For locals who have been asleep the last ten months, the Wesley Chapel/New Tampa area’s first and only rooftop bar is serving food and drinks at the Residence Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel, which is adjacent to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County.
According to the company’s VP of Openings & Transitions Tom Haines, the Marriott-branded Residence Inn was designed by Mainsail Lodging & Development to be not only the perfect complement to the Sports Campus, but also to the explosive growth area known as Wesley Chapel.
“In addition to sports, Wesley Chapel has a lot of new businesses relocating people here and is becoming a health care medical mecca,” Haines says. “I live here, my kids go to school here and we love Wesley Chapel.”
Mainsail, which was founded by Joe Collier in 1998, now has 13 hotel properties in Georgia and the Tampa Bay area (including the Fenway Hotel in Dunedin and the Epicurean in South Tampa) and six more in development, with 1,100 total employees and more than $200 million in annual revenues.
As for the local Residence Inn, Haines says Mainsail decided to build it because Collier was the chairman of the Hillsborough County Sports Authority, which made an attempt to get RADDSports (the private partner of Pasco County that manages the programs at the Sports Campus) to develop a Sports Campus-type facility there, “and RADD kept Mainsail involved here. This isn’t our usual build, but there was the draw of sports, which presented an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”
The hotel is the first-ever Residence Inn with a rooftop bar. It is a 128-room all-studio hotel with 65 studio king suites, 24 studio kings with conservation views, 19 studios with two queen beds, 8 one-bedroom king studios, 8 one-bedroom studios with two queen beds and 4 two-bedroom suites with one king and one queen bed. All of the suites feature a pull-out sofa sleeper, full-sized refrigerators, kitchens and all amenities for cooking.
Other on-site amenities include complimentary breakfast, an outdoor swimming pool (that is heated in the winter), a fitness center, 24/7 Market, on-site laundry with washers & dryers, rental bicycles (where the first hour is free) and outdoor grills, as well as on-site meeting space for up to 26 people.
The Wesley Chapel Residence Inn has a new general manager and director of sales, Rebecca “Becky” Hayes, who brings a lot of enthusiasm for the hotel and the community with her to her new jobs.
“I’m really looking forward to getting out in this community and meeting more people,” she says, “especially with the holiday party season coming up. This hotel is great for any kind of social event.”
Plus, if you book your holiday party for up to 100 guests by Oct. 31 for any Sun.-Thur. (Nov. 14-Dec. 23), your venue rental (a $500 value) will be waived and you’ll receive a complimentary champagne toast.
Skybox — Food, Drinks & Fun!
Whether you or your out-of-town visitors stay at the Residence Inn or not, you should still check out our area’s only rooftop bar to have a few drinks and a little something to eat.
The Skybox’s appetizer “Bites” include Bavarian pretzel rolls with beer cheese, spinach & artichoke dip, shrimp, crab & parmesan dip and the current favorite — loaded kettle chips with pulled pork or chicken, nacho cheese, chili, jalapeños, pico de gallo, olives & sour cream.
There also are grilled southwest chicken, BBQ pulled pork and roasted veggie wrap sandwiches, salads and a reasonably priced kids’ menu, as well as a variety of desserts.
Skybox bartenders also serve a great selection of premium alcohol craft cocktails, fine wines and craft beers.
For more information about the Residence Inn Tampa-Wesley Chapel (2867 Lajuana Blvd.) and the Skybox Rooftop Bar, call (833) 214-9098 or visit Marriott.com or SkytopRooftopBar.com.
In 2019, Pasco County hit new records for tourism, but Covid delivered a hit in 2020 that Florida’s Sports Coast director Adam Thomas figured might be tough to overcome.
Turns out that it wasn’t. Not only did the county bounce back from its Covid-plagued 2020 by exceeding last year’s tourism numbers, but it even passed its pre-Covid 2019 numbers as well.
“It was definitely a revival year for tourism for Pasco County,” says Thomas. “We beat our record-breaking historic year of 2019 by 10.6%. It was amazing,”
In Fiscal Year 2021 (which ran from Sept. 2020 to Oct. 2021), visitor spending in Pasco County generated $721.7 million in economic impact to the county, according to Downs & St. Germain Research. That is an increase of 30.7% above FY 2020, and 10.6% above the 2019 numbers. Direct spending in the county was $511.8 million of that total.
Thomas said an increase in marketing, as well as the state’s openness, allowed tourism to flourish here this year.
“Many other states were still not fully operational,” Thomas says of FY 2021. “That allowed our destinations to attract events throughout the year.”
Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore (left) and Tourism Director Adam Thomas pose with the Florida Sports Foundation trophy won by the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus for Florida’s Best Small Market Venue.
With the doors to Pasco County wide open this year, people didn’t hesitate to rush through. The numbers don’t lie:
• Florida’s Sports Coast attracted 1,358,200 visitors (41.5% higher than last year, and 30.8% higher than FY 2019)
• Visitors generated 1,419,000 room nights in paid accommodations (32.6% higher than last year, and 16.6% higher than FY 2019)
• Spending by visitors supported 9,254 local jobs (36.3% higher than last year, and 17.6% higher than FY 2019)
• Tourism generated $231.6 million in wages and salaries for local jobs (55% higher than FY 2020, and 37.8% higher than FY 2019).
• Every 147 visitors to the county created an additional job.
• Visitors staying locally generated $3.6 million in Tourist Development Tax collections (36.3% higher than last year, and 18.4% higher than FY 2019).
• Visitors in FY 2021 saved every household in Pasco County $385 in state and federal taxes.
And, Thomas says that amateur sports drove those record-setting numbers; primarily, amateur sports played in Wesley Chapel at its trifecta of sports tourism — AdventHealth Center Ice, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County and Saddlebrook Resort. As far as the county goes, the nearby Sarah Vande Berg (SVB) Tennis Center in Zephyrhills also contributed to Pasco’s big numbers.
“All these record-breaking numbers that we had are basically from our sporting events,” Thomas says.
Following the heightened 2020 Covid concerns, 2021 may have started with a whimper, but is ending with a bang — for example, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus will host 128 of the best high school girls basketball teams in the state and beyond, as well as 32 boys high school teams, at the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational beginning tomorrow and running through Jan. 1.
The tournament expects to bring 1,500 coaches and players and 3,000 total spectators for the event, meaning the Sports Campus will be capping its first full year of operation with the equivalent of a slam dunk. “It’s been an awesome year,” says Richard Blalock, the CEO of RADDSports, which operates the Sports Campus in a public-private partnership with the county. “Considering all of the (Covid-related) social issues we encountered, I think it was very successful.”
Crowds at many of the tournaments at Center Ice were the norm in 2021.
Blalock says 2021 has been a challenging year, but one that came with great exposure. In fact, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus was named Small Market Venue of the Year by the Florida Sports Foundation in November.
“We were fortunate that we’re in a quasi-conservative area where we got support from the local government to be able to operate,” he says. “We just had to figure out what the rules were, come up with protocols and then follow those protocols to be able to operate.”
The Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus hosted a number of large events in 2021. Whether it was current Philadelphia Eagle and Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith preparing for the NFL Draft by working out at the campus, or USA volleyball and USA Gymnastics events, or a myriad of AAU and youth basketball, cheerleading and volleyball tournaments taking place monthly, the new facility was always bustling.
The same goes for Center Ice, which saw more than a million people pass through its doors in FY 2021.
General manager Gordie Zimmermann said his business was up more than 30 percent from 2019. Center Ice hosted an NHL Prospects tournament, burgeoning local adult and youth recreational leagues and a series of hotel-filling tournaments in ice, sled and roller hockey, as well as figure skating.
“It was pretty amazing,” Zimmermann says. “I think Florida handled (Covid) better than anybody, and we have had a lot of people coming here. Plus, hockey is on a growth spurt, and the (back-to-back Stanley Cup champion) Tampa Bay Lightning have certainly helped with that.”
The five-rink facility is one of a kind in the Southeast, and you won’t find many like it in the U.S., Zimmermann says, making it a popular destination for big tournaments.
The biggest sporting event held in Pasco County this year was at Center Ice, according to Thomas — the TORHS (Tournament of Roller Hockey Series) Nationals in June. The tournament runs 8-10 days, had more than 150 teams and generated 2,300 room nights. Thomas says the economic impact to the county of the event was roughly $3 million.
As we head into 2022, could another record-breaking year be in store? Thomas doesn’t see why not.
With the impact created by sports as great as it has been, Thomas and others see only growth.
Wesley Chapel has facilities, like the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus (above), that can host more than 1,000 people over the course of a weekend, providing a boost to the tourism dollars generated in Pasco County. (Photos courtesy of Florida’s Sports Coast)
A recent study commissioned by Florida’s Sports Coast, which was intended to find the gaps in the amateur sports arena, showed that adaptive sports, or sports that are accessible to those who are disabled, is a possible growth area. An aquatics facility is on the radar as well, and private developers have inquired about things like BMX and surf parks, as well as a track & field facility.
Adaptive basketball could be headed to the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus, says Blalock. Thomas says the county also is working on the bringing the U.S. Fencing championships to the Sports Campus, in addition to a large Can-Am competition between first responders from Canada and the U.S.
Saddlebrook Resort may host the 2022 American FootGolf League national championships in 2022. The relatively new sport is like golf but is played with feet and a soccer ball instead of clubs and a golf ball.
“We are thinking outside the norm,” Thomas says.
Center Ice will launch the Sunshine Cup this summer, a week-long tournament that will feature teams from the U.S., Canada, Denmark and Europe. The mid-July event is expecting more than 3,000 visitors and would eclipse the TORHS event as the largest tournament hosted by the facility.
“We’ve always considered ourselves to be a player in the sports tourism industry,” says Thomas. “People are starting to notice our success, and they want to be a part of it. We’re excited. We’re an amateur sports hot spot, and we have some great opportunities for growth.”
In the past, Wiregrass Ranch developer JD Porter had been so frustrated by the failures of Pasco County to figure out what to do with the 80 acres of land of S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel donated by his family that he quipped they might just take it back.
However, these days, Porter is all smiles.
He was among a group of local dignitaries and media on Jan. 28 invited to tour that 80 acres of land, or more specifically, the still-under-construction $44-million Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County that now stands tall upon it.
“It’s really good to see it actually come to fruition and come out of the ground,” said Porter, who has championed some kind of athletic facility on the property for nearly two decades. “Sometimes, patience is required.”
While the indoor/outdoor sports complex won’t be completed until July, it is beginning to take shape. With a little imagination, you could almost hear the squeaking of shoes and swishing of basketball nets as Ajax Building Corp. project manager Marshall Quarles led a dozen or so media members through the massive, 98,000-sq.-ft. structure.
Although he sees the facility quite frequently, Richard Blalock, the CEO/founder of RADD Sports, said it never gets old to him.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” said Blalock, whose private company is managing the complex, which is a private-public partnership with Pasco.
RADD Sports CEO Richard Blalock, Pasco County tourism director Adam Thomas, District 2 Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore and RADD Sports marketing director Jannah Nager unveil the new logo for the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County on Jan. 28, prior to giving the first-ever hard-hat tours of the new sports facility to local media and VIPs.
RADD Sports beat out three other companies in 2016 for the right to develop the property, ending years of frustration.
However, what was originally earmarked to be a national tennis center back in 2001, and after that, a failed attempt headed up by former Major League Baseball star Gary Sheffield to build 19 baseball fields with on-site dormitories in 2015, is now just months away from opening as potentially the premier sports complex in Florida.
The state-of-the-art indoor sports facility primarily will be home to basketball (the building can be configured as eight regulation-sized courts), volleyball (up to 16 courts) and cheerleading, although Blalock says it can be configured to accommodate as many as 14 different sports.
The building also will house a large fitness area, kitchen, concession stand and various meeting and training rooms.
To the left (and south) of the main entrance into the indoor facility will be two outdoor soccer fields, and there also is room for an open-air amphitheater, playgrounds and can host concerts and other outdoor events.
As part of the project, Mainsail Development Group, Inc. will build a four-story, 128-room Residence Inn by Marriott just a few feet from the sports campus’ main entrance, according to site plans filed with the county on Jan. 22.
Another hotel, a Fairfield Inn, opened on adjacent Wiregrass Ranch property in 2018 and is within walking distance of the facility.
The sports campus is expected to be a huge boon for Pasco’s growing sports tourism, which was re-branded as the “Florida Sports Coast” last year.
Adam Thomas, the county’s tourism director, said that Pasco drew more than one million tourists last year, and 87 percent indicated they would return for future vacations.
Thomas also said he believed that once the facility has been completed, people will be lining up from all over the country to get their youth sporting events hosted there. The campus is scheduled to host a volleyball tournament in September to kick things off, with a half-dozen more tournaments already on the schedule.
“The wow factor is definitely there when you walk in,” Thomas said. “It’s not even done, and you can see the magnitude of this facility.”
The $17-billion youth sports market in the U.S. continues to grow, and the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County is poised to grab its share of that market on the weekends. However, Blalock also said that the local community will also be served by the facility, especially during the week.
“We’re excited to have it open at 6 a.m. with local seniors, all the way to 10 p.m. with the kids, and then the weekends (with youth sports events),” Blalock says. “We’re excited about all of it.”
Blalock, the former recreation director for the city of Newberry, FL, said this is the biggest project RADD Sports has tackled. He also said that architects and engineers developed a facility in Alachua where the basic design is similar, but the Wiregrass Ranch campus is almost three-times larger. In fact, he hopes the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County will become the model for future projects, and he envisions building four more in Florida.
“This is the prototype,” he said. “We hope these plans can go on the shelf (when we’re done) and we can just pull them and keep going.”
From tennis courts to baseball diamonds to basketball, volleyball and cheerleading, the journey has been a long one. Porter, however, says it couldn’t have ended any better. He looks forward to seeing how the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County impacts the area, and is glad the final product didn’t just focus on singular sports, like the previous tennis and baseball projects, but rather became a facility that offers something for everyone.
“It’s probably one of the most rewarding projects to come out of the ground here,” Porter said. “We took this project and said, ‘Hey, how can we retool this to make it benefit everybody?’ We came back (with something) that is probably much better than what anyone envisioned 10-15 years ago.”
For sponsorship and other information about the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County, email Jannah@RADDSports.com or visit RADDSports.com.
The long-awaited multi-use sports complexin the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI) was officially approved by the Pasco County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) on Aug. 5, and the county’s Tourist Development Tax (TDT), or “bed” tax, will be doubled to pay for it.
By a 4-0 vote, with District 4 commissioner Jack Mariano abstaining, the county approved the plan to build the $44-million complex on a 224-acre parcel of land owned by the county (that was previously donated by the Porter family) and located northeast of the Shops at Wiregrass.
The TDT is a tax placed on overnight hotel stays within the county.
Steve Domonkos, specialty leasing manager at the Shops at Wiregrass, and Hope Allen, the CEO of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC), were the only speakers at the public hearing, andboth spoke in favor of increasing the TDT from two percent to four percent.
The BCC already had set aside $11 million ($8.5-million in tourist tax funds and $2.5 million in excess bond proceeds from a prior half-cent sales tax bond) and a county-backed loan of $14.2 million to pay for the project.
The increase in the TDT is expected to generate $1.2 million annually, which will help pay down the loan. RADDSports, which is developing the indoor sports facility that anchors the project, says that the projected revenue generated by the indoor/outdoor facility also will help repay the loan.
A 128-room Residence Inn by Marriott, which will be owned and operated by Mainsail Lodging & Development, also will be built at the complex, at a cost of roughly $19 million.
The pet-friendly hotel is expected to house many of the youth sports teams from all over the state that RADDSports’ Richard Blalock says will flock to the facility for tournaments.
The county expects the sports complex to generate 27,000 room nights per year.
The98,000-sq.-ft. indoor sports facility, the first phase of the project, will host major tournaments for basketball, volleyball, cheerleading and other indoor sports. It also will boast meeting rooms and concession stands, and share the 60-acre site with an amphitheatre, as well as football and soccer fields and park trails, all part of the complex’s second phase.
