Looking Back At The Five Top Wesley Chapel News Stories Of 2023! 

(Above) BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel held its official ribbon-cutting on Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Feb. 2023, while (below) Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital broke ground on Wesley Chapel’s largest hospital earlier this year. 
1. Hospitals In The News — 

Although its actual ten-year anniversary was in 2022, a number of things caused AdventHealth Wesley Chapel to postpone its 10-year celebration until Feb. 2023, which would, on its own, be pretty big news for Wesley Chapel. 

However, Feb. 2023 also saw the opening of Wesley Chapel’s second hospital — the 86-bed BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel, less than two miles north of AdventHealth, which also brought the community out in force to check out the new hospital’s advanced technology. 

But wait, that’s not all! Later in 2023, Orlando Health broke ground on its own Wesley Chapel location on S.R. 56 at Wiregrass Ranch Bvd. With its 300 beds, the multi-story Orlando Health Wiregrass Ranch Hospital will be Wesley Chapel’s largest. 

At our press time, the site work for the new hospital was well under way, although vertical construction had not yet begun. We also did not yet have an estimated opening date, but it’s unlikely the new hospital will be completed and opened before 2025. 

And finally, John’s Hopkins All Children’s Hospital announced its plans to build a 356,000-sq.-ft. pediatric hospital at the Wildcat-Bailes site on Overpass Rd. (at McKendree Rd.) near I-75 in the “Connected City” project, although an exact number of beds had not yet been announced, nor was the deal finalized at our press time. 

2. Overpass Rd. Exit Off I-75 Opens —

In the entire 30+ years the Neighborhood News has been in business, Wesley Chapel originally only had one exit off of I-75 — Exit #279 at S.R. 54 — and received its second exit, Exit #275, at the new S.R. 56 about a decade ago. 

The new Exit 282 off of I-75 at Overpass Rd. opened in Jan 2023. 

Since then, there has been no exit off I-75 between S.R. 54’s Exit 279 and Exit 285 at S.R. 54 in the San Antonio/Dade City area. 

That remained true until Jan. of this year, when the new Exit 282 off I-75 opened at the new Overpass Rd. extension (see photo right), which finally connected Overpass from Old Pasco Rd. all the way to Epperson, Curley Rd. and even beyond, through the Watergrass community. Overpass Rd. will one day connect to Handcart Rd. in Zephyrhills. 

The new exit has done a pretty good job of helping to reduce rush-hour traffic at the S.R. 54 exit and is definitely stimulating new growth in and around the area — growth that not all local residents are thrilled about. 

Among the new development swirling around the new exit is the previously mentioned Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, as well as a possible multi-family or mixed-use development at the corner of Overpass, I-75 and Old Pasco Rd.

We’ll keep you posted. 

3. Saddlebrook Redevelopment Plan Approved —

Saddlebrook Resort and the community that sprouted up around it became the first large-scale development in Wesley Chapel when owner and former Pendant Publishing founder Tom Dempsey developed it in the early 1980s. 

More than 40 years later, Dempsey’s resort and the surrounding community had lost a lot of their lustre and the resort, in particular, had fallen into disarray. 

A rendering of Mast Capital’s redevelopment plan for Saddlebrook Resort, which was approved by Pasco County in July of this year. 

After multiple previous attempts to purchase and improve the 480-acre resort and surrounding community fell through, Mast Capital finally succeeded in not only purchasing the resort, but getting its $15-million redevelopment/rezoning plans approved by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners, after making a number of concessions in order to come to an agreement with many existing Saddlebrook residents. 

One of the big sticking points was that Mast planned to convert the two 18-hole, Arnold Palmer-designed championship golf courses into 27 holes of golf. 

Another important aspect of Mast’s plan was a significant amount of new development, including multi-family units, along S.R. 54 both east and west of the community’s main entrance on Saddlebrook Way at 54. 

The redevelopment of Saddlebrook should begin in earnest in 2024. 

4. Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. Opens —

Normally, interior roadways primarily serving only one community would probably not qualify as one of the biggest news stories of the year, especially in an area still growing as quickly as is Wesley Chapel. 

Wiregrass Ranch. Blvd. has been open from S.R. 56 all the way to S.R. 54 since August of 2023. 

However, in the case of Wiregrass Ranch. Blvd., because the roadway itself had been paved for what seemed like more than a year and had people who were living in the Estancia and other Wiregrass Ranch subdivisions using the roadway illegally to go from S.R. 56 and Chancey Rd. to the Walmart on S.R. 54. for many months — moving and then replacing the barricades located next to Walmart — the official opening of the entire nearly four-mile length of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. in Aug. 2023 certainly was big news. 

Next up in Wiregrass Ranch is the eastward extension of Chancey Rd. (which runs east-west through the center of Wiregrass Ranch) all the way to Meadow Pointe Blvd. 

5a. Downtown Avalon Park Begins Leasing —
The site plan for the new Downtown Avalon Park Wesley Chapel.

More than just another commercial or multi-family development, the long-awaited Downtown Avalon Park Wesley Chapel is the first in our area to combine both. Only a few of the retail tenants on the ground floor of the first “neotraditional” building in the downtown area have been announced since the Aug. 17 Open House that unveiled the construction of that new building — including Prime Barbershop, Rita’s Italian Ice, Rudraksh Indian Cuisine and ISI Elite Training. All of these businesses are expected to begin opening sometime in the first quarter of 2024. 

5b. Wesley Chapel’s Contract Postal Unit Closes & Opens In New Location —

A lot of locals (us included) were sad when long-time Wesley Chapel Contract Postal Unit (CPU) contractor Kelly Rossi retired and closed her location on Boyette Rd. at the end of Jan. 


The NTBC ribbon cutting for the relocated Wesley Chapel Contract Postal Unit.

Then, we were even sadder to see how long it took new contractors Jevon and Cindy Williams to reopen the Wesley Chapel CPU in its new location in the Freedom Plaza on S.R. 54 in September. 

Hopefully, Jevon and Cindy are now recuperating from the CPU’s holiday rush. 

We also considered for the top-5…The opening of Cooper’s Hawk, the takeover by Pasco County of the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus from RADDSports and the one-year anniversary of the KRATE Container Park. — GN 

Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. To Officially Open & Other Community Updates 


People have been driving past the barricades on Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. just behind the Walmart on S.R. 54, for months, but the word is that the roadway should officially open to traffic within the next couple of weeks. 

Considering how long people have been driving through the barricades “blocking” the nearly two-mile-long stretch of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. from north of Chancey Rd. to just south of the Walmart fronting S.R. 54, it would be nice if the road finally could be declared “officially” open. 

Well, a source close to the project who asked not to be identified has told the Neighborhood News that although no exact date can yet be revealed, Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. should be officially open to traffic within the next couple of weeks, with conveyance to Pasco County expected to follow shortly thereafter.” Our source has confirmed that the landscaping along Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. is what has been holding up the opening. 

I personally saw people moving the barricades both near Walmart and north of Chancey as long as three months ago, so being able to legally drive the important connector roadway will certainly be welcome by those who live in the Wiregrass Ranch community. 

The same source also provided a number of other updates, including: 

• The Wiregrass Ranch developers hope to start construction on the 4th (the eastern) leg of the roadway extending from the new (northern) Eagleston Blvd. signal (opposite the new Jacobs Mitsubishi of Wesley Chapel dealership) within about a year from now. Our source says that the construction of this portion of Eagleston is being held up by the drainage permit. 

• The developers also have begun work on the east-west extension of Chancey Rd., which should be done by the end of this year. 

The construction of the Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant has gone vertical. 

• Now that the construction of the Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant has gone vertical (photo above), the hope is that the long-awaited restaurant and wine tasting bar should be open by sometime this fall. 

The clearing of the ground for the Orlando Health Wesley Chapel hospital has begun.

• For those who haven’t been able to figure out yet exactly where Wesley Chapel’s third major hospital will be located, you now can’t miss the red silt fence (photo right) just east of Wiregrass Ranch Blvd. on S.R. 56 or the sign denoting that Orlando Health Wesley Chapel is currently under construction. 

Although the 300- bed hospital has not yet gone vertical, the ground has begun being cleared and we have been told that Wesley Chapel’s largest hospital (with more beds than AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and BayCare Wesley Chapel combined) should be completed by late 2024. 

Of course, we’ll keep you posted!