

Impact Properties currently owns a hotel in Gainesville, two in Jacksonville and two in Tampa, including The Westin on Westshore Blvd.

The company also is developing a hotel in Treasure Island, FL, in addition to the Wesley Chapel location, which Kanji says is one of the most coveted areas around.

Speaking Of Hot…

Kanji says people have asked him if he’s building his next hotel in downtown Tampa or St. Petersburg, and when he tells them no, they ask why, because those are the hot areas.

“I don’t even go where it’s already hot,” Kanji says. “We identify an emerging area, growth areas that are going to be hot. And, we get there first.”

He says that was his plan when he built a hotel in Brandon years ago, the first he says to do so on the old I-75 bypass. “The interchange wasn’t even working,” he says. “We identified where Brandon was going — it was the bedroom community of Tampa — and we identified that area as hot. We got there first. There were growing pains. We did not hit our numbers the first year or two. But, we said we will control the market.”

In the case of Wesley Chapel, however, Impact Properties will be entering a market that is already considered hot, and growing crowded quickly — landowner Bob Sierra said at the “topping” event that if the Hyatt Place is successful, Kanji has an option to build a second in the Cypress Creek Town center.

In addition to the three hotels set to open this summer, the RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex – which could open in spring of 2019 — will have a 120-room Marriott-branded Residence Inn on site, and the Brightwork Crossing development north of S.R. 54/56 and west of C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. has stated plans in 2016 to build an unnamed hotel with up to 150 rooms on that site.

Also, plans were filed with the county in August for a proposed, also-unnamed  160,000-sq.-ft. hotel to be located behind the Walgreens at the S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. intersection.

A report in 2016 by consultants analyzing the potential for a sports complex in Wesley Chapel pointed out the lack of hotel rooms in the area. And, while it still made a sizable economic impact (estimated at $3-million a year), it has been believed that one of the main beneficiaries of the DICK’s National Lacrosse Championships held at Wesley Chapel District Park the last several years were nearby Hillsborough County hotels, such as those in New Tampa, which took in 60-75 percent of the tournament’s teams and visitors.

While saturation may become an issue, the new hotels are anticipated to help the county’s tourism efforts and fill tax coffers. The county approved doubling its tourist tax, or bed tax, from 2 to 4 percent last year.

“What you’re seeing in Pasco County is quality,” Moore said. “There is a lot of time and effort put into these projects. We’ll be getting rooms filled, heads in beds…and we appreciate the help. It helps us grow, and helps us bring in additional profits to the county.”

Heavy Hitters Talk Up Wesley Chapel’s Future At Economic Summit

(L.-r.) Metro Development Group VP Kartik Goyani, Metler Toledo general manager Viggo Nielsen, Wiregrass Ranch’s J.D. Porter and Larry Morgan of ComPark 75. (Photos by Steven John Photography)

The idea behind the 2017 East Pasco Economic Development Summit — the brainchild of Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) CEO Hope Allen and District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore — was to get some of the county’s heaviest business hitters into one room to update local business leaders on what the future has in store for Wesley Chapel.

The outlook presented was more than just rosy, to say the least.

“I thought it was a big success,’’ said Allen, who was backed up by positive survey results indicating that the audience of roughly 75 would like to see more summits of this nature.

And, Allen said that is the plan — she is trying to organize something for next year on local innovation — after two panels of local business experts, sandwiched around a keynote address from Dr. Jerry Parrish, the chief economist and director of research for the Florida Chamber Foundation, provided three hours of local business news for those in attendance.

The event, held at Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC)’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, was moderated by Moore, who represents much of Wesley Chapel on the Board of County Commissioners (BCC).

The first panel had some of the biggest names in Wesley Chapel development today – J.D. Porter of Wiregrass Ranch, ComPark 75 owner Larry Morgan and Metro Development Group vice president Kartik Goyani. Also on the first panel, although not located in Wesley Chapel, was Viggo Nielsen of Metler Toledo, which manufactures scales and analytical instruments and is relocating from Hillsborough County to a 250,000-sq.-ft. facility to be built near the Suncoast Parkway in Central Pasco (and bringing 500 jobs with it).

Not surprisingly, each business leader agreed that business in Wesley Chapel these days is pretty good, thanks to a combination of land still being available for expansion, a local county commission that is very business-friendly and incentive programs that have attracted companies like Raymond James Financial to the area.

Morgan, whose ComPark 75 is located off Wesley Chapel Blvd. (aka S.R. 54), just south of the S.R. 54 exit off I-75, said that was not always the case. He said much of Wesley Chapel’s development has hinged on patience.

‘When I bought my land in 2007, Pasco was becoming a boom town and then, of course, the recession hit,” Morgan said. “I just had faith and confidence that when the day turned, Pasco County was going to be the spot. I’m not always real good at foresight, but in this case think I got it right.”

Porter echoed Morgan’s sentiments. His family has owned the 5,100-acre Wiregrass Ranch for 75 years, weathering the Great Depression, as well as the local (and national) economic rollercoaster since then.

But now, things couldn’t be more ripe for success. “It’s all about being patient and doing things at the right time,’’ Porter said. “Anybody out there can crush it right now.”

Porter cited infrastructure that is already in place, a higher median household income and lower median age as attractive benchmarks for major businesses interested in setting up in Wesley Chapel. He said the addition of more homes and schools, as well as the continuing business-friendly voting of the county commission and the streamlining of the permitting process, portend a bright future for the area.

“Everyone recognizes Wesley Chapel as a whole right now,’’ Porter said. “Our (old)slogan was, “We’re Open for Business,” but nobody saw Pasco County as being open for business. They saw a bunch of headaches that actually changing (those headaches) has set the stage for moving forward.”

Morgan and Goyani agreed that Wesley Chapel is part of a hot region at the moment when it comes to business and development.

Goyani said that when Metro Development approached Pasco officials four years ago about building its “connected city” project — which is being built from the internet up with giga-fast internet service, the first two Crystal Lagoons in North America (see story on pg. 6) and a high-tech infrastructure that will one day showcase autonomous vehicles — it received a positive response from the county immediately.

“We got a yes quickly,’’ Goyani said. “I don’t think we would have gotten that response from any of our other counties. It really made the choice easy for us. Time will prove it was the right decision.”

Porter agreed.

“Pasco County now has a seat at the ‘big boys’ table,’’ he said. “They have more land and more resources and better infrastructure than what you will find in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Sarasota or Manatee (counties).  That’s my opinion.”

(L.-r.) PHSC-Porter Campus Provost Kevin O’Farrell, PHSC provost Stanley Gianett, Pasco County administrator Dan Biles, Pasco EDC president Bill Cronin, Florida Trend publisher Andy Corty, Wesley Chapel Chamber CEO Hope Allen and District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore.

About the only things the panel did complain about were the state legislature’s battle with Governor Rick Scott over reducing incentives — Porter called it “pretty sad, pretty disgusting” — and the recent decision by the Pasco BCC to raise impact fees to help build more schools, a decision that has been lauded by the Pasco School District and Moore’s fellow commissioners on the BCC.

As for the future, the panel predicted more good things. Porter, continuing his diligent pursuit of “just the right fit” for Wiregrass Ranch, hinted at another big deal just around the corner. He said in the past month, he has talked to two companies with even more name recognition than Raymond James Financial about coming to Wesley Chapel.

Porter didn’t provide any details, other than to say Wiregrass Ranch is in the running for both, but he predicts he will at least land one of the two.

“I think everybody is going to be very excited with what’s coming in the next 12-18 months,’’ Porter said.

After Parrish gave his keynote address about the positive jobs outlook in Florida, a second panel featuring Florida Trend publisher Andy Corty, Pasco County administrator Dan Biles, Pasco Economic Development Council president Bill Cronin and PHSC provost Dr. Stanley Gianett continued the conversation, looking at the government’s role in luring businesses to the county, and the positive effect regionalism could have down the road.